Monthly Archives: March 2015

(Un)Breakables

I’m almost afraid to blog about this, afraid I’ll jinx myself.

Here goes.

Today’s blog is about shipping. Lately, I’ve been seeing several photos on Facebook from brokenhearted buyers. They’ve taken the chance, bought a piece of glass or pottery from a stranger somewhere out there, possibly hundreds of miles away, and what do they get? A broken vase, broken jard, broken pot. Whatever they bought in good faith, whatever beautiful item they were looking forward to adding to their collection—broken. Why? Because someone didn’t take the time to do their job properly. Or maybe they just don’t understand how much packaging is required to properly protect breakable items. I hope most sellers fall into the latter instead of the former. That being said, here’s how I do it. It’s worked so far. To my knowledge, no buyer of mine has ever received a broken item. (Knocks on wood, shakes Nicaraguan maracas, rubs Garfield’s head.)

I really like the folks at my local post office, and I really like my letter carrier. They are professionals who do a great job. However, not all postal workers are professional. I’ve received messages from buyers asking to please take extra care in packaging their items and they share stories of previous experiences that were not good. I had one man begging me to double box because my item was the third he had bought and he really wanted it to get to him unbroken. I did, he got it, he’s a happy camper. Happy buyer=great feedback=more buyers=happy seller—me.

To me, bubble wrap is crucial. I use the small bubble, and wrap my breakable with the wrap running in one direction and then wrap in the other direction. Wrap until the item cannot be felt under the wrap. Tape the ends.  If you can feel the item, pull some more bubble wrap off that roll and wrap it some more. Yes, shipping materials are expensive, but what’s your selling reputation worth? Do you really want to be that seller who’s being blasted on social media with photos of a broken vase, jard, ped, etc.? I don’t. I sold a large figurine and when it was wrapped, it looked like a brisket. If your attitude is, so what, it was insured, stop reading now and go back to playing Candy Crush. This is no place for you.

After your item is safely cocooned in bubble wrap, it’s time to find a box. This box should be large enough to accommodate the bubble wrapped item and at least an inch of packing peanuts on each side. If you have more than one item, there should be enough room to place bubble wrap between your items. And the type of box is important also. The best ones have a crush rating on the bottom, such as 32 pounds/square inch. They can take the impact of being dropped, kicked, and/or possibly stepped on.

You’ve got your item in the box, now it’s time to tape it. Tape in one direction and then the other. Square boxes will have a “t”, rectangular boxes will have an “h”, tape them twice on the width.

I use internet shipping labels, so it’s time to get into eBay and print my label and put it on my box. I tape around the edges of my label. It could come off. Can’t be too careful.

Finally, wrap all packages with the same care, whether they’re high dollar or dollar store. Wrap them with the same care whether they’re traveling 50 miles or 500. You owe it to your buyer. They’ve put their trust in you. Earn it.

Feel free to share your packaging tips here. Got any extra peanuts?

Hey There Beautiful, What’s Your Title?

When I first started selling on eBay a friend of mine commented “You’re going to have to show me how to do that”. What that in mind, I shall from time to time post my tips for selling on eBay. These tips in no way reflect the opinions or policies of eBay, they’re just my opinions based on my experiences and obtained knowledge.

Now that we have the disclaimers out of the way, let’s talk about the eBay listing title. What to say in this title. Do you know what you have? Well, sure I know what I have. I have a green vase. Okay, let’s assume you list it as such. My search just turned up 26,531 green vases. I’m sure yours will float to the top. Well, it does say Frankoma on the bottom. Okay, let’s check that out. Now we have 140 listings. Much better, isn’t it?

What if this lovely green vase doesn’t have a name or a sticker or a Grandma who can tell you from whence it came? Well, Dear Seller, this is the part where the phrase kicks in “if it were easy, everyone would be doing it”. Granted, it seems everyone is doing it, in this case, selling on eBay, but like most everything else, there’s a difference between doing and doing well. In short, you’re going to have to do some research. Good news. There are several avenues for researching – eBay, the internet, books, to name a few. And there are hundreds of collector pages on Facebook with people who are happy to help you discover what you have. An aside from our topic: Be nice. But that’s another blog.

Let’s say you just cannot find out about your lovely green vase. It sure looks like Frankoma. Should I include Frankoma in my listing anyway? NO. Just NO. Not only will you risk your credibility, but collectors will eat you for lunch. They have the power of social media and they know how to use itr How about if I put L@@K or OOAK (One of a kind) or NICE or WOW? Again, NO. Search engines drop these words, and you want all your words to serve a purpose. You want to bring as many buyers as possible to your lovely green vase.

So what can we say about our as yet unidentifiable lovely green vase? Well, you can say it’s lovely, but you have the opportunity to post 12 photos to back that up. What does it look like? How tall is it? Is it solid green or are there other colors? Is it glass? Is it pottery? Does it have flowers? Dragonflies? You get the idea.

Green Pottery Vase W/Flowers & Dragonflies. Just what I’m looking for—SOLD!!

Now wasn’t that easy?