Within each category, there are strict criteria as well – see the eBay help page for details. ![]() First, it’s limited to three categories: Trading Cards Coins and Paper Money and Postcards and Stamps. ![]() Note that just because an item can fit in a small envelope doesn’t mean it can be sent via eBay Standard Envelope. Here are the new rates taking effect on January 22, 2023: It can’t be used for items selling for more than $20, though you can combine shipping to $50.If you’re a seller who takes advantage of the eBay Standard Envelope shipping option for lightweight items that can be mailed in an envelope, be aware your costs will be rising later this month.ĮBay Standard Envelope uses the US Postal Service but offers limited tracking through eBay (and only through eBay) that usually costs much more than the cost of a First Class postage stamp.Īs a result, eBay is increasing rates for the service on the same date the USPS is raising its rates: January 22, 2023. EBay says if the buyer complains of non-receipt, the seller is supposed to just suck it up and refund them. There has to be a separate back door route into USPS to see the tracking because it is not readable on and other public access sites. “Out for delivery” is the last scan you get. Also even if it does the initial scan, it does not provide a delivery scan. A letter carrier cannot scan it – it has to get a scan at the outgoing PO in the sorting machine and in my experience about 20% of the time it doesn’t happen, and if that doesn’t happen, there are no additional scans. Besides only being usable for thin, flat, bendable, first class letter-sized and -weighted non-plastic and non-padded envelopes, the tracking is hit or miss. Someone at some point said to eBay: “Hey, there’s this Intelligent Mail Barcode thing I can get from LetterTrackPro, why can’t eBay offer that for us and let the half-assed tracking it offers count for TRS?”ĮBay probably doesn’t want to encourage its widespread use. High volume sellers in the sports card, postcard, stamp, and coin categories – which are huge – have probably been clamoring for years for eBay to figure out a way for them to obtain TRS status which they’ve been pretty much locked out of since they so often ship their low priced items in an envelope with a stamp. There is no real reason that it couldn’t be added as a shipping method in any category for use when appropriate. “I wonder why this is category restricted at all.” This is the envelope I’ve been using: I see that the price per 100 is a few dollars more than the 5×7 mailjacket that you linked from ebayshippingsupplies, though it’s slightly smaller. If the USPS enforces the machinable standards for eBay Standard Envelopes I think there are going to be some unhappy sellers when their envelope with 15 raw cards or 5 raw coins, for example, gets returned to them. ![]() ![]() Ebay has decided to prominently specify what can go in the envelope – for example ship “no more than 15 raw cards” or “no more than 5 raw coins” – but you really have to dig down a bit to find that eBay Standard Envelope thickness has to be uniform, not too rigid, etc., which are machinable mail standards. I’ve had a few mail pieces actually returned to me because the patch was a little too thick or when I tried to send a larger coin like a half dollar and didn’t put the extra postage on the envelope. One thing concerns me – the USPS charges a bit more for “nonmachinable” first class envelop mail and the Intelligent Mail Barcode doesn’t work, presumably because nonmachinable mail gets spit out of the scanning machines and has to be hand-sorted. It appears to me that eBay has made a deal with the USPS to use that system, based on eBay’s parameters and FAQ answers for Standard Envelope, with the bonus of a few cents off the usual price for 1, 2, and 3 oz first class envelopes. I would have to go to my LetterTrackPro account to see tracking updates. I have been using the Intelligent Mail Barcode from LetterTrackPro for several years for my postcards, small photos, and patches in my Never-To-Be-TRS eBay store which gave me a tracking number that eBay would accept as an upload to the sale but after that would not load updates, so there was never carrier validation.
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