How To: Shipping your cards safely and inexpensively using Paypal Ship Now

Trading cards with our friends is truly what this hobby is all about. Being able to get a card of player you love in exchange for someone else's favorite player is a wonderful experience for both involved. It's fun, easy, and rewarding for both!

The internet has made it even easier to find willing trade partners for your cards. The problem however, is how does one cut down on the high cost of shipping to make this practice worthwhile? I hope to help some of you with this very issue.

What will you need? Only a few things you probably already have, to make shipping cards fast, safe, inexpensive and EASY.

1. Paypal account. Why? I'll explain this later.
2. Printer or access to one. (school, parents, work, etc.)
3. Postal Scale. This is actually not as expensive as it sounds. A cheap, quality scale can be had for around $10 at Walmart or other office supply stores.

Some of you may use the internet to create and print shipping labels already. That's great, but you're probably using the USPS, FedEx or UPS sites. These sites are good in some instances, but usually only for larger packages. I'm going to show you a better way.

Here is the reason for the Paypal account: Paypal Ship Now

That link accesses the shipping section of Paypal, usually reserved for eBay purchases. Very few people know that you can use Paypal to ship your packages that are not eBay related. It's an amazing service that I will show you now.

When you click the link above, you will be directed to a log in page for PayPal. It will look like this:

Once there, log in to your paypal account. You will then be directed to this page:

Now, you'll notice your address should already be there, pulled straight from your Paypal account info. Yes that is my address. I enjoy receiving Cincinnati Reds cards in the mail, along with beef jerky and candy. If you happen to be shipping from another location, you can edit that section.

On the right you'll find the Ship To information, this is obviously where you put the address to where you are shipping.

Now the interesting stuff. The section below the address lines is called Shipment Information. This section is what makes this site so wonderful. The default Carrier is the USPS. This is your best option for card sized packages. UPS takes much longer and costs way more. Using UPS for larger packages is sometimes advised, but not now.

The next line is Service Type. When you click this, you'll be given 5 options:

-Priority Mail (2-3 Days)
-Express Mail (Next Day)
-First Class Mail Parcel (2-5 Days)
-Media Mail (2-9 Days)
-Parcel Post (2-9 Days)

If you've shipping using the USPS website before, you may immediately see why this link is different and useful. The USPS website will allow you to ship using Express Mail and Priority Mail, but not the other 3 options. Using the First Class Mail Parcel option, your package will arrive in virtually the same amount of time, and at considerably less cost.

So let's see this in action. I will do a comparison of shipping via USPS (which will also give us the exact same rate we would get if we went to the Post Office), and shipping using Paypal Ship Now.

I'm shipping a box to Beardy, who is of course located in Maryland. The box is small, and 11 ounces. Using the USPS website the least expensive option is Priority Mail, which if paid online is $4.80, including delivery confirmation. If paid at the post office, which most of us do, it's $4.95 + .70 for delivery confirmation.

Let's she what we can get using Paypal Ship Now. Selecting First Class Mail Parcel, I'm given several new options:

Package size will be Package/Thick Envelope, as we're just shipping cards. You'll notice Delivery Confirmation is included at only .19, more than USPS online, but much less that at the post office. You can also purchase insurance in this section, as well as Signature Confirmation.

After clicking continue, let's see what we get:

So using this option, our shipping including delivery confirmation is only $3.11. That's a pretty decent savings, but lets look further. Let's say we're shipping just a regular small yellow bubble mailer containing a few cards, as is the case most of the time. These usually weigh in at 3-4 ounces. When we change the weight to 4 ounces, keeping all the settings the same (as the shipping option states "Package/Thick Envelope"), we get this:

$1.92 for a bubble mailer, including delivery confirmation, shipped via First Class mail that will arrive in only 2-5 days. The best part, you've wasted zero time/gas having to visit the Post Office to get this price. You can simply drop in your outgoing mail, a postal box or whatever option works best for you.

In addition to the cheaper, more efficient shipping, you also get the benefit of paying for your shipment using Paypal. This is a big help for those who like to use Paypal for all card related purchases on ebay, etc.

I hope this can help some of you save both time and money when shipping cards, and hopefully make others more willing to participate in trading, which will benefit all of us addicted to this hobby!