Posting Loads & loads & loads & loads & even More loads of Items

shohaib

Was wondering as i only ever sold like 1 item every few days on eBay how do people who sell 100 items a day, do their postaging. What their routine is? how they do it etc?

Nadia

I am not a pro myself as the most I have ever listed in any one time was 15 items but I think Turbo Lister really helps in speeding things up. You can make a template and reuse it while only changing a few words within the item description. You can also save what you have written and edit it another time. I am sure you will get better advice from more experienced ebayers but I really think you should try downloading TL if you haven't already.

Cheers, Nadia

g33za

Well its all down to arranging there time, i've seen people at the post office with sacks of post going to various places and yes it was via ebay as they were writing the postage costs on each page of every auction they had completed. I guess for bigger parcels via ebay they probably just get parcelforce to come and collect. Also there is smartstamp which you can use to print your own stamps.

Nadia

Sorry Shohaib. I've just reread the thread and I think my reply makes may sound like an idiot. DOH. I thought you were asking about listing rather than posting. Maybe it's past my bedtime LOL.

shohaib

bloody hell bet Royal mail get happy when they see all the father christmas'z come in one by one before 2.00pm. Nadia no worries, I think it my bed time too. ZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz

blue_monkey_2

When we have auction end we have about 100 parcels a day or more. We use SmartStamp and do it at home so all we have to do is drop it into the Post Office. It got silly going to the post office and I think it is a little selfish when there are other options. However, it is nice to stand in the queue with bags and bags of stuff and listening to the old people tutting behind me.... like they have anything better to d... LOL. You can even do recorded and special delivery but you have to get the back of the ticket stamped but that only takes a few seconds. It is really easy but you have to be organised to get the packaging done - we can pack about 100 parcels in less than an hour now.

When the payment comes in via Paypal, using the email we put this label onto word in our label templte and then any extra labels that do not tie up with invoices means something has not updated on eBay and we then do it manually, we then put the invoices with the mailing bags and stick the labels on. When we have done all of these we pack the bags, put the postage on and off they go to the PO.

You can only do it this quick with Selling Manager Pro as they give invoices in bulk after people have paid via Paypal but we are now quite organised with how we store everything and it is all to hand.

That being said, the market is rubbish right now and we are losing a fortune on listing fees on eBay so deciding to spend some time with my kids before they grow up before my eyes and go to school. There is time for that when they go to school. not so bad when you are making £5+ an item and selling most of your items but when it is 50p and not selling 3/4 of the stuff you are listing you have to realise that that there are other things you can be doing with your day. My problem being that too many people see what you are selling and how well you are doing and approach your suppliers, flood the market and no one wants the stuff, they can get it from someone else for peanuts so don't pay what they used to want to pay. Our sales have dropped by around 90% in the last 6 months. Sometimes you have to realise when enough is enough. Me, I now do a Saturday market with listing once every few weeks and I am going to enjoy the rest of the time with my kids while they make me smile (and scream!!) and getting my feet up in the evenings every once in a while. Plus people screwing me with paypal refunds over Xmas after getting their goods and confirming they have their goods, I lost about £300 on Xmas week. eBay is drawing in too many dishonest people!!

Hope this helps

Agutka

Wow, thanks blue_monkey. I always wondered about this too. The worst I ever had to deal with was 15 at a time and that took forever. However I was doing it by hand (eg handwritten labels), and all the packages were different shapes and sizes. Must be easier when you sell just a few items... Amazing.

shohaib

I Hope eBay gets shut down it does ma nut it its not like the old days. Now you get scammers, beggers and thieves. !!!!!!

MoJo

Smartstamp costs £4.99pm pr £49.99pa.

I don't sell huge amounts but when I have several items to list I try to stagger the end date of the auctions and so organise my PO trips - doesn't always work because you have to depend on payment patterns.

angelcake

Also I think you can arrange for your local postie to pop in and pick up parcels for a small fee a month which makes life easier!

Wow blue monkey! it isn't fair when people are dishonest! A lot of people rely on the money they make from ebay!

blue_monkey_2

Smartstamp costs £4.99pm pr £49.99pa.

Yes, that is true, you do have to pay but you can print 14 labels at a time and, depending on what you are sending it takes between 1 and 5 minutes to put the amounts onto each label and then you peel them off and stick them on - each parcel at the post office takes at least 2 minutes, plus the time you have to queue so I personally think it is worth the money myself. The RM charges about £200 a quarter to collect your mail. I asked my postie as a one off if he would take them for me as my babies were both ill and he laughed in my face and told me there would be a charge. Nice.

Wow blue monkey! it isn't fair when people are dishonest! A lot of people rely on the money they make from ebay!

I Hope eBay gets shut down it does ma nut it its not like the old days. Now you get scammers, beggers and thieves. !!!!!!

I work from home with 2 small children and the money made a huge difference, especially Xmas week and I had been sent the money a good few weeks back so it has been withdrawn and if not spend on the kids ploughed back into the business. Ebay for me is perfect as means I can stay at home with the kids while bring in a small income - or I could anyway. I think that you have to have your wits about you in regards to the scammers. A lot of the emails I get are deleted right away you get an eye for the scam emails, if they are genuine they'll mail back, but I think I can spot a rogue one.

The people I had claim their money went back to November and they claim at the end of December and what annoys me more is that the main culprit who got away with over £250+ worth of lingerie for 'free' was a seller herself. Of course, you leave ++ feedback because you don't expect to get a charge back after 7 weeks but Paypal didn't even consider the seller - always the buyer who comes out on top.
hey claim you have sellers protection but that is absolute nonsense!! Of course, I did the charge back so she had a striake against her but as she had about 8 items from me she only had the one strike. People know what they are doing I am sure.