One way to help reduce expenses as an eBay seller is to spend less on packing and shipping supplies. As an eBay seller your profits will be made on the pennies and not the dollars. Every penny you can save on shipping supplies, without sacrificing quality, is money in your pocket. Here are my top ways to save money on packing and where to get them.
- Free boxes from USPS: Yes you heard me correctly. You can get free boxes to ship your eBay items through the USPS. Delivered to your door at no charge. This is one of the best ways to save money on your eBay shipping supplies and the only catch is: “You must ship USPS Priority Mail”. This means your customers will get their items faster and you will save money. A win, win situation.
- Reused Packaging: Any time you get a box in the mail, or with a gift, keep it and the packaging material that is included. You can reuse both and the cost is zero. You can even reuse the wrapping paper.
- Newspapers: You can reuse old newspapers for packing. Just crumble them up for padding. I’ve even had requests from eBay buyers to use a local paper for packing. They enjoy reading what is going on in other areas of the U.S. and around the world.
- Junk Mail: That is right, junk mail does have a purpose. Don’t through that stuff away. Shred it or crumble it up and use it as packing material.
- Local retail shops: Get in good with your local retail shops. Be friendly and let them know what type of boxes and packing you are looking for. Most will happily tell you when their shipment comes in so you can take the packing material off their hands. Just don’t get picky and don’t complain if they leave you boxes that you don’t really need. Take them anyways, thank them nicely, and throw what you don’t want. Tip: Furniture stores can be great for bubble wrap etc.
- eBay: Sometimes you can’t find everything you need or enough of it. If this is the case you can turn to eBay to find shipping supplies in small quantities. If you only need small supplies this is the usually the best way to go. If you are needing larger supplies I would go with a shipping supply company.
- Shipping supply company: If your eBay business has grown to the point where you can no longer find enough of the type of the supplies you need or your driving around half the day to find them it may actually be cheaper to buy your supplies from a shipping supply company such as Uline. Although there are many shipping supply companies I’ve found Uline’s prices to be one of the least expensive.
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Bananas !!! - Every box gets shipped with bubble wrap to protect the fruit, it doesn’t take on a taint from the fruit as they are packed under ripe for obvious reasosn. The stores simply throw it away, get into them and ask them to save it and you can get a regular supply of FREE bubble wrap on a daily basis. REMEMBER, Bananas are the biggest selling fruit line so you technically will never run out of free bubble wrap :o)
Great tip!! I will have to check out those bananas!!