I have shafted myself.

MissGivings_2

texranger wrote: »

who says your using a courier.
as the postage is capped, chose freight as the postage option and place your postage costs ( you8 can find these by weighing the item and then use the royal mail site) to find the postage costs.
then in your listing add a paragraph explaining the postage and how it will be sent and even explain you marked postage as freight due to ebays postage cap.

Fine, but in my experience in the clothes category buyers just don't want to buy clothes with freight.

It just puts them off. They prefer a straightforward postage cost.

And lots of buyers don't read listings properly or carefully and often just glaze over.

Sellers explaining why they're charging more for a capped postage rarely look good either.

soolin

MissGivings wrote: »

Fine, but in my experience in the clothes category buyers just don't want to buy clothes with freight.

It just puts them off. They prefer a straightforward postage cost.

And lots of buyers don't read listings properly or carefully and often just glaze over.

Sellers explaining why they're charging more for a capped postage rarely look good either.

I had a competitor who had a line in all her auctions the lines of 'please ignore the postage shown in this category- ebay won't allow me to show the actual post and packing and see to think I cna pack it for nothing- therefore actual post AND PACKING will be x and you need to wait for an invoice before making payment. If you pay only the capped charge you will not get your item.

Firstly i wondered why she though ebay only capped 'her' postage as she seemed to be taking it very personally when it actualyl affected all of us in that category, secondly the cap was just about enough to send 2nd class with a bit extra for good packaging but all her items went recorded as she stated it stopped her from being scammed.

Needless to say she is no longer selling. I do check back at her account occasionally, it has not been suspended but I think it may have been restricted once her stars hit 4.6 as she went from listing lots, to only listing a few things a month (with a whine about ebay stopping her listing so could people stop leaving her low stars) to selling nothing.

Strapped

Maybe eBay is not for you, OP.

steveE2

Just got back from PO, I had to send everything 2nd class recorded as I never charged enough p&p.

What postage did you advertise in you auctions?
If you advertised 1st class and sent 2nd recorded I would be marking down your stars.
Recorded is a waste of money,certainly worth getting some scales and pricing postage correctly for future items.

Darlyd

Hey I used to be a business seller, many many moons ago, till the DSR's came into force. I just give it all up and got a proper job. Things have changed so much.

We have so much crap here, I usually bin it up (clothes mainly) and put in the recycling bin at the school, BUT I thought this time I will list on eBay and make a few pennies to go towards xmas. Some items I have lost on, but others I have made on, so not to bad.

I go with recorded delivery because of the horror stories with INR via paypal, how can I prove it? Even if only a few pound, that few pound could go towards our food.. Perhaps I might re-think about taking the recorded off, I have in my description under T&C will be sent 2nd class if 1st class is to expensive, to keep costs down.

I WAS going to list DD2 clothes in bundles, but would not know how much to charge p&P, I do have scales, so yeah will probably weigh and check on royal mail website..

Thanks for all the tips guys..

tattycath

soolin wrote: »

Only if you then use freight, so no good if you just want to pop down to the local Post office rather than arrange couriers. many buyers like me would also be very put off paying for a courier when Royal Mail is so much more convenient. It is also risky as buyers know that certain categories have cappe dpostage, and so any attempt to get round ti usually affects a sellers stars eventually. Best just to add th eextra cost to start price.

Also OP- I know it has been said before , but really sit and think about whether you want to risk using recorded in future. It is costing you 77p a go and in many areas, like london, it never shows as delivered at all- so it is worthless.

If an item is lost you get the same level of loss cover whether you use 1st or 2nd and /or recorded.

Also if you are going to sell more a set of digital scales for around a fiver is a good investment.

I have listed goods as freight many times without incident-In the listing I have explained the method of posting used and the cost. Never been pulled and nearly always sold.

steveE2

I have in my description under T&C will be sent 2nd class if 1st class is to expensive

You really shouldn't be doing this,you can select as many additional postage options as you like when listing.

catch_me_if_you_can

darlyd wrote: »

I have in my description under T&C will be sent 2nd class if 1st class is to expensive, to keep costs down.

No matter what, ( even though I wouldn't BID on your stuff with that sort of thing in the T&Cs ) if I pay for first class, and you send it second... don't be surprised to probably get a neg and low stars.

As a buyer, it's not my problem if you can't weigh your parcel and quote accurate postage costs.

As a seller, I got burned on postage once, many years ago sending a book to the US. Now I weigh each and every item and check the costs before I list anything. And then check again once it's wrapped. I do occasionally have my heart in my mouth if my scales at home come up close to the next level of postage, but so far my scales tend to agree with the PO scales.

tattycath

Oliver14 wrote: »

Unless you actually send via courier you'll just put possible negs and low dsrs more probable. Also you'll put a lot of customers off. I list at cost price added my star stays at 4.9. Don't be too paranoid most people are reasonable and as long as you're not ripping them off you should be O.K the majority of sellers charge reasonable postage and manage to keep their stars healthy so there is no reason the OP can't do this.

I list p&p at cost price too, however there have been some items that were very heavy in the past, I still only quoted cost price-I have never ripped customers off.

Obviously_the_best

OP, get around the coat by using standard parcels or https://www.collectplus.co.uk or https://www.myhermes.co.uk or https://www.interparcel.com