Packaging materials, carrier selection, insurance, and handling fragile or collectible items so they arrive the way you sold them.
A great listing and a fair price don’t matter if the item arrives damaged. Shipping is where a lot of new sellers lose money and reputation they’ve already earned.
Match the packaging to what’s inside. Rigid items (graded cards, sealed boxes, hard-cased collectibles) need a rigid outer container — a padded envelope is not enough protection for anything that can be crushed or bent in transit. Use a box sized close to the item, not a large box with the item rattling around inside; excess empty space is exactly what lets an item shift and take damage from repeated impacts.
For fragile or high-value items, double-boxing (a smaller box containing the item, placed inside a larger box with cushioning on all sides) meaningfully reduces damage claims compared to single-layer packaging. The cost of an extra box and some packing material is small compared to the cost of a damage claim, a refund, and a buyer who won’t order from you again.
Carrier choice depends on item value, size, and how time-sensitive the buyer’s expectation is. Tracked shipping should be the default for anything above a low dollar threshold — untracked shipping saves a small amount on postage but leaves you with no evidence if a buyer claims non-delivery, which puts you in a weak position for any dispute.
Compare rates across carriers for your typical package size and weight rather than defaulting to whichever service you’re most familiar with; the cheapest option for a small, light item is often not the cheapest option for a heavier or bulkier one, and guessing wrong repeatedly adds up.
For higher-value items, carrier insurance (or third-party shipping insurance) is worth the incremental cost. If an item is lost or damaged in transit and you didn’t insure it, you’re absorbing that loss entirely — insurance shifts that risk to the carrier or insurer instead of you. As a rule of thumb, if the cost to insure is small relative to what you’d lose by not insuring, insure it.
Declare an honest value. Under-declaring to save a few dollars on insurance premiums can void your claim entirely if something goes wrong — the small savings isn’t worth the risk of an unpayable claim.
Take photos of the item and its packaging before you seal the box, and keep the tracking number and any drop-off receipt until the transaction is fully complete and any return window has passed. If a buyer later claims an item arrived damaged or wasn’t as described, having your own documentation of exactly what you shipped and how it was packaged is often the difference between a resolved dispute and a lost one.
