TRACKING UPLOADED ON TIME AND VALIDATED

[ephemeraa]

all of my metrics are perfect.... besides this. some items I sell are 1-5 dollars but do not apply for Ebay standard envelope labels so I just add a stamp... how do I avoid these defects ??

[ebooksdiva]

To avoid getting defects for not getting your items validated and shipping on time would be difficult when not using tracking. 

[ephemeraa]

is there a cheap method to ship with tracking for flat items in a normal envelope ?? @ebooksdiva 

[ebooksdiva]

eBay standard envelope perhaps, but I doubt you can ship using  ground advantage for 63 cents. Since rates start at around $3.90  

[postcardcountry]

I would suggest you join one of the ephemera seller facebook groups and see what they tell you. 

The metrics are for top rated seller.

It's possible they live without that rating when they use just stamps for mailing.

I will say this, I happened upon a seller who was slowly digging himself out of a "below standard" seller rating because he had gotten a lot of INR claims and couldn't prove delivery since he only used stamps.

That's why I suggest contacting groups of other similar sellers.

While I sell similar items, I like the tracking that ground shipping provides and don't use the stamp or standard envelope methods.  I went from stamps to tracking back in the day when paypal started practically required tracking long before eBay.

[ephemeraa]

Thanks so much @postcardcountry !!!

[1786davycrockett]

@ephemeraa 

Instead of selling only single, inexpensive items, why not sell small lots (maybe 2 or 3 items per lot) of those same items, so that you can justify using USPS Ground Advantage with tracking?

Then you won't have to worry about any shipping defects.

Good luck!

[fm2000]

If you are selling an item in an eligible category, you can use eBay's ESE. Otherwise, the only way to avoid getting defects from using a regular envelope (to keep your Top Rated status), is to list those items using a second account (which involves additional overhead and work.) Some recommend Letter Track, but their tracking numbers are not accepted by the eBay system as valid tracking numbers and won't protect one's TRS.

(It is really unfortunate eBay never expanded the eligible ESE categories, they planned on doing so but never did.)

[pjcdn2005]

It doesn’t look as If you are a trs so the uploaded and validated metic doesn’t affect you in any way.   

Some sellers who are TRS and who want to sell some of their items using a stamp, use a different ID to sell those items so that they can keep trs.