Posting books

PatrickO_3

I have lots of used books I want to sell via ebay. But the cost of postage is prohibitive. Most books are too big to go as a Large Letter.

Other than selling them as job lots, any cheap ways to post books?

Cornucopia

Large letter is pretty big, and books are not too fragile. I would have thought that you would get them sent for £1.20 first class. Use thin card rather than jiffy bags so that the package is only slightly thicker than the book itself.

Large letter is 353mm x 250mm x 25mm (over A4, one inch thick).

Flyonthewall

Cornucopia wrote: »

Large letter is pretty big, and books are not too fragile. I would have thought that you would get them sent for £1.20 first class. Use thin card rather than jiffy bags so that the package is only slightly thicker than the book itself.

Large letter is 353mm x 250mm x 25mm (over A4, one inch thick).

I have the same problem as the OP. I have books that are over 25mm thick before any packaging so even using thin card there's no way they'd ever be able to go as a large letter.

The cost of the postage ends up being more than the books worth

Even selling as a bundle isn't worth it in my case due to the weight of the books then being the problem.

If you're sending a lot of books you may be able to get cheaper postage from sending so many, but it depends on how many you will be selling and even then it may not be enough of a discount to make it worthwhile.

bartelbe

PatrickO wrote: »

I have lots of used books I want to sell via ebay. But the cost of postage is prohibitive. Most books are too big to go as a Large Letter.

Other than selling them as job lots, any cheap ways to post books?

I wouldn't bother, the vast majority of books are worthless. The market is flooded with them, look at the amount listed on amazon for 1p.

soolin

bartelbe wrote: »

I wouldn't bother, the vast majority of books are worthless. The market is flooded with them, look at the amount listed on amazon for 1p.

I gave up my book selling business a few years ago now, the actual value of many books was lower than the postage costs.

As for large letter sizes, I disagree that it is a large enough size for a lot of books, any chart paperback or good hardbook exceeds the depth even without wrapping. basically all you can send large letter are childrens or teenage novels or Mills and Boon size books.

Flyonthewall

soolin wrote: »

I gave up my book selling business a few years ago now, the actual value of many books was lower than the postage costs.

As for large letter sizes, I disagree that it is a large enough size for a lot of books, any chart paperback or good hardbook exceeds the depth even without wrapping. basically all you can send large letter are childrens or teenage novels or Mills and Boon size books.

Exactly. I bought a book the other week that's 5cm deep! That's double the size of a large letter. It's just a normal fiction paperback book. Wasn't expecting it to be so thick (bought online, hadn't seen it in shops) and that's going to be stupidly hard to get rid of it I want to sell it after reading it.

melliott1963

All our books we no longer need just go straight to our nearest Oxfam Book Shop.

kalsha

Cornucopia wrote: »

Large letter is pretty big, and books are not too fragile. I would have thought that you would get them sent for £1.20 first class. Use thin card rather than jiffy bags so that the package is only slightly thicker than the book itself.

Large letter is 353mm x 250mm x 25mm (over A4, one inch thick).

Cornucopia, what card do you use to wrap the books? I would be interested. I have been using jiffy bags but sometimes it is too thick to go as large letter. Thanks

Cornucopia

I use a variety of recycled boxes cut to size.

For the things I usually sell (small gadgets) I use the big corrugated card boxes that you can get from the supermarket, and create a tube, maybe 22mm x 80mm x 240mm by folding along the corrugation lines and sticking down with glue or double-sided tape.

I have sold some 5m cables using this kind of box, made much larger (up to A4 size) with a supporting strut halfway across.

For items that are approaching 25mm thick, I use cereal box card. This isn't as tough, but works okay it the item isn't too fragile. It can be strengthened with off-cuts of corrugated card, if necessary.

(I have an interest in packaging design).

I also find that ebaying goes more smoothly when you know you can send the item for 69p.

I've also made up a simple 25mm slot from card that can be used to check packages before going to the Post Office.

kalsha

Cornucopia wrote: »

For items that are approaching 25mm thick, I use cereal box card. This isn't as tough, but works okay it the item isn't too fragile. It can be strengthened with off-cuts of corrugated card, if necessary.

Do you find that cereal box card is OK for hardback books? Sounds like a good idea. I think I will give it a go - if it makes a difference between large letter and small parcel, why not? I have a few hardback books which are just under 2.5cm and have been wondering how to avoid posting as small parcel!

pikachu_bumface

Cereal card sellotaped around the book, then popped in a plastic mailing bag (waterproof), are good alternatives to Jiffy bags for books, in my opinion. It's also possible to buy card wraps like amazon send their items in, although probably won't help with trying to squeeze into large letter.