Archive for the ‘shipping address postage’ Tag

Pros and Cons: Printing Postages on eBay/PayPal

Posted June 13, 2008
Filed under: ebay, paypal, Shipping | Tags: , , , , , ,
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eBay offers online printing of postages and address labels via PayPal [1,2]. The services offer online printing of postages as well as tracking number. For UK users there are discounts on ParcelForce packages but no discounts for Royal Mail packages.

The steps to print postage (shipping, address labels) are quite straight forward:

  • On eBay, go to sold items page
  • Select the transactions you would like to print postage for
  • Click “Print Postage Labels” button on top or bottom of the page
  • Login to your PayPal
  • Select weight and size of the item
  • Pay for the postage
  • Print the postage

For a complete guide please see the references. Here are the pros and cons of this service:

Pros of eBay/Pay Pal Postage

  • The postages can be paid through paypal
  • The tracking number can be printed online
  • The proof of postages will be on PayPal ( More towards seller’s protection )

Cons of eBay/PayPal Postage

  • Postages should be printed one by one: Multiple printing is not available at the moment and therefore the weight and size should be selected and price paid for each postage one by one.
  • Efficiency and Speed: Further to the point above, logging in PayPal each time is a very slow process.
  • Pricing : In comparison, franking machines and postal service websites often have better offers for postage prices, which is going to be a big number when sending high volumes of packages.

This issue will attract the attention to services that can quickly generate the address/shipping labels to be printed and used with franking machines.

In the later blog posts we will discuss a few more options available to online sellers. If you know any service that you are specifically interested in please drop a comment.

References:

  1. eBay and PayPal postage printing guide for US: Print Shipping Labels with Online Postage USPS
  2. eBay and PayPal postage printing guide for UK: How to Print your Postage Label – Royal Mail and Parcelforce

– http://www.scrobbld.com: A new way to manage your eBay and PayPal orders.