Getting Good... at SHIPPING Your Trading Card Orders

[@TCGBulkKings]

If you need any other supplies, check out my older video about it: kzbin.info/www/bejne/ZmOveWuObrdmoqM

[@stumpy2nd]

THANK YOU for addressing “discounted stamps”

[@TCGBulkKings]

=]

[@bertrammorris214]

Unrelated but what do you set your shipping price at on your direct tcgplayer account? I saw RNG games sets his shipping rate at $1.99 so he doesn't get a 5 cent order and lose money on it.

[@TCGBulkKings]

@@bertrammorris214 I have my shipping set to the free option. I sell a lot of Flesh and Blood in the $.20-.50 per card range, or playsets of $.10-.20 cards, and high shipping would definitely disrupt that. I honestly don't end up with a lot of those cheapest orders, and they're more than made up for by the bigger orders. I see those little losses as just the cost of getting all those bigger gains

[@lordnarwhal]

@@TCGBulkKings the shipping cost only applies once though, so isn't it just a protection against someone placing an order that isn't profitable? if they're going to buy a lot of cheap cards from you, enough that the order becomes profitable, a 99 cent shipping cost doesn't seem like it should dissuade them. it'd only dissuade someone who wanted to buy one or two cheap cards.

[@TCGBulkKings]

@@lordnarwhal human psychology is at play here, as well as the fact that TCGplayer sorts listings with set shipping costs with that cost included, so $.25+.99 shipping is sorted at $1.24, which means there may be 500 other sellers with free shipping options visible from $.30-1.23 before yours gets seen

[@zedxspecturm4698]

I remember like 15 years ago, child me tried to ship a blackwing deck in a white envelope. did NOT turn out well.

[@kits0607]

You are the Man! Thank You! Would love to see a video with the printing heat label process. Thanks again for all the great info!

[@TCGBulkKings]

You got it! And thanks for watching!

[@Synrgy007]

Great video. I just got to level 4 and bulk sorting is my bane. I don't have the money to get a autosorter, so sorting is what i usually spend my time on.

[@TCGBulkKings]

Definitely a grind, and definitely something you have to be at least okay with, if you hate sorting, you won't suddenly stop hating it

[@pawndUP]

I love your direct and to the details approach with your videos. With this one, I'd recommend printing the customer invoice and folding your cards into that, then you can utilize envelopes with a window and not print mailing address stickers anymore. Let me know what you think 🤔

[@pawndUP]

I do cardboard backs as I've never seen shipping shields. Ty so much for that tip I'm definitely ordering shields in bulk ASAP.

[@TCGBulkKings]

The window envelopes cost more than the labels and the difference in work time is negligible. Also, I didn't start out with a printer with a cheap ink option, so it was the difference between spending lots of money on ink, spending lots of money on upgrading printers, or finding a $40 used thermal printer that I can get labels for super cheap. That absolutely is a great process that works for a lot of people, but it just wasn't ever quite right for my business

[@pawndUP]

@@TCGBulkKings yeah I didn't consider ink cartridges vs thermal paper long term. The differences in cost would be negligible.

[@jiraiYT]

bro you are a GOAT! TY! Im omw to walmart today. This month has been nice but Feb will be a banger! :D When I can def gonna support as much as i can.

[@TCGBulkKings]

Haha, you've got this, glad I could help you out

[@dylanrathbun8084]

I can't ever think of calling someone a goat as a good thing.

[@russelravellette6612]

I'm loving your videos. They are super helpful. I'm getting started selling on tcg and other platforms and you are really helping me get organized. Thanks a lot. I've been watching your videos back to back. Excellent content.

[@TCGBulkKings]

That means a whole lot to me. Keeps me wanting to make more content, it's hard sometimes with all the everything going on. I'm really glad I've helped

[@MTGUnpacked]

Interesting how you use standard forever stamps rather than non-machinable. I've had to pay extra postage in the past or had envelopes damaged by sorting machines when ordering from TCG Player and the seller used a regular forever stamp, though admittedly this doesn't happen often.

[@TCGBulkKings]

Yeah, my 'defect rate' has typically been well below 1% of orders, but it randomly spikes sometimes. I don't like assuming I have to send non-machinable when 99.5% of orders go through fine without it. This newer method has had 0 defects and 0 complaints and costs me maybe half a cent and 5s more per order, totally worth it to me

[@BetaBenj]

Thanks so much for the heads-up about Shipping Shields - just got some in and they're awesome. I did some informal testing against top loaders and was surprised that the SSs seem to have more rigidity. Great stuff - love your work!

[@TCGBulkKings]

I'm glad I was able to help you out! And yeah, I really like the Shipping Shields, I feel like the more people use them and talk about them, the more likely it is they'll become the shipping standard that I believe they ought to be

[@biggiejohn3360]

not sure where I first heard about shipping shields, but I started using them from the first orders I shipped on TCGplayer and have never had a complaint from anyone yet. I have ordered cards from several VERY LARGE shops/online sellers that shipped with a top loader in a team bag, in a PWE, and the top loader showed up cracked or even shattered and the cards damaged. I also like the environmental aspect of cardboard shipping shields being recyclable/compostable

[@TCGBulkKings]

Right? Toploaders are *too* rigid for the postage machines. Card savers aren't rigid enough. Shipping Shields hit the Goldilocks zone. I've only ever had one complaint, and it was from someone objecting to the idea, not to the cards getting messed up

[@EnochTheMuffin]

This whole video was worth it for the link to Shipping Shield.

[@TCGBulkKings]

Lol, I hope the rest of it didn't get in your way too much =]

[@protestthebread1046]

Hey! I'm just a hobbyist at the moment trying to get a larger % on selling singles, but I appreciate the content. Subbed

[@TCGBulkKings]

Thanks, glad you're enjoying! Hopefully we can help you get where you're trying to get

[@DrummermattkTCG]

Stumbled across this video after a while, just to get a refresher on others ways of shipping and cant thank you enough for the insights. One curious thought. Is this series going to continue? One thing I would love to learn more about would be utlizing TCG Player pull sheets and how to inventory cards to correlate to those pull sheets. There does not seem to be very many videos / articles tackling that topic

[@TCGBulkKings]

Will likely continue in some fashion in the future, and that's a great way to go forward, thanks! And thank you for your kind words, I'm glad I've been helpful to you

[@beaker2k]

If you could print the postage directly on the envelope along with the return address and sender address, you may be able to save 10-15 seconds per order plus save the costs of the labels the return address inker, etc.

[@TCGBulkKings]

I had thought of that, but I would also incur the costs of ink for the printer. I haven't successfully found a printer that doesn't use it's ink in a way that doesn't severely annoy me. And the thermal printer works great, costs are cheap (less than a penny per label), quick to use and doesn't require me to reengineer processes when I change envelopes. Also I get to print my parcel labels on it too, so I don't have to tape paper ones onto the parcels. Again, not saying it's best for everyone, but this is definitely the best solution for me =]

[@beaker2k]

@@TCGBulkKings yeah that all makes sense. Laser printers are not nearly as big of a hassle I k wise, but if you aren’t including the invoices in the order then you aren’t able to leverage the printer.

[@Jameson11ink]

You can print 4x6 labels using a site called ORANGEMAILER for letters and various others at a substantial discount vs stamps Found them when I ordered a item on Ebay and it arrived in a basic envelope with a thermal printed label. I was baffled as I sell the same items but MANUAL stuck on stamps and printed label addresses and cut them out. Messaged the seller and ask yo wtf. You shipped this for $1.08 cross country same way I do costs $1.8?! Changed my entire shipping methods in a snap.

[@TCGBulkKings]

I will happily give OrangeMailer a look and if it's something I adopt, I'll be sure to report it =] Thanks Jameson!

[@devlinmurray5853]

Awesome Video. I am working on optimizing my packing flow right now. Thank you for the tips.

[@TCGBulkKings]

Glad it was helpful! Means a lot to me to hear that kind of feedback

[@devlinmurray5853]

@@TCGBulkKings Quick question for you. I just got my first big order (212 cards). I know I can't do that PWE so I was going to look at doing a bubble mailer and probably usps priority. Not sure how much the order is going to weigh yet need to pull it after work. Is this the cheapest way to send that many cards? Also which team bags do you use for your bricks of 100 cards?

[@professorburch]

I would be interested on how you format and print your customers address with a label printer. I only use 4x6 labels for my ebay orders but it looks like you use a smaller type label with your printer. Which makes sense economically instead of using a whole 4x6 label. Awesome video man. This just helped guide me even more on the packaging process. Thanks again for another informative video!

[@TCGBulkKings]

Glad it's helping you out! If there's enough interest, I'll try to slot a video about that into my schedule

[@Ifyouhavethecoin]

I use 4x6 labels and made a 4x6 template on Google docs that prints out my return address in the upper corner and the customers address in the middle. I do have to replace the customers address for each label but that's a copy and paste without formatting thing.

[@professorburch]

@@Ifyouhavethecoin thanks! I'm gonna actually try this! I really like this method - having both on the same label gives me a similar format to ebay standard envelope.

[@travismorak6265]

@@TCGBulkKings a video on how to format addresses in the Dymo software would be amazing. There really isn’t a great reference out there that I’ve found. Great content btw! You help tremendously.

[@Jok3zXD]

@@TCGBulkKings Hey happen to get around to this video? also interested in it :)

[@Thenerdos787]

Sold my first 2 cards!! Again ty so much for the help. Ive been watching ALL your videos and copying some strategies to my small business venture 🙏 Quick question, is there any type of analytics tool or something to see if people saw your card or added them to cart or anything like that? Thanks in advance

[@TCGBulkKings]

Congrats, and I'm glad for any help I've been able to give you. And no, TCGplayer don't let us have that info. I have it on my website, and I'm sure they have that internally, but they don't share it with us

[@Thenerdos787]

@@TCGBulkKings got you. Make sense. Thanks for the reply!

[@smr.trading.cards.]

Textbook man great job. A lot of TCG sellers could learn from this... Do you feel the label printer on TCG shipping is faster and more cost efficient than cutting and taping the address from the packing slips on to the envelope? Been on the fence about buying the printer for months now

[@TCGBulkKings]

Yeah, I really do think it's faster, for me and my hands anyway lol. The labels are self-sticking, so I'm just peeling and sticking as far as that goes, and the process to print is very streamlined once you set it up the first time. And you don't have to spend as much on ink for your printer, since the thermal printer doesn't use ink

[@smr.trading.cards.]

@@TCGBulkKings makes sense. Do you print on a different label size for TCG orders than you do First Class labels (4x6)? We do a lot on eBay so would use the larger a ton. Or maybe just print on 4x6 and cut them?? Thanks for the reply 🙌

[@TCGBulkKings]

My printer doesn't support 4x6. I use 2x7 labels for my parcels, and small labels for the simple addresses. Always glad to help if I can =]

[@TachibanaTengoku]

My process is definitely different from this. Last I checked my price to ship per is around 69 or 70 cents flat. Maybe one day I'll make a secondary channel to post it on and we can compare.

[@TCGBulkKings]

Are you getting toploaders or equivalents for ~$.05 each?

[@TachibanaTengoku]

@@TCGBulkKings Yeah, I get my card savers at 5 cents a pop, sometimes 4.5c each. Even when they're not on sale somewhere I can still get them for under 7 cents any time on ebay, and they fit 9-12 cards.

[@FaryaWolyo_]

@@TachibanaTengoku I realize this is a late ask, sorry! Would you happen to have some eBay url examples? Also, which card saver version do you use?

[@mikeblaze365]

It's all about costumer experience in the end because if you have no costumers you have no business

[@absolution00]

What were those thank you cards you used that you said were thinner than business cards, thanks and another great video.

[@TCGBulkKings]

They were the smallest size of flyers available from Vistaprint, just printed on regular paper

[@christopherdavis8167]

First off let me say thank you for all your videos and motivating me to open my own store. I'm up to 15 sales so far, I picked up some shipping shields, couldn't get any team bags since they're on back order. I've been using vacuum seal bags instead. Today I had 1 order for a single card valued $100+ and another order for 2 cards total $50+. How should I ship these cards since top loaders don't fit inside shipping shields, and I'm not comfortable sending them in white envelopes and shipping shields alone. Also what are your recommendations on adding tracking to $20~$30 orders? If my order is $23 minus $6.50 tracking cost estimate = 14 bucks profit or less after fees and tax

[@TCGBulkKings]

Absolutely should be shipped in a shield or toploader, inside a team bag, wrapped in the invoice, in a bubble mailer with tracking. I track anything over $20. $6.50 is waaaaay too much to pay for tracked shipping, if using Pirate Ship (which is free to use) it's ~$4 give or take a few cents depending on distance.

[@papaprincess2206]

Hey, love the content. Actually started a TCGPlayer shop because of your channel. I know you mentioned just eating the cost on shipping bubble mailers but I do have a question about that. I mostly sell fleah and blood cards and I have a pretty extensive inventory. This has resulted in a lot of orders being 20+ commons that are only $2-4. Between shipping, fees, and materials im losing anywhere from a few cents to up to $2.50. It doesn't seem that bad, but these orders are coming up about 20-30% of the time. This has been a pretty substantial hit to overall margins. (lost about 50% profitability since increasing inventor) Do you have any other advice on ways to mitigate this? I'm currently using pirateship for 7+ card orders. Sorry for the word vomit, thanks in advance for any advice you or other commenters may have.

[@Rubiksguy]

I sell Yugioh. The advice I saw from DannyPhamtump is never list cards below $0.25, even if you’re “overcutting” the competition. The price isn’t much, so customers don’t care about spending the extra and will consider them add ins to their orders.

[@TCGBulkKings]

Some of that can be mitigated by using a PWE for orders up to 16 cards, you would put two stacks of cards in the envelope, side by side, and use add'l oz postage as necessary. Second, you would want to adjust your pricing floor, as Rubik's guy said. Tinker with that variable until you're happy with the amount of sales but not bothered by the few that dip below costs to ship

[@danielhaynas5723]

this dont have anything to do with what you asked but I wanted to throw it out there..I never shop again from sellers on tcgplayer that stuff multiple cards (sometimes pricey cards) into a penny sleeve (3 the last time I ordered)..and then stuff them into a single toploader..total turn off for any more future ordering with them sellers..just advice, not saying you do it...lotso luck man!

[@papaprincess2206]

Thank you for all the tips guys. I really appreciate it. Ill have to get on that. I wish yall well with your shops, games and life♡

[@Crocodonk]

I had an order couple orders of 69 FAB cards totaling about $15, but since its so many cards it weighs a lot so I had to ship them in a box costing $6.78 to ship, so after fees supplies and shipping I made like $5. Have you found any good solutions for orders like that or ways to mitigate them?

[@SnoMan1818]

do you have a video related to thermal printing?

[@TCGBulkKings]

I don't, mostly because it's really pretty much a plug and play situation. There isn't really anything to make content about. Most printers will work just fine for whatever purpose you have, but I'm not really able to get into the details of all of them. I'm currently using a Rollo printer for 4"x6" labels, and in the past I've used a Dymo for customer street addresses. But I'm currently just printing those directly onto the envelopes since I've gotten an ecotank style printer

[@parkerolson4509]

Do you have any videos on how you set up the customer information labels? Also what size bubble mailer do you use and how many cards do you typically ship in each one?

[@TCGBulkKings]

I haven't put out any info on how I set up the address labels, as I just followed another youtube tutorial to do it a couple years ago. I could do so though if there's enough interest

[@parkerolson4509]

@@TCGBulkKings I would definitely be interested, I am torn between folding the packing slip for a windowed envelope and stamping my address or doing printed labels

[@NokturnalMTG]

Thanks for these videos!! I've been following your steps and it's fun, but nothing has sold yet. Even with the lowest listing. Probably because nobody wants cards from a 0 sales seller or pay .99 in shipping. Any advice to get this ball rolling?

[@TCGBulkKings]

To get those first few sales - I recommend trying to sell very high demand items and be the cheapest price available (with your shipping cost included).

[@NokturnalMTG]

@@TCGBulkKings I made my first sale this morning and I'm really excited about it! Felt like I had to tell you because I followed everything you explained and it worked out great, thank you!! Have a good Christmas

[@TCGBulkKings]

@@NokturnalMTG that's really awesome to hear! Means a lot to me to know I'm helpful and not just shouting into the Void

[@charlesschwarz1508]

Have your experiment with Large Letter shipping ? It usually comes out to around $1.50 per order depending on weight and can be much thicker than a plan white envelope as long as the envelope is flexible. I usually use the large letter Method as a good in between method when an order is too large for a plain white envelope and a little too small for parcel shipping.

[@TCGBulkKings]

This is not something I am aware of existing, I will look into it and if it's something I can make work, I'll likely do a video about to share with everyone =]

[@Ifyouhavethecoin]

Dimension Minimum* Maximum Height 6-1/8 inches 12 inches Length 11-1/2 inches 15 inches Thickness 1/4 inch 3/4 inch Thinking about getting some 8 by 12 envelopes to for six packs of six cards penny sleeved and in a shipping shield for 36 cards for under 6 ounces or 2.40 for a shipping charge even if you add in the extra shields and envelope cost still like a dollar cheaper then first class packages

[@charlesschwarz1508]

@@Ifyouhavethecoin Yeah the biggest issue I’ve come across is a LL envelope still has to be “flexible” when shipping and that usually comes down to the discretion of whatever USPS employee ships or receives the order. So far I’ve only had two orders shipped in large letter envelopes out of over a hundred have any issues which is why I tend to favor this method. If @TCG Bulk Kings wants to reach out I’d be happy to walk them though my process with these orders and help with any future video.

[@Crocodonk]

Can I use my TCGplayer store name as the name used for my return address without being an official business like an LLC? I can't find a good answer for that question elsewhere.

[@TCGBulkKings]

I think that will differ depending on the state you're living in. You /may/ need at least to file a Sole Proprietorship or Doing Business As with your local authorities, but generally, I think you can put whatever you want on your return address without a problem

[@Crocodonk]

Thanks for the input :) Are you an LLC or similar? @@TCGBulkKings

[@Brah7]

Do you ever have any orders that are to big for your padded envelopes but to small to put in a box?

[@TCGBulkKings]

I just put them in a bigger bubble mailer

[@Brah7]

@@TCGBulkKings The most obvious answer is usually the correct one lol

[@khakisandtape3906]

Great video! When is comes to the custom return address stamp, would you use your TCG player account name, or your actual name for that? I have some level of apprehension providing my full name and address to strangers and wasn't sure if using an account name would be problematic. Also on a side note, I do not have an official business or LLC so I'm not sure if that affects the answer. Thanks!

[@TCGBulkKings]

I have a sole proprietorship, and use my business name and a PO Box, no problem whatsoever

[@khakisandtape3906]

@@TCGBulkKings Great! Thanks for the reply and keep up the great content :)

[@fontifinds3711]

What is the most amount of cards youve gotten away with shipping in 1 shipping shield? Extra stamps?

[@TCGBulkKings]

Shipping Shields are good up to 8 cards. After that feels like stuffing it further may damage the cards. I use add'l oz stamps past 6 cards, up to a double shield envelope with 16 cards total in the envelope (comes in usually around 1.8-1.9 oz)

[@jeffreywalther4323]

How many cards is your max for a business envelope. From what I've read in the comments and on your video it sounds like for one stamp you do six cards, but over 16 is when you go to the bubble mailer. Do you do multiple stamps for more than 6 and under 16 cards?

[@TCGBulkKings]

Yeah, 16 max for me. I haven't had much success going over that with the local USPS people, so I can't really recommend it to anyone else. For 7-16, 99% of the time a simple additional oz stamp works, but occasionally I still get one sent back for more postage

[@mikeblaze365]

I have used USPS supplies before they have free bobble mailers

[@TCGBulkKings]

From what I understand they only allow you to use the free materials if shipping in a certain type of shipment. Like, sure free bubble mailers, for Priority Flat Rate bubble mailer shipments

[@mikeblaze365]

Yes so the total cost for shipping one is 10.89

[@Foheo]

Sorry to bother you again. I got my first 20+ card order and I've got my team bag and bubble mailer, but what is going to be the best way to put postage on this? My post office isn't very consistent, sometimes they will just weigh it and let it go, but others they try to fit through a slot and if it doesn't it gets upgraded to a package. Just curious what you have found for best practice.

[@TCGBulkKings]

For 20 card orders, I consider them a package. If it's in a bubble mailer, it's a package. I recommend you use Pirate Ship to buy your shipping, rather than pay for it at the post office. It's less expensive and you can just print out the label on a piece of paper and tape it onto the mailer. But, basically, if there's a chance USPS are going to send it back to me because I haven't put enough postage on it, I make sure I've put enough postage on it. This is the best practice for taking care of your customer. Hope that helps!

[@pwetcg]

Nice on the Walmart envelopes. I use the same ones.

[@TCGBulkKings]

Right? I was APPALLED when I saw the prices for similar ones at Office Max

[@Brah7]

Do you ever sell internationally? I recently got enough sales on tcgplayer to be able to opt in to international selling. Wondering if you had any input on your experience? (I plan on only selling to Canada for now)

[@TCGBulkKings]

I had problems selling books internationally in a past life, so I don't really do it with cards unless there's some kind of service that handles the international shipments, like CardTrader Zero

[@Brah7]

I was wondering what your thoughts are on non machinable stamps? Do you need them or are they a waste of money?

[@TCGBulkKings]

If you package the cards properly, shouldn't be necessary to use non-machinable postage. Might give you the peace of mind, but it's really rare that one of my orders gets damaged, like

[@Brah7]

Maybe I am misunderstanding but how are you losing only 14 cents on the 10 cent cards? Wouldn’t it be closer to 50 or 60?

[@TCGBulkKings]

$.10 card + $.99 shipping credit - fees nets me about $.65 payout from TCGplayer. Costs me $.75-.80 to ship a fully protected card in a PWE.

[@Moondrius24]

Do you have any recommendations on how to ship out a BCW 5 row full of cards for the cheapest price? Is the USPS flat rate box the way to go for something of that size?

[@TCGBulkKings]

Honestly, if you can find your own box to put them in, USPS Ground Advantage is probably cheaper for the weight than flat rate

[@hobbylottery5014]

Great video!

[@giovanniyoussef1048]

This might be a stupid question but do you mail bubble mailers the same way you mail an envelope? I’ve seen people mention needing to use an additional site like pirateship but I’m not sure what the sites helping with, is it just for printing shipping labels?

[@TCGBulkKings]

Yes, Pirate Ship to print discounted shipping labels. Bubble mailers get whatever the current parcel postage is. USPS just changed it to a service called Ground Advantage, costs about the same as it did before the change

[@giovanniyoussef1048]

@@TCGBulkKings thanks! Sorry for all the questions but how do you/tcg know when an order sent in a pwe arrives?

[@Roger_Rips]

How do you ship 100 cards with some being top loaded cards

[@TCGBulkKings]

I would probably do a separate team bag for toploaded or shipping shielded cards and one for non-toploaded cards, and place the two separate team bags side by side in one of my larger bubble mailers, and wrap it tightly so they don't move around

[@Roger_Rips]

@@TCGBulkKings thank you so much for your reply, I have learned a lot from you!

[@TCGBulkKings]

Always glad to hear I'm helping someone!

[@Brah7]

When do you use bubble vs envelope?

[@TCGBulkKings]

I haven't had much luck with going more than 16 cards in a plain white envelope. There are tutorials where people show how they go up to 50, but whenever I try it they get sent back out upcharged on postage

[@tylerross2689]

Hey chase where do you get your business cards?

[@tylerross2689]

I found it in the comments thank you Chase!

[@TCGBulkKings]

Lol glad I could help

[@jhg4852]

Is shipping something Parcel different from First class? My biggest problem is with orders that are 20-40 cards and cost $4.50 to ship first class.

[@TCGBulkKings]

I just meant 'parcel' as a catch-all term for non-PWE orders. You should definitely be using Pirate Ship for your parcel postage, should be $3.50-4.25, depending on how far it should go. And like I said, even I lose on a few of those orders, but the benefits far outweigh those losses

[@Dell-tcg]

What is your reasoning for the business bag? Seems like it would only protect from water damage. Seems like an unnecessary extra cost. I would think the sheet of paper is unnecessary as well if you are using a shipping shield, especially for orders that are under $10

[@TCGBulkKings]

I should have explained better in the video, sorry. The paper helps secure the cards in one place so they don't move around in the envelope, which is especially important if you have to have two in the same envelope. Also, it helps to smooth out the transition of the envelope from the part that doesn't contain cards to the part that does, making it less likely to get spit out by the USPS sorting machines. as far as the envelope cover, I had been using team bags over the shipping shields, for waterproofing like you said, and to improve the customer experience. These envelope covers are within fractions of a penny of the same price, I can use one to cover 2 shields if necessary, and again it spreads out the additional thickness so that the sorting machines are less likely to hate it. I've had zero returns since transitioning to this new process last month, when before I would get about 0.5% of my orders sent back or else with additional charges passed on to the customer.

[@Dell-tcg]

@@TCGBulkKings thanks for explaining that further. What about using the smaller A2 envelopes for single shipping shield orders, thoughts on those compared to the longer ones? Also do you include the packing slips in orders?

[@TCGBulkKings]

@@Dell-tcg I have been using the #6-3/4 envelopes, for as long time, but was still randomly getting them returned to me every now and then. They definitely work, but it seemed like they were the cause of the issue in a few cases.

[@TomPlaysGames1]

i was just wondering for your labels you print off with pirate ship what size of labels do you use? is it the same ones you print regular orders with?

[@TCGBulkKings]

I was using 2"x7" labels, but they weren't really working, USPS were having a hard time scanning them, so I'm using 4"x6" now

[@TomPlaysGames1]

what size do you use for regular orders pwe?@@TCGBulkKings

[@nerdwasteland2931]

how many cards can you ship in a plain white envelope for one stamp ? will usps not ship with one stamp if you go over a certain weight in a white envelope ?

[@TCGBulkKings]

My empirical evidence suggests 6 is the limit

[@BartVonDoom]

If you have an order that includes let's say a $100 card, do you insure the shipping?

[@TCGBulkKings]

I do. I think normal Ground Advantage has insurance up to a point, but beyond $100 I start adding insurance, for sure

[@BartVonDoom]

@@TCGBulkKings Thanks for your answer. So, I was looking into that online and USPS doesn't show any cost for insurance when it is for envelope, only for parcels. Do you have any insight on this by any chance?

[@TCGBulkKings]

@@BartVonDoom you can only get insurance on parcels

[@TomPlaysGames1]

What are the max amount of cards you send in pwe?

[@TCGBulkKings]

Max that I send is 16. I have seen people do more, but whenever I've tried it goes poorly

[@Foheo]

I'm a little late this video, but you mentioned you are able to ship for $0.73 and i just can't figure out how you are accomplishing this. Were stamps less than $0.66 when you posted this video?

[@TCGBulkKings]

I believe they were $.61 at the time, not sure. My current cost is: Stamp: $.66 Penny sleeve: $.008 Shipping Shield: $.08 Team bag: $.02 Packing slip: negligible Envelope: $.024 Total: ~$.79

[@Foheo]

Thank you so much for the quick response, I've been racking my brain on what I could be doing wrong lol.

[@Moondrius24]

Do you have any recommendations for metal shelves to hold ~6 5 row boxes per shelf? I need to find a way to have my boxes organized for easy accessibility and to find them quickly. Unfortunately, I don't have a bunch of room to have 4+ shelving racks. But I have nearly 60+ 5 row boxes of cards.

[@TCGBulkKings]

I've got my eye on some from Sam's Club/Costco that Mason from Card-n-All recommended to me, they are basically just boltless metal shelving, you buy two and combine them to put double the shelves into one unit. They are about $70 per unit right now, and I'm hoping to pick up enough to build 2 or 3 racks sometime in December or (more likely) January

[@Moondrius24]

Do you have a link to shelves? The ones I saw on Costco didn't look any different from the original ones. And you said you can essentially stack them, so they can hold more boxes?

[@TCGBulkKings]

@@Moondrius24 www.samsclub.com/p/members-mark-5-shelf-storage-rack/prod19280016?xid=plp_product_2 these are the ones I'm looking at. You simply add more shelves, when you build it.

[@Moondrius24]

I found these ones, but they aren't wide enough to hold 2 5 row boxes side by side.

[@TCGBulkKings]

@@Moondrius24 oh, I missed that detail, I typically use 4-row boxes, which is why I'm eyeballing these

[@asianmerr]

If I ship with a plain white envelope do I just hit the ship without tracking number tab on TCGplayer? I’m new at selling cards and wanted to know what it’s like with shipping with the envelope because so far I’ve only done the parcels/bubble mailers

[@TCGBulkKings]

That is exactly what you do, yep! I know it can feel stressful, like you're just letting go and hoping, but 99%+ of the time, things work out how they are supposed to

[@asianmerr]

@@TCGBulkKings thank you so much!! Also what do you think the cut off should be for white envelopes? Like once I go over like 5 bucks I should start using mailers?

[@Powerslide15]

Anyone know the cheapest way to add tracking or delivery confirmation to a pwe? $4-$5 just doesn't sound right to me.

[@TCGBulkKings]

I mean, bubble mailer with tracking is $3.50-4.15, there are some tracking options through eBay and others, but not on TCGplayer yet

[@Powerslide15]

@@TCGBulkKings Looks like that's what I'll have to do. I'm new to selling cards, and so I didn't know just how expensive it was to add tracking/DC was to an envelope. I sold a copper dragon, put it in a PWE and paid $4 for certified mail. Thanks for the suggestion.

[@josehernandez-wk9gc]

I got a lot magic cards and I'm trying to sell them but I don't know allot about them so I'm trying to sell and I need help because I got a lot let me know and thanks ok

[@TCGBulkKings]

Hey Jose, shoot me an email to [e-mail] I'll do my best to advise you 👍

[@josehernandez-wk9gc]

Ok thanks

[@jacoblabatore6183]

How hard is it to get Direct Seller Status with TCG once you get Seller Level 4?

[@TCGBulkKings]

They want you to be averaging a few hundred dollars in sales per week, as well as have a decent feedback score (>98% I think). Having a big inventory definitely helps too. Definitely a good next level goal or milestone to shoot for after reaching lvl 4

[@shanethebeast28]

Your a wizard harry

[@denverfan88]

Any tips or helpful vid for selling bulk and not getting screwed with shipping??? i want to actuallly make the sale and have my listing presentable at .99 shipping but just got a order of 126 c/uc obsidian flames cards my end net is $9.73 gona cost almost half of that just to ship if not MORE....plzzz help lol!!......TCG really needs to find a solution to this....atleast charge the shipping for every 5 line items added from your store

[@TCGBulkKings]

Not really. I've talked about this before, but the hack here is to stop being upset. If you're buying bulk at an appropriate price, you're netting about $.03 per card after shipping, really not bad at all. That's the nature of this end of the business

[@Crocodonk]

I agree. After a certain amount of cards the shipping charge should go up. I had a 69 card $15 order, and made $5 after fees and everything else.

[@bobbyvandyke143]

How exactly do you ship bubble mailers? I'm using pirate shipping and its pretty costly. Is there a alternative to that? On average I spend 4-5$ per label. Also tcg seems to be taking 30% of all my sales which really is crushing me. Edit: here's an example I sold a Mana crypt for $190.00 and by the time it was all said and done I made $113 not counting shipping costs.

[@bobbyvandyke143]

Also have you tried printing your return address and the buyers address directly onto the evenlopes? So far thats worked out for me pretty good.

[@TCGBulkKings]

I use pirate ship. My labels aren't that high. I'm using #000 bubble mailers, and the size and weight typically make the orders under $4 for the label.

[@TCGBulkKings]

I don't like doing this personally because it's harder to batch and I don't like spending money on regular printer ink. The label printer only needs labels, which are really cheap to get, and it's really easy to get them printed in one go. Also helps me keep my orders in order (so to speak) while processing

[@bobbyvandyke143]

@@TCGBulkKings oh ok yeah it is annoying to constantly have to switch envelopes with paper on bigger orders. Thanks for the advice man you're a life saver.