Haven’t heard about the free Stamps.com account for eBay sellers? You’re not alone–the company is not exactly shouting the deal from the rooftops. Nevertheless, Stamps.com is indeed still offering a totally free Stamps.com account for eBay sellers. Make sure you type EBAYFREE1 into the promo code box during registration. If you don’t use the promo code EBAYFREE1, you may end up with free trial instead and you’ll be required to pay a monthly subscription fee after the trial period expires.
Check your Stamps.com “My Account” page to make sure you’re signed up for the free account for eBay sellers and not the free trial of the regular account.
Let’s look at some benefits and drawbacks of using the free Stamps.com account for eBay sellers.
BENEFITS of signing up for a free eBay Stamps.com account
1. Create Shipping label Platform Redundancy
If you can’t print eBay labels due to outages or Paypal account limitations, then possessing a free Stamps.com account for eBay can serve as a backup plan.
2. Pay for postage with your credit card rather than your Paypal balance
Stamps.com allows users to pay for postage by credit card, whereas eBay labels uses your Paypal balance first to pay for labels before using a backup payment method (like a credit card). That means you need to withdraw your entire Paypal balance to your bank account before eBay will use your backup payment method. It’s a doable way to use your credit card, but less than ideal.
A benefit of paying for postage with a credit card is you can leverage rewards and cashback cards. Using your Paypal balance doesn’t give any rewards.
3. Easy Batch Printing and Lightning Fast Label Printing on DYMO 4XL
If you use a label printer like the DYMO LabelMaker 4XL, labels print seemingly a bagillion time faster than eBay labels. Stamps.com also offers fast and easy batch printing for multiple orders.
DRAWBACKS of signing up for a free eBay Stamps.com account
1. Higher shipping prices on Stamps.com than on eBay in some shipping classes
Ebay shipping offers some outstanding, USPS Commercial Base Plus shipping rates to Top-rated sellers and sellers completing at least 300 average monthly transactions. Some First Class package rates are the same on both sites, but Priority Mail and First Class International package rates can cost a few cents to a few dollars more on Stamps.com. Make sure you price compare between eBay shipping labels and Stamps.com before buying labels.
2. Free Stamps.com eBay account only works for eBay orders
If you sell lots of items on non-eBay platforms like Bonanza, Bricklink, Brickowl, etc., you’ll need to pay a monthly fee to use Stamps.com.
3. Non-refundable fund balance
Stamps.com requires users to carry an account balance that is non-refundable. So if you load $50 onto your account, spend $10 of the balance, then stop using the program, then you’re out $40. EBay labels and Paypal shipping only charges sellers on a label by label basis.
4. Stamps.com is NOT cloud based
Users must download the Stamps.com software onto their computer. So if you’ll be using a variety of computers, the Stamps.com free eBay account may not be your best shipping option.
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Despite some imperfections, the free Stamps.com account for eBay sellers is a valuable shipping resource. Even if you only use the account as a backup for days when Paypal shipping experiences an outage, the account is well worth establishing. Besides, the account is totally free and what could be better than that?