Posting glass

JanCee

I am only an occasional seller on ebay but I have some crystal glasses that I would like to sell. Is it safe to use Royal Mail to post them out or should I do collection only? I still have the original boxes that the glassware came in but I am not sure that it is robust enough to withstand the postal system.

If any sellers with experience of posting out glass items has any advice about posting & packing I would be very grateful to receive it.

cyberbob

You can post it but you will not be insured. So It depends on whether your willing to take the risk

Bangers_n_Mash

They will break them for sure, sell them 'Collect in Person' better safe than sorry even if you get a little less for them!

jitters

+1 for "collect in person".

This also allows for cash on collection too, which avoids paypal fees and the possible paypal "item not recieved" scam wherein the buyer puts in a claim to paypal and you'll have no postal tracking data as it was collected in person.

Remember though, you can't say in your listing, "cash on collection only" as if spotted by eBay it will be withdrawn. You need to say, "CoC also available" and most buyers get the idea and will bring cash.

Collection only does reduced the target audience of buyers, but I'd never consider buying a fragile item (i.e crystal glass :eek:) with a postage option from eBay. (IMHO)

HTH

NotQuiteNorbert

Bangers_n_Mash wrote: »

They will break them for sure, sell them 'Collect in Person' better safe than sorry even if you get a little less for them!

Over the last year I've sent several packages containing glassware through Royal Mail. Not one item has arrived broken.

OP, if you're not sure the original boxes would withstand the postal system, don't take the risk.

I occasionally personalise glasses for friends, and I'm lucky in that I can get good sized strong boxes from my partners work for nothing, so I use these, reinforce where I feel necessary, and pack with lots of shredded paper and bubble wrap so the glasses can't move around in the box. There's no high value to what I send- I'm probably looking at a total cost to me of about £1.50. I'd be annoyed if they arrived broken though, as they may not be worth much money, but I do put a lot of time into every one, plus I'd hate to think of anyone being disappointed by receiving a box of broken glass.

JanCee

I'm talking about Waterford crystal, so the value would be quite high. They are really beautiful glasses and I would hate to think that they would be destroyed in transit, I would rather not sell them in that case. There are plenty for sale on ebay though so it clearly isn't impossible to do.

Valli

if it were me I would bubblewrap each glass including stuffing open spaces (ie the bowl) with wrap; then I would get a box and put them in that THEN I would wrap the box with more bubblewrap (which can be obtained freely form Morrisons where fruit is wrapped in it) then put that in a larger box...
then label it fragile
I have great reviews for my packing but wrap wrap and wrap again and you should be fine - oh and tape the wrapping then it cannot accidentally get unwrapped..buublewrap adds little to the overall weight.
After all that they probably wouldn't fit in the original boxes but you could flatten and include them...
I would doubt the original boxes are robust enough

I recently sold an x-box - had the original box but I still bubble wrapped the x box then the orginal box then then put it all in a larger box.

martindow

Maybe you could sell them through a local auction. Ebay is risky as you will be sending uninsured.

cyberbob

There are a lot of sellers both off and on ebay who sell glasware and send through the post with minimal problems. You just need to decide if its a risk worth taking

Strapped

I agree with cyberbob. Personally I'm happy to post glass items (have sold a lot of lighting items in the past) but accept that they go uninsured. Haven't had one break yet - maybe just lucky or then again I'm an obsessive wrapper.

cyberbob

Strapped wrote: »

I'm an obsessive wrapper.

So its not Just me:D