Ebay Goofiness With Ebay Standard Envelope Prices And Insurance.

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Author	Replies: 8 / Views: 1,094
Brandmeister Pillar of the Community United States 6887 Posts	Posted 01/15/2025 1:43 pm I'd like to know if anyone else has encountered this situation. When you look at ebay standard envelope, it shows three tiers of 1/2/3 ounce rates. Each level states an insurance level from $20 at 1oz, to $50 at 3oz. Apparently, there is an embedded limitation that no single item can be more than $20? That seems silly to me. Why would ebay insure 3x $15 coins with no problem, but refuse to insure 1x $45 coin in the same envelope? Anyway, that kicked me up from spending $1.25 on the 3oz ($50) envelope to $4.58 at USPS. Have any other sellers encountered this situation, and how did you resolve it? To be clear, it would not be so annoyed with ebay, except that their software allowed me to select ebay Standard Envelope on an item listing that apparently cannot be shipped with an ebay standard envelope. Report this Post to the Staff

Zurie Pillar of the Community United States 5714 Posts	Posted 01/15/2025 5:17 pm I agree, ebay's rules often don't make sense, but I find it easier to just adhere to their policies. I've never had them give me the option of selecting the standard envelope for shipping when listing a coin over $20. If you're shipping two coins to the same buyer, I suppose you could pay for a 3oz envelope for the first cheaper coin, ship it together in that envelope with the higher priced coin, and manually add the tracking number to the second coin. It won't give you insurance for both, but I mainly use the standard envelope for the tracking documentation, not for the insurance. On a side note, I see that you are shipping Ikes using the standard envelope. Any problems with that? I've always been reluctant to ship anything larger than a quarter in an envelope because it might go through a sorting machine and get damaged. Report this Post to the Staff
Brandmeister Pillar of the Community United States 6887 Posts	Posted 01/15/2025 5:52 pm I have had no problems so far. Three Ikes will fit at just below 3oz. I pack each one in a 2x2 cardboard and Mylar flip. I tape them to the invoice in a line, top of the flip facing the sides, then fold the invoice like an ordinary letter. I use a normal envelope, but the front has the label adhered with shipping tape, which adds a lot of rigidity. One tip I saw in a video that seems to work is to space the coins sufficiently that you can bend the envelope nearly 90 degrees between the flips. That guy's theory was that severe inflexibility is what will cause envelopes to get shoved hard through the sorting machines. To date, I have not sent or received any damaged envelopes with ebay standard envelope shipping. I suppose that will happen eventually, but that happens with USPS letters occasionally, too. Report this Post to the Staff
Brandmeister Pillar of the Community United States 6887 Posts	Posted 01/15/2025 5:55 pm Quote: I've never had them give me the option of selecting the standard envelope for shipping when listing a coin over $20. I wanted to pull this out separately. I did have a thought on how that happened. I use their business rules section to charge a flat $1.12 for shipping and handling, regardless of how many coins are purchased. It's a blanket rule applied to everything in my store. I would bet that the listing price isn't checked against the ebay envelope limits because that rule lives in a different subsystem. It's also possible that the envelope was allowed as an option because I enabled buyer offers on the coin. Report this Post to the Staff
Zurie Pillar of the Community United States 5714 Posts	Posted 01/15/2025 6:05 pm Thanks, I may try that with half dollars. Still a little leery about Ike-sized coins. I do think that the standard envelope shipping has been a huge benefit for lower priced items where it made no sense to spend over $4 just to have tracking. Report this Post to the Staff
Brandmeister Pillar of the Community United States 6887 Posts	Posted 01/15/2025 8:27 pm I believe that the ebay standard envelopes are pulled at the Post Office and picked up by ebay. My first point of contact is almost always the ebay shipping facility in a nearby city. As I understand it, they move the packages themselves in their own facilities. Since they are handling only one package type—small and large envelopes—and they know the envelopes contain cards or coins, I would hope that ebay handles them with relative care. I don't know how the envelopes get back to the USPS offices for delivery, but my ebay envelopes don't usually show much wear when I receive them. Report this Post to the Staff
HondoB Bedrock of the Community United States 27416 Posts	Posted 01/15/2025 10:18 pm Brandmeister, I'm not sure where you got that idea. Envelopes mailed with ebay standard shipping are treated just like any other piece of mail by the USPS. Inordinately fascinated by bits of metal with strange markings and figures Report this Post to the Staff
Brandmeister Pillar of the Community United States 6887 Posts	Posted 01/15/2025 10:30 pm Hm. I read that or saw it in a video, but it's the Internet of course. I will do some more research tomorrow. Report this Post to the Staff
Brandmeister Pillar of the Community United States 6887 Posts	Posted 01/16/2025 2:01 pm Well, anecdotally, the USPS envelope I sent yesterday with tracking went to a completely different city than my ebay envelopes get routed through. I have never had an ebay envelope go through that city. Report this Post to the Staff
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