Shipping Through Paypal

I have read so many people's twitter and blog comments about making runs to the post office.  Unless I am shipping internationally, I don't make any trips to the post office.  I used to purchase my postage online through usps.com, but that was spendy because the cheapest postage was Priority Mail at $4.80 a pop.  I had tracking information which was cool, but I was losing money (my shipping charges on Etsy are roughly $3-5, but then I waive shipping fees for purchases over $40....and my little boxes that I use to package my beads and keep them safe are around a dollar each.  see?  money was flying out of my account faster than it was going in!).  

Then a friend tapped me on the shoulder and asked, "Um, why aren't you shipping through PayPal?  It's First Class mail AND you get tracking info."  Cause, um, sometimes I miss the obvious?  :D  It only took me a year plus to stumble onto this much cheaper solution.  Momma always said I was a smart one.  Apparently not when it came to shipping.

So here are a coupla screenshots for my fellow Etsians who are sending out jewelry or other small items.  If you receive payments through Paypal, it is extremely simple.

I am using Gunilla as an example because I still have the Print shipping label button visible on my Paypal account page showing all transactions (it disappears once you have printed a shipping label).   Gunilla lives in Finland, so I drove to the post office to ship out her beads.  You can ship internationally through Paypal, but only using Priority or Express Mail.  Both of those are spendy options and filling out the customs info is a major pain in the toukis (it requires much more information than we fill out on the green customs form).

This transaction shows Partially Refunded because I refunded Gunilla her shipping fees because she spent over forty bucks.  Next step is to click on the Print shipping label button.  The nice thing about this is that Paypal automatically populates the address information because they use the buyer's PayPal account address.

You can then select the type of shipping.  I use First-Class Mail, but there are other choices that are more or less spendy/speedy (Media Mail, Parcel Post, Priority or Express).  Then select the package size; the other option is Large Package which typically isn't suitable for me sending beads or jewelry.  Then the weight.  I have a little five dollar scale I picked up in the kitchen section of Walmart.  It hasn't done me wrong yet, I just need to make sure the needle is lined up at zero before I place the envelope on the scale to weigh it (cause it's not a fancy-schmancy digital scale).  You can change the mailing date if you are printing out the label the night before and can also type a note to be emailed to the recipient (the recipient will receive an email directly from Paypal with the tracking #, so the note is an added bonus if you have extra information to share).

After clicking on an OK button, you will get this confirmation screen.  Just click on the Print Label button.  A pop-up window will open asking for confirmation from you that the label printed correctly (you would want to do a re-print if the printer jammed or the ink ran out.)

That's it.  After the label prints out, then just cut it down to size & tape to the outside of your envelope and walk it to your mail box.  Done.

Your Mail Boy/Slave will thank you.