Ever wonder how eBay, Poshmark & Mercari sellers get shipping supplies for free?
Shipping used items shouldn’t be complicated nor expensive!
Below is a list of supplies & tools we use daily to make our business run. Over the years we have tested many different products but these are our favorites.
At the top is the stuff we actually have to pay for, towards the bottom is the free goodies!
Affiliate links below…At no extra cost to you, we receive a small commission if you make a purchase.
Tape & Labels
Tape –
This may sound crazy, but this part is very personal to me. I have spent so much time looking for good shipping tape that isn’t expensive. I think I may have found the best option. This seller has reliable quality, low odor, somewhat low noise, & decent stick properties.
Price isn’t bad either at $18.99 for 12 rolls
One of the most overpriced items at office supply stores is labels for Dymo printers. They treat these things like gold there. These have treated us very well with no issues, consistent quality & good stickiness!
Price comparison on the ones we use vs major office store.
6 pack rolls we use – $39.99
1 single roll office supply – $26.21
Seriously, if you take anything away from this… never shop at office supply stores.
Polybags
This is one area where you need to decide where you wanna be on the eco-friendly spectrum.
We have provided several options as far as sizing & eco-friendliness. Having used all of these personally, the eco-friendly ones look & feel the best.
This is gonna be your workhorse bag if you plan to resell used clothing on eBay, Poshmark, or Mercari. Just the perfect size for most basic clothing…
Things like t-shirts, shorts, & light sweaters will do well with these bags.
We ship about 60% of our orders in these and love them. No issues & they have held up well over the years.
These come in a wide variety of colors, but we go for a simple gray as it is the cheapest.
Buy 200 poly bags for under $16!
These are a MUST for winter. Large coats, backpacks, & even boxes fit perfectly into these. If I ever have a box that is a bit sketchy, I will use these to wrap the outside for more protection!
But mainly, we love these for shipping coats, that’s what we mainly use them for. I think in the three years of doing this, I have maybe found one jacket that just wouldn’t fit into these bags.
This won’t be a bag you will use often, but having at least 50 of them around is nice…
Check them out on Amazon and grab 50 bags for under $12!
ECO
These aren’t cheap, but they are the best option on this list as far as the earth is concerned.
Buying these in small quantities doesn’t make sense as the price is too expensive. If you plan on selling mainly clothes, this will be one of your best poly bag options.
If you visit the store “bubblefast” on eBay, they carry the ones that we have purchased in the past and loved! Links below for the ones we have used from them!
1000 count 10×13 eco-friendly (best deal)
100 count 10×13 eco-friendly
Want some free shipping supplies? We wrote up a whole post about that here!
Boxes
Now, this is going to sound odd, because earlier I told you not to shop at office supply stores…BUT, for this one, you may have to.
So when we first began selling online, we sold everything. I mean it, we sold pretty much anything we could find. Odd shapes, sizes & weights were the normal struggles. Because of that, we had to figure out a good box supplier that was cheap, good quality, & fast shipping.
In came Staples.
Yup, that’s where I suggest you buy most of your shipping boxes from. Why? Their prices are really really good with free shipping. Seriously, go check it out, the pricing there is some of the best I have found online.
In-store is a different story, this is just mainly online. Locally, your stores may have sales often on larger boxes & bubble wrap. Grab those whenever on sale.
Now your situation will vary based on what you ship, our model is almost only clothing so this is what we use for boxes that aren’t free from USPS (see below)
Great for shoes & random nonclothing items.
Great for larger items like skates, jackets, boots, bigger misc items
Tools & Tech
Accuteck Shipping Scale – Under $30 on Amazon!
This thing has been in our shop for years & has never let us down.
The biggest reason I suggest this one? The screen isn’t attached to the scale. Weighing large things really sucks when they cover the entire scale… you cant see the weight.
Buying one with a corded screen will make your like 1000x easier.
We did a full write up here about this scale if you wanna learn more!
Dymo 4XL printer –
One of the first things I suggest for any online seller to buy is a thermal printer. Stop wasting money on ink. It’s stupid.
If you plan on shipping more than 25 items a month, buy a thermal printer.
They can often be found locally for cheap on Facebook Marketplace.
I never pay more than $60-70 for them locally & can flip them all day on eBay for $130. (pro tip)
This is really an item that buying new doesn’t make too much sense. They are over $270 retail but people sell them CHEAP secondhand for some reason…
Instead of buying a new one on Amazon, use this link to help you find a lightly used one on eBay!
If you want to learn more about finding stuff to re-sell onFacebook Marketplace you should check out our Free Course, in there we even talk about finding FREE inventory!
Free supplies
The best price for anything is free, so here is a list of the best free shipping supplies you can get online. USPS offers some great packaging for free as long as you use that service rate.
For a clothing seller the three you need are:
- Legal flat rate envelope
- Medium flat rate box
- Padded flat rate mailer
Now, 1 & 3 are very similar, but 1 is slightly cheaper to ship. #2 is great for heavier things like boots or random objects that aren’t huge.
If you already have an eBay store subscription or are thinking of getting one…
They give you a free quarterly coupon for their shipping store. The supplies are actually decent. Stay away from the cute crap like the stickers & filler nonsense.
Get the largest boxes & poly mailers you can, everything else is a waste of your time.
Large flat rate box (board game style)
eBay Store subscriber discount code
Go Local!
Start dumpster diving! Check out these places for some awesome free shipping supplies. Check with store managers before diving through stuff, most are cool with it. Just talk to someone in case security comes up to you. We have found awesome FREE supplies at these places :
- Pier one type stores with lamps, glass, & heavy items for sale
- Craft type stores like Hobby Lobby (sell lots of decor)
- Walmart – find out when yours does large restock days
Seriously, start asking everyone at large business! You never know how badly a store manager wants to get rid of a ton of boxes in the back.
Bike shops are a great place for large heavy-duty boxes.
Custom Boxes
While we’re on the local thing, try to find a local box company near you. We had one back in Utah, what they would do is custom make any size box in 24 hours for us. It was never that expensive, I think the most I paid was like $25 for an insanely large bike box.
We spent so much time building custom boxes in the past until we found this shop. It was the best money I ever spent, so much less headache!
Final thoughts…
Don’t be scared of shipping, seriously it’s not that hard. Sure you will screw up a few times, but after a while, it becomes second nature!
The next step is to expand into international shipping… check out our overview of that here!
Wanna learn some more awesome stuff? We have a totally free course that we created to help new re-sellers on their hustling journey!
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