Shipping Lightweight Items Without Tracking Numbers

[loggsliquidations]

Sometimes I have very lightweight items that are sold under $5.00.  These items will ship USPS in an envelope for $0.70 but you can't get a tracking number with that.  If I ship first class package rate, it's about $3.00 and that obviously eats profit on low-priced items.  

1.  How does this harm me when it lowers my percentage of packages shipped and tracking uploaded?

2. Is there a way around this?

Thank you for your expert advice!

[m60driver]

Myself, I mail many small inexpensive items just using a stamp and envelope without tracking.  I have never lost anything yet.  But if such sales represent over a certain percentage of total sales then you will not be able to obtain the otherwise meaningless TRS status.  But I find the savings far outweigh any savings provided by being TRS.  And by itself will not bring you below standard in your Ebay rating.  

[southern*sweet*tea · Accepted solution]

On another account I ship small booklets and other low value paper items. I ship them in a regular envelope with a stamp or two. My prices are $4-$6, and I ship "free".  My tracking upload percentage is zero, my on time is so far 100%.  I use Lettertrack, which adds 16 cents to my costs. It is pure tracking, with no acceptance scan and no delivery confirmation. So far, I have never had anyone claim not arrived, but I know that if that happens I'll have to refund in full. The rewards are far greater than the risks with what I sell.

As to the late shipping metrics, the ONLY way you would be given a late ding is if someone physically marked it as being late. With no tracking uploaded and no scans, it would NOT count toward your metrics in any way. Until then (being marked late by the buyer)  it doesn't exist as far as late shipping is concerned.

[dirk12955]

In a year I'll ship several thousand small orders with a forever stamp.   

Very few are lost or claimed as INR

I save over $2.00 per order shipping this way.    

TRS is over rated and not worth nearly the $$$ I save.

[loggsliquidations]

Thank you for this answer. I will certainly try it out. So, if I don’t have that high percentage and TRS status, will I still be able to promote listings?

[dirk12955]

I'm not TRS and I have no issues using promoted listings.    

[happytopshop007]

@southern*sweet*tea great information. Question.

If you ship item through stemp or enveloop no tracking, how do you mark ship on ebay because transaction is not going complete on eBay until you mark ship correct?

[richard1rst]

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@loggsliquidations wrote:

Sometimes I have very lightweight items that are sold under $5.00.  These items will ship USPS in an envelope for $0.70 but you can't get a tracking number with that.  If I ship first class package rate, it's about $3.00 and that obviously eats profit on low-priced items.  

1.  How does this harm me when it lowers my percentage of packages shipped and tracking uploaded?

2. Is there a way around this?

Thank you for your expert advice!

---

Sell them for $8.00. Or sell them as 2 for $8.00. 

[svbooks]

It's simple: on the Orders Awaiting Shipping page, select the drop down list of actions for the item and "Mark as Shipped"!  

In our case, just over 5% of our shipments are lower-ticket items (ephemera, etc.) that go in letter-rate  envelopes (regular or large); so our "Tracking uploaded on time and validated" percentage is under 95%.  Has had no repercussions on our (non-TRS) account.  So far, not a single item of this type has ever been "lost" (knock on wood).  Nevertheless, I might look into LetterTrack as a courtesy to our buyers.

[femmefan1946]

Although most of my shipments are sent without tracking, I am able to hold Global Top Rated Seller status, for what little it's worth.

Most non-US sellers do this because international tracking is so expensive. An item I could send without tracking to the USA for $3.19 would cost $12.56 to track.

The difference in my costs pays for the very occasional INRclaim, which are less than one percent of sales.

More to the point a Canadian seller has been keeping track of his Cookie Jar / self-insurance costs for some years.

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/RICARMICs-Self-insurance-cookie-jar-statistics-to-end-of...

It is also worth noting that Free Shipping is easier when you are only adding lettermail rates to your asking price.

Oh- ricarmic sells stamps. While he sells to a very honest demographic, he is shipping everything from single high value stamps to banker's boxes filled with albums. So he pretty well covers the spectrum for both value and bulk.

[kh-vince]

Hi everyone,

Due to the age of this thread, it has been closed to further replies. Please feel free to start a new thread if you wish to continue to discuss this topic.

Thank you for understanding.