Dollars and Sense #46: Money Saving Tip–Paypal Shipping

For this week’s edition of Dollars and Sense, I wanted to share a money saving tip that can help traders everywhere (at least in the United States).  I hate the Post Office.  It’s always a trek to get to ours and there is always a line.  When i first started collecting, I was amazed as to just how much time and money it cost me to send Lando to a know home.  Thankfully, there is a better way and I wanted to share it with you all….Paypal Shipping.  Many people have found that shipping items through eBay is cheaper than going to the post office, but then don’t realize that the same options are available within their Paypal account.  The greatest thing is that you don’t need a paypal transaction to create a shipping label, which means this works for trading, not just selling.   Let’s first look at the old way.

Ghost Obi Wan has escaped your Blind-Boxing prowess and you are stuck with a couple extras, including this smooth character.  Thankfully, you found a trader who is building a Lando army and will give you that Mudless Safari Truck Variant (just kidding) in return.  Old way is that you would drive to the post office, wait in line and pay this much.

Unfortunately, that is not all it costs.  This does not include Delivery Confirmation, which is an absolute necessity.  Most of the times, we are sending vinyls to people we’ve never met.  This # gives everyone to piece of mind they deserve.

So for a 3 ounce bubble mailer, you are looking at $1.95+$0.75=$2.70. Don’t forget you also drove to the post office and waited in line to make this happen.

Now let’s look at Paypal shipping or Multi-Order Shipping as it’s officially known.  Don’t worry, Mr. Paypal is happy to help you ship whether you are shipping 1 or 100 items.  Log into your paypal account and on the overview screen, you will see this on the right side.

Go ahead and click on Multi-Order Shipping.   A new window will open and you will see this.

Now click on Create New Orders.

You now are able to  input the shipping information.  The one thing you will need is a weight.  I use the following numbers for shipping in a size 0 bubble mailer…1 vinyl-3 ounces, 2 vinyls-5 ounces, 3 vinyls-7 ounces.  A handy mailing scale is also nice to have and will set you back about $20.  Be sure to select how you want to send this package…1st class is best if you are 13 ounces or left.  Go ahead and click ship to address and you tell the post office where to send Lando.

Your Ship From Address will default to the address you entered on your paypal account.  When you are done, click on Save and Close.  The next screen to appear is….

At this point, you’ve done all the hard work.  Go ahead and click on the print icon and it will calculate the cost of shipping (to be automatically deducted from your paypal account.

Waa-laa….$1.64.  At first, you may not think that is much of a savings, but this includes the much coveted delivery confirmation.  Next step is to click on Pay and Print.

You are almost home free.  Just click on Print Label and your printer will spit out your postage.  Affix it on your package and it is ready to be picked up by your postal carrier or dropped off at the post office.  No need to wait in line no matter what!  Now let’s look at our savings.

$2.70-$1.64=$1.06 or ~40%

Saving 40% on shipping is huge, doing it while sitting on your butt is even huger…or something.   Hope this helps!