Off-Topic Forum

I'm curious whether members build in additional fees for:

Envelopes, boxes, tape, glue, toploaders, sleeves, PayPal, eBay, Sportlots and so on.

I would like to open a discussion on this, Please reply.

Personaly, I do not.  When I am moving cards out, I just figure that it is part of the cost of doing business and not worry about trying to recoup those costs.  I reuse the materials that I can, and grab what I can from my work.  We go through a ton of boxes and bubble wrap that gets thrown out.  The boss has no issue with me taking any of that.

I just round up to the next dollar to keep the amount even when selling on eBay.  After fees, even reusing materials, it's still a money loser and I still get dinged on shipping fee ratings on occasion.  For example, I have $3 S&H set up for most singles for a bubble mailer (no additional for ride alongs, raw or graded) and it's $2.96 (?) for the cheapest label now depending on zone and costs me at least $3.50 after fees and materials.

On eBay I do charge an extra buck for envelopes, etc. 

On here with trading, I don't but I will say that some people package cards better than others..I also see a lot of people who don't put enough or proper postage on packages (mainly PWE's)...I hate paying the USPS like everyone else does but I hate to have an issue with a trade over postage..

I don't as a general rule- I figure it evens out in whatever a trade partner is spending to send to me, and I've gotten enough PIFs to cover pretty much everything else. 

However, a large deal that will require special shipping I can't absorb the cost of. I almost had a deal where I sold all my duplicates to a collector in Europe. The shipping would have been more than the cost of the cards. When I told him the price, he disappeared on me.

Most of my sales I let the buyer set the price.   Some times I will accept they offer, if they will spit the shipping with me or throw in a dollar or two for help with the shipping. 

Billy, I don't think people realize how heavy cards or nor what shipping costs are..I'd love to ship 1,000 cards for $2.00 but that's not realistic..

Hate to admit it but I've had other buyers flake as well in cases like you described.

Bill

We should get a petition going to get the USPS to reclassify trading cards under media mail. I helped my uncle sell some records on eBay a whistle back. It’s crazy how much cheaper it is to ship via media mail. 

This is the main reason why I keep my trades small and PWE. I don't mind paying for an envelope and 70 cents postage, but I really hate spending nearly $4 to mail cards. 

USPS does a great job 99.5% of the time, but I guess I'm just cheap.

That's kind of a loaded question Bob. I don't sell on ebay, sportlots, beckett or other sites that take a percentage of every sell. If I did, I would figure in part of their fee into my shipping or selling cost though. When I sell on other sites, I generally just charge the actual cost or a close ballpark figure for shipping. I don't charge for boxes/BM's/toploaders/team bags/sleeves, etc. b/c so much is re-used or free material.

Trades are a different deal, but only slightly. An even trade is a wash for materials generally. But if I'm sending someone hundreds of cards and only getting a few dozen in return, I want the value skewed to my side. It's only fair if I'm going to spend twice as much to ship my end of the trade. I won't ask for cash/Paypal, just more cards to balance out the extra shipping cost. The same goes for trading larger and heavier items (like die-casts and hobby boxes) for just single cards.

The only things I ever buy for shipping (and personal storage) purposes are toploaders, team bags, penny sleeves and shipping tape. Paper and printer ink are also things I buy but will not charge someone else for those. The cheaper prices for printing labels at home offsets the cost of running to the PO and paying their up-front price. And I only buy any of the previous items if I run low, which rarely happens except for tape to label/seal the packages and printer ink about once a year. Like others said, I can get some supplies from work (boxes & airpacks). USPS Priority Mail boxes/BM's are free but not always the best option for the weight of what you are shipping, so I've learned all the best ways to ship things in the US and North America. To other continents, that gets real expensive and USPS PM is the best way to go for the safest shipping. I still only charge the shipping cost. But I also work with buyers to get the most out of their shipping costs. When I was selling some cards to our Australian Pro Set collector early this year, I made sure to let him know that we could add more cards without changing the shipping price. We were able to add about an extra pound of cards to the deal with no extra cost besides the cards themselves. We could have added more, but I was out of stuff he needed. I think he got over 500 cards that he needed.

Right now, I am working on a 3-way trade with a seller. I'm trading some large-sized items (11"x17" is the biggest) and a few of my cards for a bunch of his cards for me. He's actually selling the items to another collector of that athlete. USPS only has one box that fits that size of item and it costs $19.95 to ship it. The items are not heavy, so I got a box from work that will fit them. I can ship it on weight alone and save a ton of money. And I'm shipping it directly to the person buying them from the other guy. Even more savings there. Communication is the KEY to all online dealings. That's why I love sites with forums like this one and the other two I frequent every night. Sometimes, Personal Messages work better than even the best designed trade features!