I noticed while I was pumping out eBay auctions for my wife's toy business that her plush dolls were costing the same price to ship as TCG auctions and pins so I did a little research.
Several years ago USPS made a change to charge the same rate for all parcel business (tracking) between 1-3 oz. As more and more buyers demanded tracking and "I didn't get it" fraud increased the small bubble mailer w/ toploaders became the default upgrade from the plain envelope (PWE).
This latest upgrade makes all packages up to 8oz $2.60. This is a boon for people who want to ship out full decks and lots up to about 100 cards, but hurts people wanting tracking in the $10-20 range for singles.
From the USPS standpoint it makes perfect sense. The bulk of the cost of handling these packages is in scanning them not weight or volume.
What do you think about these changes?
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
Out of the blackness and stench of the engulfing swamp emerged a shimmering figure. Only the splattered armor and ichor-stained sword hinted at the unfathomable evil the knight had just laid waste.
In my experience photos don't do as much for the seller, it comes down to registered tracking or, failing that a really good record against a really unproven buyer. As the income source for eBay/TCGPlayer etc is the buyer's funds, they tend to side with the buyer, esp knowing that often losing a buyer who is right means losing them for life ("buyer protection").
However as OP mentioned, USPS costs really have hit hard over the last few years. What used to be 1.64 not long ago is now 2.60 - almost 60% increase in shipping costs. This moves my personal selling trends towards collections of smaller cards, especially as I have to provide tracking and bubble mailers for seller protection. Add in the top loader and double-sleeving, it's about $3 to send a single card reliably now.
A photo really doesn't do any good as far as providing proof. Now I could see how a video might work, but even then video can be clipped together and who knows what can happen in between. At the end of the day the only proof that most institutions will accept is actual tracking of some form or fashion. It is certainly unfortunate for all of us that trackable shipping has increased so much over the last few years, but at the end of the day there really aren't any other options. Lots of people do still ship via PWE however and that's fine, you just have to hope whoever you are shipping to is an honest individual and wont claim that they didn't get it (at which point basically every institution will ask the sender if they have a tracking number, and without such proof, they will side with the buyer/receiver and you will be out the cards/value/points). In general its simply a risk/reward sort of scenario with choosing to go with PWE or with bubble envelope/tracking at the higher cost. I prefer zero risk (or close to it) and always ship with tracking, but that's not for everyone, and as long as the cards get where they are going and the buyer is honest, then PWE often can work just fine, just have to be careful and make sure the cards are still adequately protected either way.
Private Mod Note
():
Rollback Post to RevisionRollBack
To post a comment, please login or register a new account.
http://blog.stamps.com/2015/10/22/usps-announces-postage-rate-increase-starts-january-17-2016/
I noticed while I was pumping out eBay auctions for my wife's toy business that her plush dolls were costing the same price to ship as TCG auctions and pins so I did a little research.
Several years ago USPS made a change to charge the same rate for all parcel business (tracking) between 1-3 oz. As more and more buyers demanded tracking and "I didn't get it" fraud increased the small bubble mailer w/ toploaders became the default upgrade from the plain envelope (PWE).
This latest upgrade makes all packages up to 8oz $2.60. This is a boon for people who want to ship out full decks and lots up to about 100 cards, but hurts people wanting tracking in the $10-20 range for singles.
From the USPS standpoint it makes perfect sense. The bulk of the cost of handling these packages is in scanning them not weight or volume.
What do you think about these changes?
I don't think anyone is cheering them (except USPS), but it's still the cheapest game in town by a longshot.
I am more likely to use Pucatrade, and less likely to sell on ebay for small, under $50 cards.
Active Player: 1994-1999, 2016-
Sign & Share Petition To Fix MTG: Arena's Economy: https://goo.gl/z8fop8
However as OP mentioned, USPS costs really have hit hard over the last few years. What used to be 1.64 not long ago is now 2.60 - almost 60% increase in shipping costs. This moves my personal selling trends towards collections of smaller cards, especially as I have to provide tracking and bubble mailers for seller protection. Add in the top loader and double-sleeving, it's about $3 to send a single card reliably now.