On-line Auctions: Shipping & Payment

After an auction is over and a sale is made, you will need to collect payment and ship the merchandise. You’ll need to set up a system that works best for you. I did not want to deal with credit cards, so I asked for money orders or checks. If I received money orders, I promised to send out items the next day. If I received checks, items would not be sent until 10 business days from the day the check was received. This was advice given to me from my bank. Surprisingly, a lot of people sent checks. Though I would occasionally get a complaint about having to wait, most customers seemed to understand.

I found my local post office the most convenient place to ship from. Luckily, most jewelry is small and light. So, I determined between the packaging (one bubble envelope and a little tissue) and posting, most items cost about one dollar to mail. Therefor, I charged my customers an extra dollar for this purpose.

You would need to determine your own shipping costs and develop your own system. Though I charged my customers for the cost of the postage and packaging, if you have to make extra trips to the post office or other carriers, you may want to factor in your time or gas too. It’s up to you to decide which works best, but you need to make this decision before selling because you should inform your customers of any extra expenses they will be charged for.

Here are the previous articles about selling through on-line auctions: Exploring
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