In case you missed the earlier posts that covered steps to sell your glass, please see
Part 2. You will feel more confident if you have a general idea of the value for your glass. Most glass is not super valuable and glass with damage is sometimes not worth anything.
Part 3. Should you sell online or locally? Or should you simply donate your glass? You may realize slightly higher prices online and are more likely to find a buyer when your market is the entire online world. But selling online means shipping.
Part 4. Selling on eBay. Taking Photos and Listing. We talked about the basics on selling on eBay – or anywhere online. You need to set up an account, take pictures and describe accurately.
You may have heard horror stories about selling on eBay. Basically don’t worry about them. Describe your glass accurately (most critical), wrap carefully and ship quickly. If you treat customers the way you want sellers to treat you then you won’t have problems.
What about wrapping and shipping? This is the most time consuming part and the piece that will make you successful – or not. I sell a lot of glass online and have packaging materials on hand, but if you are selling a few pieces then you may not want to invest in 21 cubic feet of foam peanuts! (21 Cubic feet is a bag almost as tall as I and almost 3 feet wide.)
You do need:
- Boxes. I recommend you ship via the post office and use their free priority mail boxes. You must ship via priority mail to use these.
- Peanuts or other filler material. Peanuts are the easiest and most reliable. You can ask friends to save them or purchase them.
- Bubble wrap.
- Some sort of light weight or flexible cardboard. I buy rolls of corrugated cardboard but if you have only a few pieces then you could use opened up empty cereal boxes. If you don’t have anything like this then use several sheets of news paper.
- Tape
- Paper to print labels.
- Tissue or light weight paper.
Wrap the glass in tissue or light weight paper if it is warm out. The tissue is to prevent bubble wrap from melting to the glass which makes a real mess. You can skip the paper in the winter.
If you have multiple pieces, like plates, then you can stack the plates as long as you have bubble wrap or foam or reasonably thick cardboard between each one.
Now wrap your glass in bubble wrap. If you don’t have the lightweight cardboard for the next step, then wrap the piece twice, otherwise once is enough.
Now wrap your bubble wrapped glass inside the lightweight cardboard. When you use the cardboard it acts like a second box and helps protect your glass. If you don’t have any cardboard then use several sheets of paper over the bubble wrap. The paper method isn’t as good since paper isn’t as stable as cardboard but it is better than nothing.
Put a good layer of peanuts inside the box. Place the wrapped glass on the peanuts and fill in with more peanuts. Ideally you want an inch or two all the way around. Make sure the box is tight and the contents cannot shift or move around in transit.
Tape the box, then prepare your label. Get the label number and notify your customer and upload to eBay.
If you sell via eBay you can print labels through eBay or PayPal. I like to print mine from the post office site. Whichever you use you can do it online, then also request a carrier pick up online.
If you don’t want to use priority mail then try UPS ground. I have not used the post office Parcel Select method, but in the past there wasn’t a big cost difference between priority and parcel post unless the piece was quite heavy. If it is heavy then I use UPS.
Be sure you do not use the post office-provided priority mail boxes for anything except priority mail. It is illegal.
Put your packages out for the mailman, notify customer and relax! Hopefully your customer will get the box in a few days and be delighted.
A few tips about packaging:
- Insurance protects you, not the buyer. eBay will not allow you to bill customers for insurance separately.
- I recommend you purchase insurance for anything that is more costly than you would want to lose out of your own pocket.
- You can get postal insurance when you print your label or you can use Shipsurance. I have a Shipsurance policy with a minimum per month or you can pay a little more per item with no minimum. I have had one Shipsurance claim in the 4 years I used them and they paid without trouble.
- If you use UPS then they cover the first $100 of insurance automatically. I find UPS much cheaper for large or heavy items, especially when shipping to the south or west coast. UPS can be very expensive if your customer lives in a remote area.
- The best post office priority boxes are Size 7, which is 12 12 x 8 inches, Size 4, which is 7 x 7 x 6, and the shoebox which is 7 1/2 x 5 x 14 inches. Use the 1095 or 1097 size for single plates. I have a box each of the flat rate sizes but seldom find them economical.
- If you sold a lot of glass to one person and you are cringing at the idea of wrapping it yourself, you can take it to UPS. They will wrap and ship for you. It is expensive, but probably less costly than investing in big bags of peanuts or dealing with a disappointed customer.