Label-Print Workflow: What to Do When an Order Comes In
Every shipping tier has manual steps at label print time. Forget them and you eat the insurance loss. This is the cheat sheet.
Last updated May 11, 2026
When a buyer pays for one of your listings, AICV's job is done — eBay marks the order paid and it shows up in your seller hub waiting for a label. What you do at the label-print step matters. AICV picked a shipping tier and handling fee at LIST time. That handling fee bakes in things you have to physically buy on eBay's label page:
- Mid tier and above → extra USPS insurance to cover the sold price
- Premium tier and above → Signature Confirmation
- Grail tier → judgment call on Registered Mail vs Priority Express
If you skip these, you've already collected the buyer's handling fee but the package goes out under-insured. The first lost-in-transit claim eats the difference out of your pocket.
This page is a one-screen cheat sheet. Print it. Tape it to your packing station.
The cheat sheet
| Tier | Card sold for | At eBay's label page, do this |
|---|---|---|
| PWE | Raw, under $20 | Print eBay Standard Envelope label. No extra steps. |
| Basic | $20–$100 | Print USPS Ground Advantage. Built-in $100 covers it. Done. |
| Mid | $100–$300 | Set Declared Value = sold price (in the insurance field). USPS auto-adds $4.45 for $300 declared. |
| Higher | $300–$750 | Set Declared Value = sold price. USPS adds ~$10.45 for $750 declared. |
| Premium | $750–$2,000 | Set Declared Value + add Signature Confirmation. eBay requires Sig Conf at $750+ for seller protection. |
| Vault | $2,000–$5,000 | Set Declared Value + add Sig Conf. Use Priority Mail Express (faster + fewer touches). |
| Grail | $5,000+ | Don't use Priority Express's $5k cap. Switch to USPS Registered Mail (max $50k coverage, counter drop-off only). Or use UPS with declared value. |
Why "Declared Value" matters more than you think
eBay's label flow defaults to $100 declared value because that's the built-in for USPS Ground Advantage and Priority Mail. It does NOT auto-set the declared value to the sold price, no matter what handling fee the buyer paid. That field is yours to fill.
If a $250 card goes out at the default $100 declared value and it gets lost in transit, USPS will pay you $100 — not $250. eBay will refund the buyer the full $250 under Money Back Guarantee. You'll be out $150 plus the card.
The fix is a single field on the label page. Takes five seconds. Get it wrong, lose hundreds of dollars.
Why we don't auto-set this for you
Two reasons:
- eBay's API for labels (the "Logistics API") is restricted to whitelisted developers. We've researched the approval criteria and it requires significant transaction volume — not realistic for AICV's launch phase. When we eventually get whitelisted, label printing AND declared-value setting move inside AICV. Until then, label printing happens on eBay's own seller-hub page.
- Even if we had API access, the seller judgment for Vault and Grail tiers (Express vs Registered Mail, third-party insurance) is genuinely per-shipment. Automating it without a human in the loop is a footgun.
Signature Confirmation — plain, not Adult
For Premium and Vault tiers, you'll see two signature options in eBay's label flow:
- USPS Signature Confirmation (~$3.50) ✅ This is what we recommend and what eBay's seller-protection policy actually requires at $750+.
- USPS Adult Signature Required (~$8.50) ❌ More expensive, requires recipient to be 21+ with ID, does not help your seller protection beyond plain Sig Conf.
We do NOT recommend Adult Signature unless you have a specific reason. It just adds friction (no neighbors, no P.O. boxes, recipient might not be home with ID) and cost.
Grail tier — the case-by-case
$5,000+ shipments are above USPS Priority Express's $5,000 insurance cap. You have three real options at label time:
Option A — USPS Registered Mail
- Max coverage: $50,000
- Service: very slow (5–12 days typical, but every step is signed and tracked end-to-end inside USPS's secure handling chain)
- Drop-off: counter drop-off only (no mailbox, no pickup) — postmaster signs for it
- Best for: items that are irreplaceable / numbered / signed where transit time matters less than handling integrity
Option B — UPS with Declared Value
- Max declared value: $1,000 by default; higher requires UPS Capital insurance rider
- Faster than Registered (1–3 day options)
- Buyer can refuse delivery without signature, so add Adult Sig at this tier
- Best for: items where the buyer wants the card fast and you trust the carrier
Option C — Third-party (Shipsurance via Pirate Ship)
- $0.80 per $100 (vs eBay ShipCover at $1.70/$100)
- Cleaner claim process for high-value items
- Best for: high volume, where the per-shipment savings add up
For your first few Grail shipments, call USPS or UPS before you ship and confirm coverage in advance. The few minutes spent on the phone saves five-figure mistakes.
What if I'm using Pirate Ship?
Pirate Ship automatically imports your eBay sold orders. When you print a label there:
- For PWE (Basic tier or lower) — Pirate Ship can't issue eBay Standard Envelope labels (eSE is exclusive to eBay). Use eBay's labels for those.
- For Basic and above — Pirate Ship works great. Set the declared value in their UI (same concept), add Signature Confirmation if needed.
- Tracking auto-syncs back to eBay within ~5 minutes.
We have a separate KB article on Pirate Ship vs eBay labels for the full comparison.
Common mistakes
"I forgot to set declared value on a Mid-tier order." You're insured for $100 even though the card sold for $250. If the package arrives fine, no harm. If it gets lost, you eat $150. Don't beat yourself up — set a reminder to check the declared value field on every label you print.
"I added Adult Signature on a $400 order." You spent $5 extra and made the buyer's life harder. Not a disaster, but plain Sig Conf would have been the right call (or no Sig Conf at all since $400 is below the $750 threshold).
"I shipped a $7,000 card via Priority Express." The first $5,000 is insured, the next $2,000 is not. If it arrives fine, you got lucky. If it gets lost, USPS pays you $5k, eBay refunds the buyer $7k, you're out $2k. Always use Registered Mail or third-party insurance above $5k.
When in doubt
The declared value field is the single most important manual step in the entire workflow. If you do nothing else right at label time, set declared value = sold price. Everything else (Sig Conf, service choice) is secondary.