P&P charges , what do you think that should include ?

natalie1974

Hi ,

I would be interested if you could tell me what you think P & P costs include/should include or cover .
The reason I ask this is I am selling an item which the P&P is set as £4 . The item would cost £3.08 1st class recorded delivery and then a little extra for all my packing,bubble wrap,mailing bag and sellotape etc . Do you think this is reasonable as someone has asked if I can send it cheaper , I did explain all the costs to her . I did offer to send 2nd class for a cost of £3.20 .
Hope this makes sense .

Natalie

soolin

£4 where actual costs of stamps is £3.08 would not seem unreasonable to me. My best selling item goes at £1.52 second class and needs a brand new jiffy and I tend to charge around £1.75 and still get marked down for my posting costs when I look at my star rating!

FloFlo

I think your pricing is fine. On the subject of star rating - how is it fair if its voluntary the only buyers who complete are those marking you down, others leave fab comments but don't complete the stars so the rating doesn't go back up. It should either be removed or changed to a compulsory part of the feedback.

newbie71_2

I think £4 is perfectly acceptable when the actual cost is over £3 and then you have the packaging costs on top. It really bugs me when I see feedback where people have criticised postage costs AFTER they've bought the item. If you're not happy with the postage costs then don't bid and don't buy and if you think sellers are seriously taking the p then report them to ebay! Right that's my little rant over :-) but seriously can't see anything wrong with your postage costs at all.

wendym

I was watching face powder (on Ebay, rather than as an alternative to drying paint) and noticed the seller also had eyeshadow, roughly the same size and weight, ending at the same time.
P&P was £2.99 for the powder; £3.49 for the eyeshadow. I asked whether she would consider combined p&p - the reply was 'my courier takes all my fees'.
I guessed that Royal Mail would charge about £1 each, so decided against paying over £6. But I wanted the powder, and I won it. I waited to see what amazing courier service would appear. It arrived this morning, loose and a bit bumped in a Jiffy bag, sent by Royal Mail, stamped £1.09.

So your charge is more than reasonable.

ajaxgeezer

Would concur, £4 charge with £3.08 taken in stamps is more than fair.

stamford

natalie1974 wrote: »

Hi ,

I would be interested if you could tell me what you think P & P costs include/should include or cover .
The reason I ask this is I am selling an item which the P&P is set as £4 . The item would cost £3.08 1st class recorded delivery and then a little extra for all my packing,bubble wrap,mailing bag and sellotape etc . Do you think this is reasonable as someone has asked if I can send it cheaper , I did explain all the costs to her . I did offer to send 2nd class for a cost of £3.20 .
Hope this makes sense .

Natalie

They should include a significant chunk of your profit to dodge high eBay charges, they get their greedy chunk anyway as most buyers pay via PayPal. You also need to allow for your travel to/from the Post Office and the time wasted in queues there. I've no qualms about selling an item for 99p no reserve or 99p buy it now plus £35 postage (true costs £15 item £7 DHL). I put a line on my listings that if you don't like the very low opening/bin price added to the postage then please do not bid or buy.

In the last 12 months 700 positive feedbacks, 4 neutrals & zero negatives

I will now sit back and wait for the !!!!!ing replies to roll in from all those people with nothing better to do than say they run bleating to eBay and report sellers like me

ajaxgeezer

stamford wrote: »

They should include a significant chunk of your profit to dodge high eBay charges........
I will now sit back and wait for the !!!!!ing replies to roll in from all those people with nothing better to do than say they run bleating to eBay and report sellers like me

... nope but it's probably not good to advise people to break Ebay rules. Whether we do it ourselves is up to us but to advise others to do so is a bit naughty.

glossy123

I think your charges are perfectly reasonable. Like Soolin my best seller goes for £1,52 second class in a brand new jiffy bag. I charge £1,85 but am not covering costs when you take into account the paypal fee, the time to pack it up and get it to the post office, let alone the petrol.:eek:

Buyers just have no idea of the realities of life!

Those of us who play it straight just have to try to educate them :rolleyes: little by little! And I completely agree with FloFlo - if the stars have to be completed then everyone should do it not just the ones with no idea who want to grouse!

wolvesinwales

I agree your fees are very fair.
I too have been marked down in the star system for postage costs and i have always been vey fair in my charges and rarely make anything on postage after costs of Jiffy bags, printing, document envelopes, postage itself and travel to post are taken into account.
In fact on a few occasions i have been well out of pocket after deciding to use Special Delivery for heavy items rather than people like DHL who cant guarantee a collection time.
I am going to start putting a cost breakdown on my listings to demonstrate to buyers how fair my postage costs are.

juno

I had a really great seller recently. She charged for normal Special Delivery, but coz I bought tickets close to the event ended up paying more for the saturday service, and she didn't charge me extra! And I emailed her before buying to check, and she said it was fine.