I’ve long advocated using Paypal shipping labels at paypal.com/shipnow as a way to cheaply ship light-weight items (up to 13 oz). It’s useful for shipping gift cards, as well as reselling small items and just everyday living as well. The Paypal system allows us to buy labels for anything, even not items paid through Paypal and even items you’re sending to friends and family. And we always got the special Paypal-eBay discount that eBay offers their sellers.
eBay has now changed the discount and applies it only to eBay power sellers who sell 300+ items per month or who have Top Rated Plus status on eBay.
Under the new rules, the cheapest shipping label (3 oz or less) is $2.60, which is just about the same as the $2.54 you’ll pay at the physical post office. Going back a couple of years, the cost to ship 3 oz via Paypal was just $1.69, and more recently it was $1.93.
Oddly, Paypal is charging the minimum $2.60 rate for packages up to 8 oz – the price only starts increasing when you hit 9 oz. In that sense, Paypal/eBay ends up cheaper than the post office, although it may just be a glitch that will be fixed.
I’ll still be using the Paypal system for printing out First Class Parcel labels since you can’t do that online at USPS.com – they only let you print priority and other more expensive labels, not the cheapest First Class Parcel labels – but it is getting more expensive.
HT: Slickdeals
