Which courier service?

Richard53

My wife wants to sell her sewing machine on eBay. It's a hefty 10.2 kg (probably 11-12 kg by the time we have packed it up) and it's going to cost a fortune to send by Royal Mail. I was wondering if using a courier would be cheaper. I've sold a lot on eBay, but I have always used RM/Parcelforce before (small items) or had the item collected (bikes and cars).

It is unlikely that anyone will want to collect in person, as we live out in the sticks, and the machine is 'spares or repair', so it won't be high-value.

Any recommendations on a good courier to use, or any to avoid?

Thanks for any suggestions.

alx2013

I just sent an 18 kg item with http://www.interlinkdirect.co.uk/
i have used them before and they have been very reliable.
I like them because there is a local depot I can drop items off at rather than waiting in all day for the courier to collect.
£5 off too with a code (on main page) - so my item cost £13.19 to send...

ilikewatch

I recently sent a Bernina sewing machine with a packed weight of about 14Kg via Myhermes for about £12 - they get a regular slating on the forums, but I must have sent about 20 heavy (10Kg+) items with them and other than a couple of minor delays have had no issues.

Richard53

Thanks for the replies. It looks like we can courier it for £13-£18, which is better than the £23 Parcelforce would charge.

Interlink, MyHermes ... any other recommendations?

Obviously_the_best

https://www.interparcel.co.uk

if you put the collection postcode in the search it will give more options. They've recently added APC, who I believe to be the best courier in the UK. Other than that they also sell UPS (parcel2go.com do as well) and parcelmonkey's own brand services are pretty good too.

RFW

Richard53 wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. It looks like we can courier it for £13-£18, which is better than the £23 Parcelforce would charge.

Interlink, MyHermes ... any other recommendations?

You can get Parcelforce via Paypal/EBay for £11.99 48 hour. This will cover all UK including remote parts unlike other couriers. Can be dropped off at Parcelforce or Post Offices.

Richard53

RFW wrote: »

You can get Parcelforce via Paypal/EBay for £11.99 48 hour. This will cover all UK including remote parts unlike other couriers. Can be dropped off at Parcelforce or Post Offices.

That's half the price of the Parcelforce 48 hour service on the website. Thanks.

zerog

If it's spares or repairs, are you sure that someone is going to pay £15 for it which will result in you barely breaking even?

soolin

zerog wrote: »

If it's spares or repairs, are you sure that someone is going to pay £15 for it which will result in you barely breaking even?

That was my first thought as well.I could pick up a couple of fairly decent looking modern machines on facebook being sold as 'not used for a while and feels clanky' for less than £10.

Brooker_Dave

Richard53 wrote: »

Any recommendations on a good courier to use, or any to avoid?

Thanks for any suggestions.

UPS via interparcel, around £9 and they'll collect it.

Richard53

zerog wrote: »

If it's spares or repairs, are you sure that someone is going to pay £15 for it which will result in you barely breaking even?

Possibly not - I guess that's a risk we take. The machine is quite a decent model and cost £600+ new. It's been diagnosed by our local Janome stockist/repairer as having a faulty stepper motor (stitch length is inconsistent), which would cost £120 + labour to repair, plus the cost of the service it went in for - total perhaps £250. She has decided not to take the risk of something else breaking in three months, and paid a bit more to have a new machine.

With these numbers, we don't expect to sell to a domestic buyer, but the machine is far too good to take to the tip. It's in immaculate condition apart from this one fault, with lots of accessories thrown in. I was thinking that a small repair shop might be interested, either to refurb or cannibalise for spares.

It's going to start at 99p, no reserve, but with the actual postage cost on top, so if it only gets one bid, we are a massive 99p to the good. She would rather give it away to someone who would use it than send it to landfill, though.

Unless anyone has a better idea?