Do eBay Standard Envelopes work in 2024 or still having issues being returned for too rigid?

[overstockdistribution]

Hi, I recently started selling single cards. Are people still having problems with eBay Standard Envelopes (ESE) being returned for being too rigid if they use top loaders, or have things pretty much straitened out where now a days they're always fine? 

I still see some sellers paying 3 ounces for under 1 ounce, assuming they're trying to avoid returns for being too rigid. Technically I think the non machinable rate now a days is 0.44, which is a couple pennies higher than the 3 ounce ESE rate, but guessing no employee would return it since they saw you tried to cover it. The reality is, when you're doing single cards for cheap (even loosing money if someone buys just one for $0.99), an extra 0.44 adds up significantly (even 0.44 once a day is $160.60 a year!).

Am I completely throwing money away occasionally adding 0.44 (paying 1 oz eBay + a 0.40 and 0.04 stamp I put on), or are people still getting rejected even though eBay clearly stats top loaders are okay?

It's that stupid bend test people talk about where clearly top loaders aren't going to bend around a coffee mug.. but maybe eBay and USPS finally worked things out seeing as eBay claims coins are okay now? I'd think a coin would meet USPS's rigid definition, but if they let those go through then I shouldn't have anything to worry about shipping multiple cards with top loaders? I've also heard license plates are shipped through the same machines ESE's go through and obviously those aren't being bent as much as going around a coffee mug.

[1786davycrockett]

@overstockdistribution 

No, the same rules regarding rigidity still apply.

The information that you are reading from eBay suggesting that top loaders are permitted is out-of-date -- eBay did not confirm that with USPS before stating that misinformation, but corrected it at a later date, emphasizing that the ESEs can NOT be rigid.

The "coffee mug" test still applies.

The current non-machinable rate is 44 cents (plus 68 cents USPS First Class postage); however, USPS has proposed a 5 cent increase to the USPS First Class rate, effective July 14; but this may not yet have been approved.

[fm2000]

Just don't use top loaders, and you don't need to pay that nonmachineable surcharge. EIS works fine, as long as it passes the coffee mug bend test. (Tracking reliability is still an issue though, due to limitations of letter mail tracking.)

License plates probably go as "flats" (large envelope rate), not standard letter mail which EIS is. Flats are processed on different equipment than letter mail I believe, due to their size.

[wastingtime101]

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@fm2000 wrote:

License plates probably go as "flats" (large envelope rate), not standard letter mail which EIS is. Flats are processed on different equipment than letter mail I believe, due to their size.

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Due to their size and rigidity, license plates must be shipped using a package service.

Flats must be flexible.

Letters can be rigid but will face a non-machinable surcharge.

To view how letters, flats and packages are processed, check out this video from USPS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WX16-52bHvg