eBay Launches Cheap Tracking for Trading Cards

by: redcabin

why just trading cards...what about postcards?

by: toastedmutt

Thumbs Up!  It's about time card sellers were provided with a low cost trackable means of shipping.

I don't sell cards but am glad to see it finally happen for those who do.

by: toolguy

Tracking for .51 cents???????

It's time to break out the trading cards!

I hope the buyers are still out there because I got rookies from the late 80's and early 90's

Oh yea!

by: Snapped

Terrific. But what will they charge you for the return label the buyer will more likely these days be seeking for their no-accountability fraudulent SNAD claim?

by: Shanna

Wow, just 11 years after eBay negotiated free tracking for ePackets from China for its Chinese sellers, eBay steps up to help American sellers.

by: Chicago48

I haven't seen the option, but I don't sell trading cards.  Anywho, I'm kind of sick of all the laundry list of shipping options.  It keeps growing.  If you go into the international shipping options, it's ridiculous.  There must be 100 shipping options internationally.   KISS.

by: StardustGypsy

I agree with RedCabin, why only trading cards??
There are so many other items that are just as lightweight as trading cards.  
But, knowing eBay, they will conveniently (for them) reverse the decision.

by: pace306

It shows you that IF eBay REALLY wanted to role up its sleeves and actually WORK aka negotiate a better USPS rate - they can.

They DONT because they are simply lazy and stupid - not to mention greedy.

This ONLY happened because of an exodus/planned exodus of card sellers - something eBay "prides itself on" aka collectables.

Now if they could only apply that muscle and vigor to the other %99 of things that need fixing - it may turn eBay into a 1/2 way usable site.

by: angryllama

While I DO WISH WELL to all trading card sellers (and anyone else who has extremely lightweight items to sell) I think this has all the future of The Hindenberg.  It just won't make the international news EACH TIME anything goes awry with this NEW CLASS that incorporates tracking for items that OTHERWISE/CURRENTLY would be mailed out USPS First Class or in a VERY few applications MEDIA MAIL (think SINGLE, BARE, CD - DVD - Mini-Disc (so long as they are FACTORY PRODUCED and NOT Computer GAMES or Computer Programs.
Another poster above hit one of the PitFalls smack on the head.  What WILL the charge be to RETURN one of these super-cheap Super-Lightweight packages?

Second potential problem is just HOW OFTEN (not IF) USPS employees treat these Special Rate shipments as though a Scofflaw were shipping NON-Media Qualified items at the MEDIA MAIL rate?  Sigh.  Ebay another day another Troublesome FIX.

by: BMTOKC

THE USPS HAS MORE RESTRICTIONS ON WHAT YOU CAN PUT IN AN ENVELOPE AND MAIL. COINS COULD GO TOO, BUT, EVEN ONE COIN CAN GET CAUGHT UP IN THEIR AUTOMATIC SORTING MACHINES AND SHUT THEM DOWN AS WELL AS DESTROY THE MAIL PACKET.

I DON'T SELL MANY COINS, BUT I SELL A LOT OF LIGHT WEIGHTS ITEMS. I USE 5 X 7 PADDED ENVELOPES, THIN CHEAP ONES, AND USE A 77 CENT STAMP MADE FOR NON MACHINABLE ITEMS, AND THEY GO THROUGH JUST FINE. NO TRACKING THOUGH.

I ADD THIS TO MY DESCRIPTIONS:

"To keep the shipping costs to a minimum, I will be mailing this out in a #10 envelope with first class postage stamp no tracking.

We'll have to trust each other EBAY and the US Postal Service."

THAT BEING SAID, I OPENED A SECOND EBAY ACCOUNT JUST TO SHIP THINGS WITHOUT TRACKING SO AS NOT TO MESS UP MY METRICS ON MY MAIN ACCOUNT.

YOU JUST HAVE TO THINK OUTSIDE THE BOX.

EBAY IS STILL THE BEST THING OUT THERE.

THE PROBLEM IS NOT EBAY, IT IS "YOU".

by: MissDidi

I sell trading cards on eBay and have had the chance to try this new option.

I'll give them credit for a good idea.  Unfortunately, they still have a LOT of bugs to work out.  It's my personal opinion that they should have done more testing before rolling this out, or maybe had some conversations with people who sell trading cards in larger volumes, but others might say the best way to test it is with real world usage.

I'll break down the pros and cons as I've experienced them for anyone who's curious.

Pro: Tracking and insurance for items I normally send in a plain white envelope.  Prior to this rollout I paid the $3ish for first class with tracking on any item worth $10 and up, so if I'm shipping a 1-oz item worth $11, I save about $2.50 in postage.

Pro: Standard envelope through eBay labels eliminates one of my biggest headaches with Managed Payments: dropping hundreds of dollars in postage on any given week to send orders eBay for which eBay has not yet remitted payment.  Sure, there's ways around this, but this eliminates the need for this particular workaround.

Con: YOU CAN ONLY PRINT ONE LABEL AT A TIME!!  You can go to your orders screen and select all qualifying orders as you normally would to batch print labels, but then all but one or two fail to generate.  I called to report this bug and got a call back to inform me that the system was designed to print one at a time.  This may change in the future, but there is no target date currently available.

Con: Related to the one at a time rule: you can't combine orders.  Can you pack the items from multiple orders in the same envelope?  Sure, but I don't know how that would affect an INR or insurance claim.

Con: There is currently an issue where the label generates, and you can see the tracking number in your shipping labels screen, but tracking does not tether to the order.  This means when either I or my buyer clicks to view the tracking, we get a blank page.  You might think you just need to manually enter the tracking number for the order, but the tracking number does not save.  This also means that the orders fail the check for tracking uploaded on time and validated, which affects Top Rated Seller evaluation.

Con: Orders shipped via ESE sometimes come back later in the day or on the following day showing awaiting shipment even though they were marked as shipped earlier.  It can take multiple tries marking them as shipped to get them to stay that way.

Con: The labels are generated in one of two formats: 4x6 or oriented to use half an 8.5 x 11 sheet.  Using either of these methods generates a label that is not compliant with postal requirements for IMB placement.  You can easily trim down the label to make it compliant, assuming you know what you're doing.  eBay has no guidance for sellers in this regard.  I imagine folks who only send one or two items a week can squeak by with the misoriented label, but if I tried that my sorting center would bounce everything right back to me.

Con: ESE labels are not refundable.  You can't void a label and get your money back.

I've reported the issues that seem to be bugs, like orders going "unshipped" or failing to tether their tracking number, and I informed the rep helping me with the technical issues that eBay needs to get some guidance together for IMB placement.  I'm not sure it's realistic to expect eBay to fix these things in a few days' time, but I hope they make it a priority.  Once they get this program working (or IF they do) for us card sellers, it's supposed to expand to other lightweight items.  Again, assuming it works, I think sellers are really going to like it.  

by: ecomm

What about "Decals" and "Decal" categories???  And "tiny" parts???  This should be available in ALL categories, just like Media Mail.  The Seller should be able to decide when it is appropriate to use, just like all other shipping options.