Tuesday, December 2, 2014

Don't Misuse USPS Priority Materials

I may get some negative comments from this post but I think it is an important topic.

While I list I watch a lot of reseller Youtube videos. I also read a lot of reseller blogs. I won't name any in particular but I will say that it really bugs me when resellers brag about misusing USPS priority materials. They usually do it with a grin on their face like it's a little joke that we all share. One of those…everyone does it so it's okay kind of things.

I don't do it and here is why.

Our USPS system is already financially in trouble and this can only make things worse for an already strained system. How will the people who do this feel if USPS has to stop offering free materials to save money? We all lose out. I don't work for the post office. I just appreciate what they do and the value of their service. They come to my door, pick up all my packages. I order more boxes free off of their website from the warmth and comfort of my home. People seem to think it's a victimless crime. It's not. Those boxes cost money. As a reseller how would you feel if your customers were penny by penny siphoning funds from your paypal account? Just a little at a time. Can't hurt, right? I don't think we'd like it.

Part of doing business as a reseller is finding a way to get boxes. Many resellers visit stores and request their empties or count on friends and family who have access to used boxes. Some take them from dumpsters. There are alternatives to stealing USPS boxes. The alternatives are better for the environment as well. In my case I have a friend who gets a lot of used boxes from his job. I also save all the boxes I get when I order things. Lastly I do a lot of priority shipping and have a large variety of the priority boxes on hand.

I just had to get this off of my chest. I expect that most of my regular readers are not the people who do this. Those people probably don't read my blog but I just had to vent anyway.

Last week I did a post on the Batman commemorative stamp set that is now available at the post office. Here is an interesting article about commemorative stamps and how their subject matter is chosen and some recent controversy regarding the images chosen to be on the stamps.



How do you feel about the post office, postal materials and those that misuse these items?

I had just one sale on Cyber Monday and it was a Bonanza sale. Eight total sales on Bonanza now since I opened my store there a few months ago. Not bad since I wouldn't have had those sales otherwise and it takes very little work to maintain my Bonanza shop. The only thing I regularly do is make sure what I sell on Bonanza I delete from ebay and vice versa.

My ebay inventory is now up to 955. My goal at the beginning of the year was to be at 1000 by the end of the year. Will I make it? I hope to but I'd rather items fly out of my store too quickly these next three weeks for me to reach my goal :)


16 comments:

  1. Standing ovation! I recently received a package sent first class mail. It was in an unused priority box wrapped in brown paper. I'm sure there are zillions of people who misuse those free supplies and the post office probably has that figured into the cost, but it still makes me crazy. When we order supplies online, we have to agree not to misuse them, but if you get them from the post office, you don't have to sign a waiver.

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    1. I never noticed the waiver. I'm bad about reading the fine print. The next time I get something using priority inappropriately I'm going to call them out in the feedback. I won't give a negative but I'm going to say something.

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  2. Amen...I don't use priority except for priority. If I need a box for protection inside a poly bag most of the time it's a cereal box or some box I have saved from cooking. Our local $$ General will let you have all the boxes you can carry.
    I saw a video once of a guy telling how to ship cheap. He rounded down on first class postage and used priority boxes and mailers for everything other than priority mail. Rounding down may seem like a bargain...until the buyer on the other end has to pay postage due and then you are in trouble. As my dad would have said, "someone needs to knock some sense in that young'un"

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    1. LOL I love your dad's advice. Good stuff.

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    2. I can't believe a seller would actually round down when shipping. I always round up by several ounces out of fear that maybe my sale isn't calibrated perfectly. I would be so pissed about something like that. That's pretty bad. I'm sure he has great feedback..Not!

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    3. I do the same thing Margaret. Round up I mean. I guess there are people out there that are more motivated by greed than fear.

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  3. I feel exactly the same way! I ship things via Priority mail almost every day, and use the free Priority boxes for that shipping whenever I can. I have always worried that the few bad apples will ruin it for the rest of us, and that the free supplies will go away.

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    1. As Lorraine said maybe it's built into the pricing of priority. It must be a worse problem now though with the proliferation of online selling both ebay, etsy and amazon.

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  4. I agree with everything you wrote about the misuse of Priority boxes. I think there are some newer sellers that probably don't know any better, but there are also many who definitely do know better.
    Congrats on getting closer to your listing goal! :)

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    1. I'm glad to see my fellow bloggers agree, though I'm not surprised. It's a good group that we've got. Thanks Kim :)

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  5. You know, I am almost 60 and in my years I've found that you usually don't gain that much by such nonsense. Not to say that I've never been known to "bend" the rules, etc. but that is ridiculous. We do agree not to use those free shipping materials for any other purpose. Just go by the rules.

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    1. Thanks Kay, I agree with everything you've said.

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  6. At the start of my online selling career in 2007, I needed a box, and had the bright idea to turn a Priority Mail box inside out. This was before the Post Office started printing on the inside of its boxes. Needless to say, I was quite proud of myself until I got that letter from the Postal Service advising me to stop misusing the Priority Mail boxes. To this day, I have no idea how they knew, unless the customer told on me, but I have never misused a box again.

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    1. Hi Scott. I'm glad you stopped. Part of the reason I've never done it is fear that the post office would find out and charge my customer the difference. Oy.

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  7. I agree totally. I heard they charge the buyer at the other end the extra. I got regional rate C boxes at first till I realized how impractical and expensive they actually are....I used them to move and then recycled them (apparently if you return extras to the post office they won't send you more). But I am guilty of leaving negative feedback for those who send me misused priority material....its really inexcusable in my eyes. Seriously a box is $1 or less at Walmart. Build it into your price already :D

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    1. Grace I ordered this Regional Rate C boxes too and haven't used one yet. Ebay shipping doesn't even offer "C" as an option when you print shipping. I don't know why.

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