# Time Frame for Shipping eBay Items?



## akhomesteader (Jan 5, 2006)

How soon after someone pays for an eBay item does it have to be shipped? A few years ago I _thought_ I read that if they pay through PayPal, it must be shipped within 3 business days. Now I can't find that in the PayPal policy. Recently, I was looking at an item, but the seller stated that it would be a month before it could be shipped, and said not to bid on the item if you did not accept those terms. We live remote, without regular mail service, so we can't mail things each week. Is it acceptable to sell items and ship them beyond the 3 business days as long as you also state when it will be shipped? I'd love to try selling on eBay if I can do that.

Thanks,

Jenny


----------



## simplegirl (Feb 19, 2006)

I'm not sure if there is a stated policy. As a seller, I promise to ship within 2 business days and almost always ship the next business day. 

The only thing that I can see about delaying shipping something even if it is clearly stated in your auctions, would be that you might receive some bad feedback from buyers if they think it takes too long to receive the item - regardless of whether they accept the terms or not. Remember that now you cannot as a seller leave negative feedback. Only buyers can do that - which is really not at all fair. But many things eBay does is not fair.


----------



## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

The selling interface will allow you to specify a handling time. At Auctiva (the bulk eBay listing service I use) it's a fatal error to not declare a handling time now. You should declare whatever maximum handling time you need.


----------



## akhomesteader (Jan 5, 2006)

Thank you for the info. I suppose I could try it and see how it goes. I have one more question. Can e-books be sold on eBay? I was wondering if they have something set up like a lot of websites --- when someone pays for the e-book, the buyer is automatically sent an e-mail with a download code they can use to get the book. If eBay doesn't have that, then is there a way for me, the seller of the e-book to e-mail the e-book to the buyer. Of course, that would require that they send me their e-mail address. Just wondering if that's allowed through eBay and PayPal.

Thanks,

Jenny


----------



## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

akhomesteader said:


> Can e-books be sold on eBay?


EBay used to allow digital products, but about a year ago they stopped allowing it. In fact, eBay even used to have a terrific digital product delivery utility that automatically provided a download link to the buyer upon a successful payment. I suspect that eBay stopped it because there was a high percentage of unhappy customers, since some of those digital products were scams, such as bogus gambling systems and "how to make $1 million overnight being an eBay seller."

However, you can still sell your digital product as a physical CD product that's mailed to the customer. CD blanks, labels, and mailers are inexpensive. If you have a digital product that you think you can market successfully at eBay then that's the route I recommend.

Here's more info on the digital product ban.

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/685289/the_ebay_digital_products_ban_to_start.html


----------



## akhomesteader (Jan 5, 2006)

Thank you very much! Too bad eBay stopped the download of e-books, but I can understand why they would not want that headache. We thought about doing it as CD's, and will probably go that route. But, back to the problem of not being able to ship things promptly. If that ends up not being a major problem, then we'll try it. 

Thanks again,

Jenny


----------



## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

akhomesteader said:


> Thank you very much! Too bad eBay stopped the download of e-books, but I can understand why they would not want that headache. We thought about doing it as CD's, and will probably go that route. But, back to the problem of not being able to ship things promptly. If that ends up not being a major problem, then we'll try it.
> 
> Thanks again,
> 
> Jenny


Just a little info to get you started. I would get the CD blanks locally if possible. They're heavy, so shipping is high for CD blanks. If you have an OfficeMax or Staples where they put them on sale for $15/100 you'll do better than by buying them online.

For labels and mailers, use DiskPro.com.


----------



## akhomesteader (Jan 5, 2006)

_Edited to ask another question:_ Nevada, in what do you place your CDs when you mail them. Do you use plastic cases, or the paper/plastic/cardboard sleeves? The mailers sold at DiskPro don't look like they'd be big enough for plastic cases. Maybe so?
Thanks again for the info. That will help us get started.

Jenny


----------



## clovis (May 13, 2002)

Is there any way you can ship twice a week? Maybe a neighbor taking them for you?

Because my items are stock items, I know how much postage to put on them. I always have a pretty good supply of stamps on hand, in all denominations. 42's, 10's, 5's, 4 centers, etc. 

I know I can print postage on the internet, but I use a cheat sheet showing what the postage is on different items, and put the stamps on the envelope. It doesn't take much time, and sure beats standing in line at the post office.

Just an idea.

Clove


----------



## akhomesteader (Jan 5, 2006)

I wish we could ship twice a week. We live in the Alaskan bush. No roads. No Post Office. No people, except one 85 year old man, and some vacation cabins on a lake about a mile away. We charter a plane a few times a year to go into town for shopping, mail and whatever we need. During the summer people come and go pretty often, so if we have packages ready to go with postage, there won't be much of a problem getting things out each week or two. During the winter, visits are less consistent. During freeze-up and break-up we wouldn't be able to list things on eBay because it could be a couple of months before we'd see a plane or another person. Bush living is great, but it does have a few disadvantages.

Thanks for your suggestions.

Jenny


----------



## Sew-Classic (Jan 5, 2009)

FWIW, I ship within one business day of receipt of payment. Sometimes I can get it out the same day. Yet on my DSR's, I have a score of 4.9 for shipping and handling time- apparrently still not fast enough for some folks.


----------



## clovis (May 13, 2002)

Sew-Classic said:


> FWIW, I ship within one business day of receipt of payment. Sometimes I can get it out the same day. Yet on my DSR's, I have a score of 4.9 for shipping and handling time- apparrently still not fast enough for some folks.


Yeah...I know what you are talking about!!!!

I ship fast. I ship nearly every day of the week, except for Sunday. I have been known to ship and drop off items Sunday nights. I still cannot get higher than 4.9 on my DSR.

The DSR system is a great idea, but has been poorly implemented by ebay.


----------



## bookfarmer (Jan 1, 2009)

I've never sold on ebay, but have bought a lot. I do expect my items to be shipped promptly if I pay with PayPal because the seller gets that money almost immediately. If the seller says the item will be shipped within a certain timeframe (say, 3-10 days), I try to be patient. But I really get ticked off by two things: delayed shipments and overcharges for shipping. I don't mind paying a few dollars for packing and handling. But I'll leave a moderately negative score if the shipping cost I'm charged is double or more what the actual cost is.

So that's a buyer's perspective.


----------



## Sew-Classic (Jan 5, 2009)

I buy on eBay too. I just refuse to bid on items where the shipping price is obviuosly overly inflated. 

For the vintage sewing machines, these buggers are upwards of 35 to 50 pounds- not cheap to ship. I generally charge a flat rate of $29.99 to ship anywhere in the lower 48.

I include the following photos in my listing to illustrate how carefully I pack and the amount of packing material involved.
























If a buyer finds this to be objectionable, they really shouldn't bid on the listing IMHO. If I were a buyer that felt that way, that is exactly what I would do.

I put on my listings that I ship within 2 business days, but I ALWAYS ship within one. I think that some buyers that are on the other side of the country look at how long it took for the item to be delivered (3-4 days) rather than when it was shipped.


----------



## akhomesteader (Jan 5, 2006)

Just a plug for you. I am THRILLED with the sewing machine I purchased from you. I only had a chance to sew with it for about 30 seconds before my old belt broke, though. But, you did a fantastic job of cleaning it up and shipping it, even to Alaska. Things always get destroyed in shipping up here, so I was expecting some serious damage to the machine. Not the way you packed it. Thank you! My husband just returned from a trip to town with a new belt, so I'm going to put it on today and get started with it again.

Jenny


----------



## Nevada (Sep 9, 2004)

akhomesteader said:


> _Edited to ask another question:_ Nevada, in what do you place your CDs when you mail them. Do you use plastic cases, or the paper/plastic/cardboard sleeves? The mailers sold at DiskPro don't look like they'd be big enough for plastic cases. Maybe so?
> Thanks again for the info. That will help us get started.
> 
> Jenny


Sorry for the delayed response. I'm currently dealing with a personal crisis right now so I'm not around as much as I usually am.

I use the single CD white cardboard mailers from diskpro.com. I also place the CD in a padded plastic sleeve. It's pretty good packaging and only costs about 15 cents for both the mailer and sleeve. When using the plastic sleeve I can also mail 2 CDs in the same mailer. Once in a great while someone at the post office will put one in a processing machine that breaks the CD in half, but I just mail another when that happens.

The big cost is postage, but you'll find that you can mail them for 59 cents. They are just over an ounce for 1 CD and short of two ounces for two CDs, so the shipping is the same for one or two CDs. Some postal clerks think it needs an extra 20 cents for non-machine canceling, and even others like to put about $1.50 on it as a parcel. I've found that if I put 59 cents on them (a 42 cent first class stamp and a 17 cent "ram" stamp) that only about 1 CD in 500 gets returned for extra postage.


----------



## Sew-Classic (Jan 5, 2009)

akhomesteader said:


> ... My husband just returned from a trip to town with a new belt, so I'm going to put it on today and get started with it again.
> 
> Jenny



Thanks for the update- ENJOY!


----------



## Ken Scharabok (May 11, 2002)

I was offering an e:book on eBay. When you have paid I'd send the e:Book as an attachment to an e-mail. They shut down the listing saying it now had to be in a 'classified ad' format at something like $4 per listing per week.

Due to low sales, simply not worth it to me to do a mailed CD route.


----------

