Puzzled by Airmail Prices

rebeccauk

I'm selling a teddy on ebay and have been asked to send to Belgium. Trying to get a quote for postage for airmail from RM....
The item weighs 150g and will obviously be a round and soft package but when I use the RM website for a quote would this kind of item be classed as an airmail small packet? If so then it works out cheaper to send a small packet than an airmail letter which seems weird since my item will be bulkier! The prices I'm getting are £2.46 for an airmail letter and £1.70 for an airmail small packet?! I can't see any other options for bulkier type items like mine is.
I'm not too worried about having it tracked/ recorded particularly as it's very low value and not rare but the potential buyer is a collector.
Thanks for any advice in advance!
Rebecca

whatyadoinsucka

airmail small packet can be very reasonable, i sell alot of CDs and to post to europe is only 40-50 pence more than posting in the UK.
I also sell boxed trainers which are small packet
make sure you write 'small packet' on it,

soolin

Everything that isn't a letter is a small packet, RM don't really explain it all that well.

paddyrg

Don't forget to add £x for international tracking - it is just folly to send ebay stuff untracked/unsigned-for, there are so many payment clawbacks and without tracking/proof of DELIVERY paypal don't want to know.

macfly

paddyrg wrote: »

Don't forget to add £x for international tracking - it is just folly to send ebay stuff untracked/unsigned-for, there are so many payment clawbacks and without tracking/proof of DELIVERY paypal don't want to know.

Rubbish. idiotic advice.

soolin

macfly wrote: »

Rubbish. idiotic advice.

I concur

paddyrg wrote: »

Don't forget to add £x for international tracking - it is just folly to send ebay stuff untracked/unsigned-for, there are so many payment clawbacks and without tracking/proof of DELIVERY paypal don't want to know.

As a point of clarification RM do not offer any guaranteed tracking service outside the UK so tracking is going to need a courier . Secondly, if you think all overseas buyers are scammers, why sell on ebay at all? Foreign buyers are no more likely to be scammers than a UK buyer, and in reality whilst there are a few isolated trouble makers they are few and far between.

sequence

If Royal Mail can't get 1st class recorded to track properly in the UK, what hope is there for international parcels ?

custardy

sequence wrote: »

If Royal Mail can't get 1st class recorded to track properly in the UK, what hope is there for international parcels ?

Im not sure of your comparisons,else i missed out on a hell of a lot of air miles

rebeccauk

Thanks for the replies guys....so I'm reading into this that it is actually cheaper to send a bulky 150g item than a flat one? Bizarre but good news for my buyer who will pay less postage :-)

Sally22_2

Its nothing to do with size when you post abroad, you could have a big bulky item with a letter inside, which would then be classed as letter rate. Size only applies within the UK.

Pembroke

You mention the package is round and soft. Please don't think that just wrapping in a bit of brown paper with string round or even a bag will suffice. I would be inclined to put the bear in a bag inside a box so it's not obvious that it is soft as this will prevent it getting crushed by other things being put / dropped on top and the bag will protect the fur from getting soaked should it be raining anywhere along the route.

Just make sure that when you weight the bear that you also weigh whatever packaging as well and add that to the final weight. Oh and don't forget a return address on the packaging just to be on the safe side.