Poor Packaging By Sellers- Again

This has been discussed in the past but it seems ebay sellers aren't listening.

I bought a nice French cover on ebay from a seller in the UK. Postage charged was over $3.00 US, not that bad. Yesterday it arrived. It had been mailed in a very lightweight envelope with no cardboard backing, It was in some sort of very lightweight plastic wrapping. It looks a bit more worn than in the scan and I wonder how much of this was due to the flimsy packaging.

The guy apparently was trying to save money on shipping. Understandable but I have to wonder how much a simple backing for this cover would have added to the freight?

Well....why did you not tell the seller
you would be happy to pay additional shipping
to insure it was well protected???




ZERO!

You wrote: "This has been discussed in the past but it seems ebay sellers aren't listening. "

Why do you think that ebay sellers aren't listening? There are millions of ebay sellers and how many of them do you think read this site? I'd be surprised if .000001% of the sellers even know about The Stamp Community. I'm not a philatelic novice nor am I an internet novice. And I just found this site in the last few years after being on the internet and its predecessors since 1990.

You're preaching to the choir, son.

I've been drafting "ikeyPikey's Bizarre Shipping Rules", the gist of which are you prepare the packaging the way you think the thing ought to be packed, and send that to me, and I'll insert your item, and I'll send it back.

Of course, I have not yet begun to de-accession (so to speak), so I do not yet know how this will go over with the as-yet-hypothetical buyers ;)

Cheers,

/s/ ikeyPikey

You guys need a higher fiber diet, me thinks. Stamps is just venting. It`s good for a body to moan to friends.

You get what you pay for. The most cost effective way to mail stamps internationally is to use a 705 approval card and a piece of comic book cardboard to cover the front. The resulting "sandwich", which should also be wrapped in an invoice is stiff enough to protect the stamp, but not so stiff enough to have to pay a nonmachinable surcharge. While a Stay Flat envelope could be used, one large enough for a cover and the cover will weigh more than an ounce. Anything much larger may end up as a large envelope or a First Class package, costing almost five times as much to mail from the United States.

Most ebay sellers who are not top-rated end up mailing using a #10 envelope. In my opinion, a properly protected #6 envelope is more likely to arrive at the destination without being folded or damaged. Since top-rated sellers must provide tracking, there is no incentive to use lightweight flimsy envelopes, at least within the US. The rate is the same up to 3 ounces. I use #000 padded envelopes with a cardboard insert to make the envelope thick enough and to protect the contents. Read my feedback.

I would be cautious if the seller has no positive feedback mentioning packaging.

Clark
clarkphilatelics

I have learned not to buy items that don't have clear scans especially showing a blurry picture of a stamp on cover usually means a fault is being hidden. I just won't buy items where I can't see the whole condition clearly.

Further I recently had an envelope sent by seller not even sealed on the edge and have received several with no cardboard backing but in all cases the item was still ok.

The only one that wasn't had been run over by a heavy vehicle in transit.

Believe it or not simple backing inserted in envelopes cost money when you send lots in high volume. You run out of reusable cardboard at home so you have to buy extra cardboard. I have to buy cardboard and spend time cutting to the envelope shape to make it look professional for buyers.

Then you may think $3 is a low cost for a stamp but as a seller I have to buy 100 $2.75 stamps at a time for mail outs and then spend more on parcels or registered lots.

Then comes the ebay and paypal fees so I can see why a seller maybe trying to save money on shipping.

I have had really good luck so far. Most have been over packaged - lots of tape and I am not talking about the envelope.

The worst shipment was not from ebay but from Mystic. They reshipped in a box from Lighthouse and not a lot of paper. The box had a lot of air and looked somewhat crushed. One item was damaged and another had a defect. Mystic quickly sent replacements which is more important.

I buy 500 carboard-backed envelopes at a time - cost less than 10p each, which us dwarfed by postage costs, and the time saved in messing about with cardboard and envelopes is enormous.

I buy chipboard in bulk - MANCHESTER 8.5"X 11" 28PT REGULAR CHIPBOARD 50LB BUNDLE

Cut one sheet in half and it fits into a 6" x 9" envelope perfectly. Leave them whole for larger shipments or cut them into any other size as needed. Great for shipping covers.

Such items can be had at places like https://www.xpedx.com/ They also sell envelopes in any form you can think of in bulk. It helps that they have a distribution outlet near me. Places like Staples is highway robbery in price comparison.

I also use plastic comic book bags for protection and securing multiple covers - they can be had on Amazon in bulk.

KGB, that is exactly what I was doing, venting a little among friends. I sent the seller a message today suggesting he provide better packaging, I will still leave positive feedback- it is not any major issue just one of life's petty annoyances.

I just use cardboard photo mailers. I bought 100 of them on Amazon for $27. They are sized to handle 8x10 photos. Shipping domestic is $2.60, international is where it gets expensive, at $11.90. But, in order to get tracking number, that is the cost no matter what envelope I use.

Shipping overseas costs me $10.91 for anything from 1 to 8 oz using ebay's shipping labels with tracking. In the last month I have had 2 buyers file "Item Not Received" claims after the tracking shows the item delivered. ebay has immediately denied these claims and saved me nearly $500. I feel bad that the cost to ship overseas is so high and have started to ship inexpensive items without tracking, As I understand it this won't count against me in my seller ratings and I am waiting to see if I get any complaints from buyers.

Printing postage overseas on ebay is a problem, they charge alot and some countrys dont even get delivery confirmation. I have an order to Japan right now wants 13.06 to print a label for a Photo Mailer I use and I wont get any delivery confirmation. I can put the stamps in a letter for 1.20 but I am risking it and its a 90.00 order.

My experiences in selling to Japan have been good. Nothing lost, despite going via standard mail. One package took rather a long time, but turned up eventually. Conversely, I only do signed for to China, but Royal Mail doesn't offer tracked and signed there (at least within the realms of financial practicality).

I have a few wonderful buyers in Japan they keep coming back for more ebay items from me and nothing ever goes missing. I heard they are very organized in Japan so feel that anything one ordered from over there would arrive safely. I track everything expensive I send registered on a Russian website these days since Australia Post offers no tracking for international letters. But cheap lots I send airmail. Does anyone know a good place in Oz where you can buy envelope and cut to size cardboard inserts? Battlestamps is lucky if he can order MANCHESTER 8.5"X 11" 28PT REGULAR CHIPBOARD 50LB BUNDLE at the moment I have to order A3 cardboard and cut it up. As I am a high volume seller this takes me about 4 hours including putting airmail labels on envelopes etc. But my buyers love the packaging of their items and my feedback reflects this.