Vitaman

Question on shipping smaller decals

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I've been trying to figure out how to ship smaller decals (maybe around 4" x 8") the most cost-effective way.   I can't understand how eBay sellers sell any decal for $2 and include free shipping.  Is there a trick to just using a stamp to cover USPS shipping?  I'm confused.  Ideally, I would like to make some decals during downtime to have ready to ship out as they sell just to help fill some time.

 

I'm not even trying to wrap my head around how they are making and shipping decals from China for under a dollar!  :huh:

 

Thanks in advance

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A lot of those people only get paid $0.50/hr. 

I get the sweatshop thing, but getting a package of any size from China to the US for so cheap boggles my mind.

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I get the sweatshop thing, but getting a package of any size from China to the US for so cheap boggles my mind.

 

It's subsidized by YOU & ME via trade agreements - Hug a politician 

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So the only affordable way to ship a smaller decal is to move to China?  I knew there was a catch.

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With tracking the least you can ship is 3oz for $2.45  First Class. Package   So how much are your decals?  Make it worth your while.  add the shipping costs in the overall price and offer FREE Ship.. 

 

U.S. sellers on EBAY that are selling so cheap are just spinning their wheels and going no where.. Look at the work they are doing for $2.00.  What is left? After Ebay fees and Paypal, plus supplies?  They are working for nothing..  Yes they are just slapping a postage stamp on an envelope and hoping it gets there.. They also get many complaints,  They cannot prove the buyer gets it. Then when their cutter breaks, they don't even have a profit to buy another cutter.  

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I have seen through my research that 2.45 is the lowest.  How are these sellers selling a decal for $2.00 and offering free shipping?  Just a normal envelope and a stamp?  

 

Thanks for all the input, I'm just making sure I'm not wasting money on shipping and or shipping supplies.

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I have seen through my research that 2.45 is the lowest.  How are these sellers selling a decal for $2.00 and offering free shipping?  Just a normal envelope and a stamp?  

Yes just a stamp.. Most are all small decals like 3 x 6... I won't turn my cutter on for $2.00    I won't work for FREE. 

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I turned my cutter on to make 75 cent decals earlier today.   

:(

So your professional skills are only worth 75 cents?   :rolleyes:   Your in the wrong profession. 

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Thank you for your kind words.  I made 250 decals for .75 each.  While cutting a couple hundred at a time, I wondered about mass producing and selling smaller sized, unique decals on eBay.  After looking through some listings I noticed the low shipping costs, and was just wondering how they were getting by charging a dollar or less.  

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Ok,, makes more sense.. So you really didn't turn your cutter on for .75 cents.  You turned it on for $187.50.   I'll let you guys do all that small stuff you want,   No thanks....What ever you decide have some fun at it... ;D

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Thanks.  If anyone has any more tips on for shipping smaller/lighter decals, I would appreciate it...

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China along with the US heavily subsidize shipping from China to the US. We shipped a pallet from Shanghai for $225, that same pallet went from Mesa,AZ to Houston,TX for $540.

It's very similar Costs of shipping but the difference is that both governments pay a bit to keep up trade relations.

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Like Mz. Skeeter said, without proof of delivery you will run into tons of scammers on Ebay. Let the Chinese have the pennies. Go after the dollars!

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Like Mz. Skeeter said, without proof of delivery you will run into tons of scammers on Ebay. Let the Chinese have the pennies. Go after the dollars!

Thanks for that.  I sell a lot of t-shirts on eBay and never have had a problem with delivery, but I use delivery confirmation. I could see people screwing up a decal install, and claiming that they never received the item.  I'll stick to what I know for now.  Thanks for the replies.

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I have seen through my research that 2.45 is the lowest.  How are these sellers selling a decal for $2.00 and offering free shipping?  Just a normal envelope and a stamp?  

 

Thanks for all the input, I'm just making sure I'm not wasting money on shipping and or shipping supplies.

I sell on ebay, I have a few stores.

I had a great deal at 1 point I bought 10,000 Stay Flat Envelopes 10x14

I cut them in half to make 5x14  Yes the First Class shipping with tracking is $2.45 for 3oz and $2.60 4-8oz

I also offer free shipping but my cheapest sticker I sell is about $8.00  and it is only for a certain type of group people 

My average for my stickers is about $30 an order.  I do the same thing with shipping tubes I buy 2.5" x 33" and cut them into 3  so for my windshield stickers I can roll up and ship in a tube for $2.60

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I have an eBay store.  My cheapest decals are $1.99 for 2.5".  I also have 5" decals for $2.99.  My most expensive decal is 9.5" for $10.  Those don't sell as often, though.  People like the cheap decals.  I also offer an "install kit" free with every purchase which includes an alcohol wipe and a PVC card squeegee.  I also offer a buy 2 get 1 free promotion.   And yes I also offer free shipping.  Yet, after all that, I still manage to maintain 100% positive feedback, and 100% customer satisfaction.  Now I'm not as big as a few of the other stores, and I'm sure when sales start to get to a level where I won't be able to manage it on my own, there may be some issues, but as of right now, I've had no problems.

 

With eBay, the trick isn't to make the most money off one decal but make the most money off a lot of decals.  People are so stuck in the "I gotta make as much as I can off this one job" mentality, or "I won't turn my cutter on for $2."  But I bet they would if they were selling 125+ decals a day with a $2 profit margin.  Think about it.  If you have 100 listings, and 25% of them are hot selling items (so 25 listings are selling really good), and you're selling 5 decals per hot selling listing, that's 125 decals per day you're selling.  Multiply 125 decals by $2, and you get $250/day.  That's approximately $31 an hour if you're "working" an 8 hour day.  How many people do you know make that kind of money?  Back to the big picture.  If you're selling 5 decals from 25 listings, you're making $250 a day.  Now multiply that by 30 days in a month.  NOW show me someone won't turn their cutter on for $2.  This example was just using someone who has 100 listings.  Someone small time like me.  There's US companies on eBay that have 45,000+ listings.  If just 25% of their listings sold 5 decals a day at a $2 profit, well you do the math.  I bet that $1-$2 profit isn't looking so bad after all is it?

 

eBay is all about volume selling.  That's how people get away with selling decals so cheap.  People say, "my time is worth more than 50¢, $1, etc." and it may be.  But when you're selling quite a few decals a day, that number isn't as small as it looks.  Just remember, there is always a method to the madness.  It's just a matter of making sense of it all.

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On ‎9‎/‎1‎/‎2016 at 2:04 AM, NWAWraps said:

I have an eBay store.  My cheapest decals are $1.99 for 2.5".  I also have 5" decals for $2.99.  My most expensive decal is 9.5" for $10.  Those don't sell as often, though.  People like the cheap decals.  I also offer an "install kit" free with every purchase which includes an alcohol wipe and a PVC card squeegee.  I also offer a buy 2 get 1 free promotion.   And yes I also offer free shipping.  Yet, after all that, I still manage to maintain 100% positive feedback, and 100% customer satisfaction.  Now I'm not as big as a few of the other stores, and I'm sure when sales start to get to a level where I won't be able to manage it on my own, there may be some issues, but as of right now, I've had no problems.

 

With eBay, the trick isn't to make the most money off one decal but make the most money off a lot of decals.  People are so stuck in the "I gotta make as much as I can off this one job" mentality, or "I won't turn my cutter on for $2."  But I bet they would if they were selling 125+ decals a day with a $2 profit margin.  Think about it.  If you have 100 listings, and 25% of them are hot selling items (so 25 listings are selling really good), and you're selling 5 decals per hot selling listing, that's 125 decals per day you're selling.  Multiply 125 decals by $2, and you get $250/day.  That's approximately $31 an hour if you're "working" an 8 hour day.  How many people do you know make that kind of money?  Back to the big picture.  If you're selling 5 decals from 25 listings, you're making $250 a day.  Now multiply that by 30 days in a month.  NOW show me someone won't turn their cutter on for $2.  This example was just using someone who has 100 listings.  Someone small time like me.  There's US companies on eBay that have 45,000+ listings.  If just 25% of their listings sold 5 decals a day at a $2 profit, well you do the math.  I bet that $1-$2 profit isn't looking so bad after all is it?

 

eBay is all about volume selling.  That's how people get away with selling decals so cheap.  People say, "my time is worth more than 50¢, $1, etc." and it may be.  But when you're selling quite a few decals a day, that number isn't as small as it looks.  Just remember, there is always a method to the madness.  It's just a matter of making sense of it all.

I have a different viewpoint on ebay selling. On smaller decals, I don't think its realistic that 25% of your listings would be hot sellers. I feel like 10-15% is more accurate and might even be generous. At that pricepoint and margin, I'd need to sell 125 minimum each day which means I would have to have between 850 and 1250 listings. That's a lot of small decals and it would be hard to find that many hot selling items.

That being said, that's why I like selling medium and larger items. If my profit on each item is $40-75 on average, I turn on my cutter every other day and work for 3 hours and make that same money it would have taken me to earn in two days. I only need a limited number (a dozen or so) of really hot sellers and my other listings only need to sell mediocrely. I make shipping and handling 3 days and sometimes I turn my cutter on every three days, sometimes every other, and occasionally every day. It all depends on the time of year and what I have listed.

I am certainly not putting anyone down who does small decals. I can see the potential. But at a quick glance there are a lot of people in the small decal niche and fewer in the large decal niche. I even see sellers from china selling med-large graphics for less than $10. Its hard to compete on ebay with sellers who don't care to make money.  

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I've said it before.    

Pick how you'd want to work.

There are 2 people making the a similar product.   

Person #1 sells them for $50 each and had 1000 sales for the year.     Total sales = $50,000

Person #2 sells their item for $20 each and sold 3000 items for the year.   Total sales = $60,000

Which person do you want to be?

The correct answer is person number 1.  Why?    

Yes he made $10,000 less on this item then person #2 but person #1 also put in 1/3 of the work of person #2.   That means person #1 has an extra 2/3 more time to develop another product. 

You have to work smart.  

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31 minutes ago, Go-C Graphics said:

I've said it before.    

Pick how you'd want to work.

There are 2 people making the a similar product.   

Person #1 sells them for $50 each and had 1000 sales for the year.     Total sales = $50,000

Person #2 sells their item for $20 each and sold 3000 items for the year.   Total sales = $60,000

Which person do you want to be?

The correct answer is person number 1.  Why?    

Yes he made $10,000 less on this item then person #2 but person #1 also put in 1/3 of the work of person #2.   That means person #1 has an extra 2/3 more time to develop another product. 

You have to work smart.  

and with lots less supply cost

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On 9/1/2016 at 1:04 AM, NWAWraps said:

I have an eBay store.  My cheapest decals are $1.99 for 2.5".  I also have 5" decals for $2.99.  My most expensive decal is 9.5" for $10.  Those don't sell as often, though.  People like the cheap decals.  I also offer an "install kit" free with every purchase which includes an alcohol wipe and a PVC card squeegee.  I also offer a buy 2 get 1 free promotion.   And yes I also offer free shipping.  Yet, after all that, I still manage to maintain 100% positive feedback, and 100% customer satisfaction.  Now I'm not as big as a few of the other stores, and I'm sure when sales start to get to a level where I won't be able to manage it on my own, there may be some issues, but as of right now, I've had no problems.

 

With eBay, the trick isn't to make the most money off one decal but make the most money off a lot of decals.  People are so stuck in the "I gotta make as much as I can off this one job" mentality, or "I won't turn my cutter on for $2."  But I bet they would if they were selling 125+ decals a day with a $2 profit margin.  Think about it.  If you have 100 listings, and 25% of them are hot selling items (so 25 listings are selling really good), and you're selling 5 decals per hot selling listing, that's 125 decals per day you're selling.  Multiply 125 decals by $2, and you get $250/day.  That's approximately $31 an hour if you're "working" an 8 hour day.  How many people do you know make that kind of money?  Back to the big picture.  If you're selling 5 decals from 25 listings, you're making $250 a day.  Now multiply that by 30 days in a month.  NOW show me someone won't turn their cutter on for $2.  This example was just using someone who has 100 listings.  Someone small time like me.  There's US companies on eBay that have 45,000+ listings.  If just 25% of their listings sold 5 decals a day at a $2 profit, well you do the math.  I bet that $1-$2 profit isn't looking so bad after all is it?

 

eBay is all about volume selling.  That's how people get away with selling decals so cheap.  People say, "my time is worth more than 50¢, $1, etc." and it may be.  But when you're selling quite a few decals a day, that number isn't as small as it looks.  Just remember, there is always a method to the madness.  It's just a matter of making sense of it all.

$2 x 125 does equal $250.

Let's take that $250 - Ebay Fees - Paypal Fees - Postage - Material Costs.

I'd estimate that you'll clear $100. If that takes you 8 hours, then that is $12.50 per hour.

$12.50 per hour x 40 hours per week = $500 per week
$500 x 50 weeks a year = $25,000 per year
$25,000 - 30% self-employment tax = $17,500 per year

If you can do 125 in less than 8 hours, which you should, or you can scale the business, then it might get interesting. Hire some part-time helpers and grow the business. I personally don't see how anyone can have tens of thousand of decal designs without breaking all kinds of trademark and copyright laws.

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1 minute ago, pshawny said:

 

$2 x 125 does equal $250.

Let's take that $250 - Ebay Fees - Paypal Fees - Postage - Material Costs.

I'd estimate that you'll clear $100. If that takes you 8 hours, then that is $12.50 per hour.

$12.50 per hour x 40 hours per week = $500 per week
$500 x 50 weeks a year = $25,000 per year
$25,000 - 30% self-employment tax = $17,500 per year

If you can do 125 in less than 8 hours, which you should, or you can scale the business, then it might get interesting. Hire some part-time helpers and grow the business. I personally don't see how anyone can have tens of thousand of decal designs without breaking all kinds of trademark and copyright laws.

usually the low cost people that try to make it up in volume are short lived - gone in a year or two.  they burn out and find it easier to make bigger money elsewhere.  just an observation over time

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1 minute ago, Dakotagrafx said:

usually the low cost people that try to make it up in volume are short lived - gone in a year or two.  they burn out and find it easier to make bigger money elsewhere.  just an observation over time

Yeah. The value of time and of money can change depending on several factors over one's lifetime. A $30,000+ a year job in your 20's isn't as appealing in your 30's, so on and so forth. Life is expensive. I want my next K-1 to have six figures, not five.

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