Why I use pack and ship stores for online shipping needs

I really enjoy my online Zazzle store. My travel photography is on note cards, mugs, ties and other products. Selecting which item to purchase is the only part that's difficult. Everything else is handled by the company so it's simple to click, pay and ship. Plus, since it's print-on-demand there isn't any inventory to deal with.

Some of my Zazzle store note cards.

My eBay experience was much different. Selling there means keeping inventory on hand and sometimes lots of it. This isn't bad when you are selling clothes that the kids outgrew but never wore. Books, CDs and flat items are easy to ship. Selling and packing framed photos from road trips and travel experiences can be challenging.

Expensive antiques and prized collectible items are always better off when they are professionally packaged and shipped. I always turned to professional packing companies that are similar to ShipSmart on Facebook for tough items. These are things like my daughter's saxophone, framed pictures or multiple hard-to-pack items that needed to go in one box.

Professionally packing makes life easier in other ways. We sold an older computer monitor on eBay once. I took it to the shipping store, handed it over and walked out relieved that someone else would be packing it. An unhappy email hit my inbox a few days later. The monitor had arrived in pieces. One phone call to the shipping store was all that it took to get things straightened out and make my customer happy.

Using a shipping store isn't as easy as selling my travel related products on Zazzle, but it's close.