I just made my first several sales through the forum and thought I would share some of the things I learned going through this for the first time. If you'd like to contribute advice or correct my advice please respond to the thread and I'll drag the advice up to the first post.

PayPal

PayPal will charge you a fee on the money you receive. It comes out to around 3%. Here's the link.

If you want to put your PayPal sale returns into your bank account you will need to do it manually.
This can be found under "Withdraw -> Transfer to Bank Account"

Domestic Shipping

Always get tracking numbers and send them to your buyer. Once your item makes it to their doorstep you should consider your half of the deal done. If your buyer is at an unsafe location they can pay to have signature required or invest in a PO Box.

Do NOT use the flat rate boxes you might have in your office or at the PO. You will get charged far more than you probably need to in shipping.
Here are the naughty USPS flat rate prices.
Here are the nice USPS first-class prices.

International Shipping

Coming soon.

Packaging

Save the boxes you get your toys in. They make surprisingly good boxes to send your toys in.

USPS will send you boxes for free. Here's the link. (Remember to avoid the flat rate boxes)

Newspaper makes good packing material. Free newspapers make better packing material. Don't be afraid to grab the local weekly rag in your neck of the woods and stuff it in the box. Might want to avoid the classified though...the Metro can get a little wacky.

Newspaper + Sofubi = scuffed paint.
Always pack vinyls in a plastic bag for shipping.

Protect headers by placing a piece of cardboard on either side and taping them together. (Protip: Don't tape them to the header)

I hope this helps people from making some of the costly mistakes I did on my first round through here.

Dave

A little known fact, if you have a large box, use FedEx, it's 3 days faster and half the price as USPS. Also, USPS Priority isn't half bad so long as you fit everything in the box and it's heavy, that way it's cheaper than First Class and gets there a tad faster.

Nice guide though!

This all seems like common sense to me, but i don't know how many times i've ordered stuff that was trashed when i got it due to lack of basic packing skills by the shipper. So maybe this is a very usefull thread. Here are some of my tips

Never skimp on packing. Newspaper is fine, but pack it tight. The less movement the safer the item.

Tracking numbers are as much for the shippers protection as for the buyer. If you ship it and it gets lost, it will be much more expensive that the extra 1 or 2 for a tracking number.

I'm confused...

Also most people don't know this but if you need a box to ship when you are at the PO do not use a priority box. They have it rigged so you can't fit Jack into a small box and the next size up increases it to a 10.95 flat rate. BS so you're better off buying a normal shipping box there ( better sizes) and then shipping it priority as most toys are light. It usually saves you 5 bucks even after you buy the box. Even better save your boxes when you get toys in the mail!

you can order plain priority boxes without the flat rate attached from the post office website. they arrive in a week and it's free to have them shipped.

Newspaper + Sofubi = scuffed paint

Always pack vinyls in a plastic bag for shipping.

Shouldn't this be in another section?

Maybe it could go up in FAQs.
Ya know, for all I know this exact information is buried someone in the threads there. :\

this and this

This is a good idea. I know I had a huge surprise on the first sale I did on the forum. Basically I was too dumb to know that Paypal charges a fee for receiving payments.

@Narwhal- I assume you mean USPS Priority FLAT RATE, not normal Priority. I don't think I've had a case where vinyl toys were heavy enough to warrant the flat rate box (you'd have to pack them in pretty tightly w/o much padding). Good for books, rocks and bars of gold.

Other tips:

- USPS charges for both weight AND size. Once I shipped out a few large, but relatively light, boxes and ended up paying a fortune for normal Priority mail. Sometimes this is unavoidable (if there is large packaging involved) but be prepared.

- USPS boxes are free. You can order them from the website and they show up in about a week or so.

- Generally it is good practice to manually notify a person (1) when you are sending him a payment and (2) when you are shipping with a Paypal label. I have had cases where the recipient of money did not get the notification e-mail and thought I did not pay.

- If you are reusing boxes, take off the old labels and stick on USPS Priority labels (if you are shipping with Priority mail). USPS does not weird labels on their boxes.

INTERNATIONAL SHIPPING

Ooh, murky waters and ambiguous regulations. Ok, I have learned a few things in shipping internationally with USPS, but correct me if I am wrong on any point.

- EMS or Express Mail Int'l is the best option, but the most expensive. It is insured and trackable.

- Priority Mail Int'l is second best in general. It is trackable and provides limited indemnity coverage (NOT the same as insurance, which can be purchased separately). There are two types of PMI- the trackable form uses multiple forms within a clear, adhesive envelope that is attached to your package. The other type uses a little green card and is NOT trackable (from what I have been told). This might technically be another form of mail, but the PO employees call it PMI as well.

- First Class Int'l is also an option, but you can't track it, which is bad for Paypal. I only will do this if I know/trust the buyer and it is a low value item.

- Check the duties imposed on toys when shipped to other countries. The threshold differs for every country. Some people will tell you to state value as $20 regardless of the item's actual worth, but if something happens to your insured package, guess what? You will be SOL and left holding the bag unless the other guy is nice. Proceed carefully.

This is also why it is bad when Japanese shippers understate the value of your packages. If you have $500 of toys in a box marked $50, you are not going to get back that $450 when the box is lost. They don't need to do this, because so far as I know, you have to buy a lot of toys to get hit with duties in the U.S.

Maybe someone can answer this question for me. I have seen some folks asking for personal payments through Paypal to avoid fees. Aren't these outside of the normal buyer protection policy?

Yes, seriously. I don't know why people think it is fine to throw your $200 toy in a box with a little scrap of bubble wrap around it. And protect the headers when you ship (2 cardboard scraps around a header = no bendy). I am looking at you, Toy Tokyo.

The like clothy packing material also works well as a first layer around whatever you're shipping out, but I am completely blanking on what it's called; I usually get it from Japanese merchants though. I usually do that as a first layer, then a layer of bubblewrap, then fill the rest with either old newspapers/papers or old packing peanuts. Shipping stuff is so much fun!

First edit made.
Added Packaging advice
Broke into categories

To-Do
Add international shipping advice
Clarify the usage of different postal rates

Thank you for all the great feedback

I liked the good ol days when you could take priority boxes and flip them inside and use as a regular boxes, until they got wise and started printing on the inside

uline sells cheap boxes and supplies.
yazoo mills makes cheap sturdy tubes for posters and such.

i always try to throw in extra shit i have laying around, like stickers, prints, pins, skulls, whores etc.

i like doing mailings for some reason.

Easy trick is to take that box anyway and wrap it in an old paper supermarket bag and bam, no print and you can send it however you want!

I usually wrap the body of figures in toilet paper. In my opinion it's prevented a lot of paint scratching. Especially with Secret Base gloved figures. The gloves usually rub against the feet, drives me completely insane!

Also doodles on the box rule. I can't draw that well but I like to send a little doodle on the box.

Well intended, but isn't all this pretty redundant?
and in the For Sale section?
Is SB slipping into senility like a warm bath?
Where is the board police?
so many questions...
Maybe I have grown old & bitter

CALGON, take me away!
for the youngsters

I do this too - I find it saves clogging the bowl - and makes me feel better about recycling.

Nope, not old and senile. I have questions too. Kaiju and girlie pics, kaiju that not kaiju, general weirdness abounds.....

Whew!

this is getting weird...

Shipping toys is a weird business- very lightweight, high value, odd personal preferences, etc. etc. I think this should be elsewhere (FAQs?) but it is definitely useful. This would have saved me a lot of time when I did my first sale.

Also, some of it is just stuff that you would not think of normally. I.e., sleeving the headers.

Here is some first timers advice: If the post has nothing for sale then it shouldn't be in the forum entitled "For Sale". Just saying.

if your selling a big item worth over 3.99 spent the extra .50 and have a signature confirmation... i made this mistake when i sold a pricey western piece, and the buyer said he never got it, filed a claim with paypal, and got his $ back, and i lost my product... the dude was known for doing this more then one time i found out after the fact... but he learned the paypal rules, and knew how to walk them perfectly to his benefit.