How to ship a large item without paying 70.00 shipping up front?

[funstuff5555]

Are they any options for this at all?  I would like to list this, but don't have 70 bucks to ship it.  Can't they ship it out of the funds the buyer pays?  Paypal said no.  Someone else told me they used to do it this way.  

Thank you

[southern*sweet*tea]

Paypal used to allow up to $15 to pay for shipping from a held payment, but I don't know if they still do that.

Something that large and expensive to ship is more suitable for local pickup. The buyer comes and picks it up, you don't have to worry about shipping.

If you ship this item, and the buyer wants to return it for a non-remorse reason (99% chance of that happening with a return), then YOU will be liable for the return shipping back to you. That's $140 just in shipping costs out of your pocket if you have to pay for a return.

[no_zero369]

Perhaps you could ship it through eBay labels using FedEx as the carrier, as those charges don't appear until you get your monthly invoice!  Depending on when the sale happens in your monthly billing cycle and what 'add-ons' you get hit with from Fed Ex.

FexEx is often cheaper for heavy items.

But if you can't front the cost of shipping an item, your business is under capitalized, which is probably the No. 1 reason for failure of businesses!

[funstuff5555]

Thanks everyone.
When do the monthly invoices come in? And does anyone know if Pay Pal still allows $15 from held funds or if that has been discontinued?

It's not a business yet. But yes, everything is undercapitalized right now. 😃

I'd like to learn more about selling things on ebay but am stuck on shipping and how to pay for it, what the costs are, and what would happen in a case like this if the buyer changed their mind. And yet other people do it so there must be a way to make this workable. Not every item is small and light.

I tried selling secondhand clothing, but it was a boatload of work and I was hardly getting any views. So I gave up.

I have also a shirt (new), some beer mugs, and a vintage butter dish. Would have to see what it takes to pack and ship a beer mug or if it just makes it too expensive to mess with.

Anyone want to buy a large bathroom vent fan, new in the (opened) box? lol

Encouragement (or reality check) welcomed, along with any advice on how to do this. Did I give up too soon, or is it just not worth it?
Thx

[divwido]

Not knowing what this item is, I have several concerns.

Is it something that will survive shipping? What is the percentage of possible damage?

Sometimes a local sale is a better choice.  Cash in hand and no need to ship.

[rixstuff]

Try listing it with local pickup only so the buyer has to come get it and there is NO shipping.  They can pay on pickup in cash.

[funstuff5555]

It's a bathroom vent fan.    I never thought about doing that locally on ebay.   I'm in a mid-sized town.  Have had it posted on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist for about a month.  No luck.   Has had some views but no inquires.  I've lowered the price to 150 obo.  It retails for 220 and is unused.

[no_zero369]

Once you offer something for sale you ARE in business.  One of the causes for problems we see frequently is a result of sellers not takiing selling serious like a business.

Hey, when I started I didn't either and made many mistakes and then got scared and almost quit selling.  But by asking questions, pounding the table and debating with other sellers I learned enough to put the willies at bay and sleep at night.  So a few thoughts...

1.  Returns are a part of selling so factor them into the cost of doing business.

2.  When returns happen you are going to lose money - how much depends on what actions you take or neglect to take.

3.  Understand you responsibilities as a seller when returns happen and how to handle them.  read the MBG until you can recite it in your sleep.

4.  You job as a seller is to figure out if something can be sold for a profit on line and if that profit is worth your time.  Not everything is.  Just because someone sells something for 99-cents doesn't mean you should.  The seller might do that as a loss leader to get a FB score, generate customers, etc.  Or they could be retired and just do this for 'fun."  Then again in some categories you would be competing against charities that don't need to make a profit.

5.  Shipping is your largest cost and the source of the most grief.  Learn how to use eBay's shipping calculator. Learn what methods are available for shipping.  Learn everything & anything about shipping.  So good that you started asking questions already!

6.  Learn how to pack things!  Too many sellers don't get it!  I learned how to ship some mugs I had by taking glass jars out of the recycle bin and packaging them how I though was adequate, THEN kicking the package off of the top step of stairs to concrete below.  IF the jar survived then the packing technique was adequate.  If not, back to the drawing board. double walled boxes with the cardboard grain perpendicular to each other or triple layer is a frequent technique here.

7.  There are specialty sections in the eBAy Community for many items and sellers there can help ID things or make suggests on selling them.

8.  Set aside some time each week to read the eBay help pages and the selling threads.  Lots of others have the same issues and one can learn a ton , the easy way (from others) instead of paying 'tuition' in the school of hard knocks!

9.  Pricing is dicey - check the 'sold' listings to see what other buyers were willing to pay.  Me?  Anything used and I am usually willing to pay 50-cents of the new price and discount from there depending on condition, etc.  your new fan?  How many people know how to do that them self? Is the "market" then a contractor who can buy it a wholesale price for his reselling?  Gotta figure out who is your target audience and what other sources they have to buy something similar?

Monthly invoices are generated either on the last day of the month or the 15th.  How ebay assigns who gets which month is above my pay grade.  I have a couple of selling accounts with different invoice generation dates.

Selling can be worth it if you find a niche with high buyer demand and low sourcing costs.  Garage sale stuff is hard to sell and often competition is fierce - as you discovered with clothes.

So a few thoughts fwiw - dive in!  learn! experiment!  Have fun!

[johnrj1226]

@funstuff5555 

1.  Do you  have your PayPal account linked to a checking account.

2.  While you have been a eBay member since 2011 your Feed Back received as a seller is only 9.  Not an active seller and I guess your PayPal account does  have aa large enough  balance to cover  the $70.00 plus other surprises

3.  Should  a buyer buy this item and returns it  for an Item Not As described, where would you get the $$ to refund the original purchase price  plus shipping charge and send the buyer a return shipping  label?  Might be a tough  question.

4.  Sell this item as  a local pick up  only but be prepared to do #3  less the shipping  portion - hang on to the funds  for 31  days after pick up & payment.

[funstuff5555]

Thank you everyone.

Will ahve to check on the pp acct. - it's been awhile.

Truly do appreciate all the advice here.   You all have helped me make the decision to offer it locally.   Too bad, I bought the thing with the objective of learning more about ebay shipping for larger items and how to navigate that whole process.  Not sure though that it's worth it.  After you pay the shipping, the amount of profit is pretty low.  It's not a unique item that someone can't go buy at their local Lowe's for $220.   It's new, but the box is opened, so I don't know that after 70.00 shipping it's worth it.  

I've offered it for the past month on Facebook and Craigslist, but this is a smaller city and there have been views but no hits despite dropping the price.  The same people are probably looking at ebay.   Although yesterday I did find out that oddly, the Craigslist ad disappeared, nowhere on earth to be found, including the link CL sent to my original email to edit the ad, which now goes to a 404 link.   It's not listed on CL under "my account" in any of the ad categories, either.  Just. Disappeared.  So maybe that's why it didn't sell. 

Well thanks for all your help. I may be stuck with a vent fan.  

[loveyourimagination49]

Side Note: On CL it does vanish if you don’t renew it after 14 or 30 days.
Everyone has already given you great advice.

[lja440]

IMO, a vent fan is not worth shipping. Why pay $150 + $70 s/h for something they can go to Lowes and pay $220 for new in a box with warrantee (most warrantees do not transfer when sold on sites like eBay). If you do list it on eBay local pick-up is the way to go.

As for the other things you mentioned that you want to sell. I sell clothing too, it is probably the easiest category to ship but yes it is a pain to list. Take loads of pictures (not on the floor, please) and include real measurements  not just sizes from the tags in the description.  

Your glass items. check out www.replacements.com for a good tutorial on packing breakables. But as to the basics items should have at least 2 inches of quality padding  like bubblewrap on all sides. This means between it and the side of the box and between each piece. They should be held firmly in place so there can be no shifting and knocking about. This can be done by slightly over filling the box with packing peanuts and these compress when the box is closed holding everything in place. This also prevents the box from crushing and a crushed box usually will have the tape popped and then the items inside can be lost. 

[johnrj1226]

You  said ".....I may be stuck with a vent fan."

A possible suggestion - If you don't  have a  bath vent install it in your place/home.

[funstuff5555]

Thank you all for your great advice.  You all have been very helpful.  So much so I don't even know which to choose as the solution.  

Well I guess I've learned something about shipping large items after all - namely, don't do it. I'll try to sell it locally or save it for when mine goes out.  Which it sometimes sounds like it might do.  

Hey how much does it cost you to ship a beer stein?

[mr_lincoln]

@funstuff5555   You need to set some money aside to get the business started, it costs money to get one started.  If $ 70 is too  much right now then perhaps you should not be selling online yet ...

As for shipping on eBay, you set the listing up for Calculated shipping and the Buyer pays, you don't ...