All I want to do is talk about Sportlots

[longhornjunkie]

Originally Posted by JWBlue

What is Box shipping and how does it save money?

There are replies further up that should have more discussion on this, but bottom line they ship cheaply in bulk to a central location (Sportlots) that will repackage and re-ship to you. For me on orders with low card counts, about a 70 cent difference between Budget (or Premium) and Box is the break-even point. I'm sure others have different numbers with larger orders.

[JWBlue]

Originally Posted by longhornjunkie

There are replies further up that should have more discussion on this, but bottom line they ship cheaply in bulk to a central location (Sportlots) that will repackage and re-ship to you. For me on orders with low card counts, about a 70 cent difference between Budget (or Premium) and Box is the break-even point. I'm sure others have different numbers with larger orders.

The shipping cost from the seller to my Sportlots Box would be less than shipping directly to me? Why is that?

[nam812]

Originally Posted by JWBlue

What is Box shipping and how does it save money?

Box shipping is something sportlots came up with to potentially help buyers who are buying from multiple sellers save money on shipping fees, and to help sellers by allowing them to be able to wait a few days until they have a bunch (hopefully) of box orders built up to ship to sportlots headquarters all at once.

I say potentially because every seller's box rate is different. Box shipping works best when you have multiple sellers you'd like to order from and hopefully those sellers have greatly reduced (some even "free to box" like Bryanscs) box shipping fees.

The buyer lets their orders accumulate in their sportlots PO box and then whenever they are ready they request one big shipment from their PO Box at sportlots to their house. (shipping fees from sportlots to the buyer apply)

The hope is that all the reduced "box rate" shipping fees plus the final shipping fee from sportlots to you will be less than buying those same cards from those same sellers one by one at the seller's higher budget or even premium shipping fees.

Hope that helps.

[JWBlue]

Originally Posted by nam812

Box shipping is something sportlots came up with to potentially help buyers who are buying from multiple sellers save money on shipping fees, and to help sellers by allowing them to be able to wait a few days until they have a bunch (hopefully) of box orders built up to ship to sportlots headquarters all at once.

I say potentially because every seller's box rate is different. Box shipping works best when you have multiple sellers you'd like to order from and hopefully those sellers have greatly reduced (some even "free to box" like Bryanscs) box shipping fees.

The buyer lets their orders accumulate in their sportlots PO box and then whenever they are ready they request one big shipment from their PO Box at sportlots to their house. (shipping fees from sportlots to the buyer apply)

The hope is that all the reduced "box rate" shipping fees plus the final shipping fee from sportlots to you will be less than buying those same cards from those same sellers one by one at the seller's higher budget or even premium shipping fees.

Hope that helps.

Ok clear.

Bottom line is it takes longer to receive cards in exchange for lower shipping fee?

[nam812]

Originally Posted by JWBlue

Ok clear.

Bottom line is it takes longer to receive cards in exchange for lower shipping fee?

Yes and theoretically/most likely.

[bryanscs]

Originally Posted by JWBlue

Ok clear.

Bottom line is it takes longer to receive cards in exchange for lower shipping fee?

Yes, that's correct.

[longhornjunkie]

The other thing you will run into is (sort of) a lack of visibility on the progress of the order. We're all spoiled by eBay tracking numbers and stuff these days. You will usually not get a tracking number for a Box shipment because from my understanding it can be difficult to enter. I have "Fulfilled" Box shipments from 3-4 weeks ago that are still not "Received" by Sportlots, whereas others I ordered more recently are already "Received". No different than waiting on a PWE on a Budget shipment but still feels weird.

[nam812]

Originally Posted by longhornjunkie

......You will usually not get a tracking number for a Box shipment because from my understanding it can be difficult to enter.........

I will preface this by saying that I cant speak for any other seller besides myself, but I always add the tracking number to each customer's order when I send a box of box orders to sportlots. Now granted that when I send a box to sportlots I usually only have 6 to 12 box orders in it, so maybe that's why it's easy for me to add them. Maybe if I was a bigger volume seller and sending a box to sportlots with 30 or more box orders in it I would find it slightly more difficult, but I'd like to believe I would still do it for my customers.

[longhornjunkie]

Originally Posted by nam812

I will preface this by saying that I cant speak for any other seller besides myself, but I always add the tracking number to each customer's order when I send a box of box orders to sportlots. Now granted that when I send a box to sportlots I usually only have 6 to 12 box orders in it, so maybe that's why it's easy for me to add them. Maybe if I was a bigger volume seller and sending a box to sportlots with 30 or more box orders in it I would find it slightly more difficult, but I'd like to believe I would still do it for my customers.

Someone earlier in this thread got pretty upset over having to manually enter the same tracking number into dozens of individual customer orders. Definitely sounds like an upgrade opportunity for the site interface. Regardless you are in the minority among sellers as far as I can tell looking back through my message history.

I had sheepishly reached out to Sportlots asking about the status of my two open Box orders. I hate to be an impatient buyer because I know the drill on Box shipments, but other orders had been received and processed while waiting on these. Sportlots suggested I open an issue with each individual seller to force them to provide proof of delivery to close out the issue. Hope this helps someone in the future, I am probably going to give it a little longer before bugging the sellers.

EDIT: Above is incorrect... They said to contact the seller first, then open an issue if they don't respond.

[tribefan26]

Originally Posted by longhornjunkie

Sportlots suggested I open an issue with each individual seller to force them to provide proof of delivery to close out the issue. Hope this helps someone in the future, I am probably going to give it a little longer before bugging the sellers.

If you have a question use the contact seller button before opening an issue. The issue resolution process is limited, and I can usually resolve issues via messages.

[longhornjunkie]

Originally Posted by tribefan26

If you have a question use the contact seller button before opening an issue. The issue resolution process is limited, and I can usually resolve issues via messages.

I re-read the message from Sportlots and they did mention the contact seller option before filing an issue.

[nam812]

Have box shipment orders fallen off for any of you over the last 3 weeks? For the last 12+ months I have averaged 5-8 box orders a week pretty consistently, but I haven't had any at all for the last 17 days. None.

I know I don't have the biggest inventory (almost 60,000), but for something so consistent to just stop cold is really odd especially when my box rates aren't high at all.

[longhornjunkie]

What's the most anyone has paid for a shipment "from" the Box? I have about 120 cards with about 50 more on the way. I know some people have thousands of cards. Seems like the seller packaging requires a larger package from Sportlots. Good problem to have, just wondering about the reshipping cost.

And I know the "estimate" is always high. Right now it says $13.89.

[Dalston]

Originally Posted by longhornjunkie

What's the most anyone has paid for a shipment "from" the Box? I have about 120 cards with about 50 more on the way. I know some people have thousands of cards. Seems like the seller packaging requires a larger package from Sportlots. Good problem to have, just wondering about the reshipping cost.

And I know the "estimate" is always high. Right now it says $13.89.

Think the most I paid was about $70 (taking account of the the inevitable refund), which to ship over 2,000 cards.

[timber09]

Originally Posted by nam812

Have box shipment orders fallen off for any of you over the last 3 weeks? For the last 12+ months I have averaged 5-8 box orders a week pretty consistently, but I haven't had any at all for the last 17 days. None.

I know I don't have the biggest inventory (almost 60,000), but for something so consistent to just stop cold is really odd especially when my box rates aren't high at all.

Mine seem a little bit slower recently but still pretty steady.

October was one of the slower months I have had on the site in total but November has been pretty busy. Already have more sales than last month.

[tribefan26]

Originally Posted by nam812

Have box shipment orders fallen off for any of you over the last 3 weeks? For the last 12+ months I have averaged 5-8 box orders a week pretty consistently, but I haven't had any at all for the last 17 days. None.

I know I don't have the biggest inventory (almost 60,000), but for something so consistent to just stop cold is really odd especially when my box rates aren't high at all.

Mine have gone from 12 a week to 5 since the beginning of October.

[ScottBreaks]

Got a fun customer. They put an order in on Thursday of last week, which was Veterans day. Since there was no mail service, I dropped it off Friday, budget shipping so it's PWE. They message me on Wednesday to ask if it's been shipped. I tell him it was dropped in the mail Friday, it should be his way soon. He just messaged me again today with one line, "Order still not received." Why are people like this? Do they not understand the term "snail mail" isn't just some cute made up term of endearment. I have budget orders from August that still haven't arrived, it'll get here when it get's here or not. I'm not going to continuously bug someone for $0.36 worth of cards. I'll just order them again.

End of rant.

[kelleys1]

Originally Posted by ScottBreaks

Got a fun customer. They put an order in on Thursday of last week, which was Veterans day. Since there was no mail service, I dropped it off Friday, budget shipping so it's PWE. They message me on Wednesday to ask if it's been shipped. I tell him it was dropped in the mail Friday, it should be his way soon. He just messaged me again today with one line, "Order still not received." Why are people like this? Do they not understand the term "snail mail" isn't just some cute made up term of endearment. I have budget orders from August that still haven't arrived, it'll get here when it get's here or not. I'm not going to continuously bug someone for $0.36 worth of cards. I'll just order them again.

End of rant.

Buyer start with “H” by chance? Have same going on right now with a buyer.

[ScottBreaks]

Originally Posted by kelleys1

Buyer start with “H” by chance? Have same going on right now with a buyer.

It does not. Good luck with yours.

[sedin26]

Originally Posted by ScottBreaks

Got a fun customer. They put an order in on Thursday of last week, which was Veterans day. Since there was no mail service, I dropped it off Friday, budget shipping so it's PWE. They message me on Wednesday to ask if it's been shipped. I tell him it was dropped in the mail Friday, it should be his way soon. He just messaged me again today with one line, "Order still not received." Why are people like this? Do they not understand the term "snail mail" isn't just some cute made up term of endearment. I have budget orders from August that still haven't arrived, it'll get here when it get's here or not. I'm not going to continuously bug someone for $0.36 worth of cards. I'll just order them again.

End of rant.

I had one on the opposite end of the spectrum that ended last week. As a buyer, I ordered some cards from a seller and they never appeared. I gave it over a month and then sent an informal note, raising the issue but letting them know I was willing to wait longer to see if it arrived. I received no communication back on the message so after a week or so raised an issue through the system, which also got no response and ended up in a refund.

When I did the order, they also waited for the last day to mark shipped before it would have been too late - my suspicion is they never shipped the order.

[ScottBreaks]

Originally Posted by sedin26

I had one on the opposite end of the spectrum that ended last week. As a buyer, I ordered some cards from a seller and they never appeared. I gave it over a month and then sent an informal note, raising the issue but letting them know I was willing to wait longer to see if it arrived. I received no communication back on the message so after a week or so raised an issue through the system, which also got no response and ended up in a refund.

When I did the order, they also waited for the last day to mark shipped before it would have been too late - my suspicion is they never shipped the order.

I've had that happen as well. At the end of the month I'll usually go through my orders and make sure everything I ordered came. If it's an order for only a couple of 18 cent cards, I'll chalk it up to mail loss and just order them again.

[longhornjunkie]

Originally Posted by Dalston

Think the most I paid was about $70 (taking account of the the inevitable refund), which to ship over 2,000 cards.

Not sure the refund is inevitable... I had a box shipment go yesterday and nothing back yet. Just informational here, not a complaint.

[nam812]

November was my 2nd worst month of 2021 (May was worse). Hope everyone else having better results.

[DegaBama]

Originally Posted by nam812

November was my 2nd worst month of 2021 (May was worse). Hope everyone else having better results.

Auctions have been going well for me, but I have really learned what sells and what doesn't. I sold some random stuff I had for $1-$2 that I probably couldn't move here for $.10 cents. But then I sold stuff for $.25 that probably gets $2 on eBay or COMC.

[longhornjunkie]

I must need more going on in my life because I just had a "first day on the internet kid" moment when my Box shipment went "out for delivery". I have Trevon Diggs and Demarcus Ware rookie autos in there!
Pretty sure I also had a nightmare about the box getting wet/ruined. Again, I need more excitement in my life...