Shipping white goods?

Nanako

I have quite a number of second hand white goods to sell, fridge, washing machine, dishwasher, etc. These are large bulky things

While i know it is normal for things like this to be sold as collection only, i have had some luck in the past with shipping, i once sold a bed and paid a private contractor £80 to ship it. He was just one guy with a van who drives around the country, but he can't be unique

I'd like to sell my other items in a similar manner - sadly i don't have that guy's number anymore. I'm looking around all the professional services for this kind of thing, but the results aren't great. Many of the specialist carriers charge upwards of several hundred quid to ship a dishwasher,what they're actually charging is to rent an entire van, which might be efficient if i sold multiple items to the same place at once, though that won't happen.

 And smaller carriers just won't take anything of that size and weight at all. There has to be a middle ground here though. This seems like the sort of service that would benefit from slower delivery, to reduce costs.

Where/how can i find couriers for large, bulky items, who will charge more reasonable prices?

soolin

I doubt the cost of ‘postage’ is worth it based on the value of 2nd hand white goods . My local Facebook groups are full of nearly new, or good looking white goods, available to see working before collection for less than £75. 

Nanako

soolin said:

I doubt the cost of ‘postage’ is worth it based on the value of 2nd hand white goods . My local Facebook groups are full of nearly new, or good looking white goods, available to see working before collection for less than £75. 

It wouldn't be worth it for me if i were paying it out of the value, but i'm not, i will of course be listing postage fees for the buyer to pay, if they can't/won't do collection. I'll still have the collection option available

I just need a good, reasonably priced courier to handle these deliveries and let me calculate the prices in advance.

And I am well aware that even reasonably priced transit will still cost more than the actual item sells for, thats fine.

But i think its unreasonable to expect to pay more than £100 to ship a large item like this, £50-100 each is the pricepoint i'd expect

soolin

Nanako said:

soolin said:

I doubt the cost of ‘postage’ is worth it based on the value of 2nd hand white goods . My local Facebook groups are full of nearly new, or good looking white goods, available to see working before collection for less than £75. 

It wouldn't be worth it for me if i were paying it out of the value, but i'm not, i will of course be listing postage fees for the buyer to pay, if they can't/won't do collection. I'll still have the collection option available

I just need a good, reasonably priced courier to handle these deliveries and let me calculate the prices in advance.

And I am well aware that even reasonably priced transit will still cost more than the actual item sells for, thats fine.

But i think its unreasonable to expect to pay more than £100 to ship a large item like this, £50-100 each is the pricepoint i'd expect

My point was that why would a buyer pay for an item at market value and then another £80 or so extra to have it shipped with no way of seeing it working? Buyers surely would just buy locally and find a mate with a van to colelct. Buyers usually take the full cost in account plus any protection they might need for buying white goods from a private seller.

Remember as well that if you do find someone to pay postage and buyer claims SNAD then you would have to bear the cost of postage both ways. A refrigerator would also need to have special handling due to the gases, so much better to get a buyer to see it working, then let them take the risk of shipping it home as then if it doesn’t work later you wouldn’t have to refund.

one last tip, if you sell a washing machine you will need to refit the packing bolts to the drum if shipping yourself to save damage en route,  

Vitor

IMHO, it's a non-starter. You'd need to have the original packaging and/or palletise the item for a shipper to accept it and not have the item bashed about in transit. Delivery couriers have contract with volume sellers, they're not interested in one-off pickups with a private seller. 

moonpenny

Where I live there there are several industrial sites where one unit sells second hand white goods.
Have you looked around your area to see if there is anything similar who you could perhaps sell to? You would take a hit on the price but no aggro on delivery costs etc.

martindow

I think the problem is that man with a van people will need an extra person to load and unload, so they are going to ask more than you probably want to pay.

Nanako

soolin said:

Nanako said:

soolin said:

I doubt the cost of ‘postage’ is worth it based on the value of 2nd hand white goods . My local Facebook groups are full of nearly new, or good looking white goods, available to see working before collection for less than £75. 

It wouldn't be worth it for me if i were paying it out of the value, but i'm not, i will of course be listing postage fees for the buyer to pay, if they can't/won't do collection. I'll still have the collection option available

I just need a good, reasonably priced courier to handle these deliveries and let me calculate the prices in advance.

And I am well aware that even reasonably priced transit will still cost more than the actual item sells for, thats fine.

But i think its unreasonable to expect to pay more than £100 to ship a large item like this, £50-100 each is the pricepoint i'd expect

My point was that why would a buyer pay for an item at market value and then another £80 or so extra to have it shipped with no way of seeing it working? Buyers surely would just buy locally and find a mate with a van to colelct. Buyers usually take the full cost in account plus any protection they might need for buying white goods from a private seller.

Remember as well that if you do find someone to pay postage and buyer claims SNAD then you would have to bear the cost of postage both ways. A refrigerator would also need to have special handling due to the gases, so much better to get a buyer to see it working, then let them take the risk of shipping it home as then if it doesn’t work later you wouldn’t have to refund.

one last tip, if you sell a washing machine you will need to refit the packing bolts to the drum if shipping yourself to save damage en route,  

They have my guarantee that it's working, backed by the reputation on my ebay account, and ebay's money back guarantee. This is a matter of trust, but there are enough ingredients here for that trust to be present

Paying £50 for a dishwasher and another £80 for delivery, is still cheaper than paying 200-300 to get it new

GDB2222

Nanako said:

soolin said:

Nanako said:

soolin said:

I doubt the cost of ‘postage’ is worth it based on the value of 2nd hand white goods . My local Facebook groups are full of nearly new, or good looking white goods, available to see working before collection for less than £75. 

It wouldn't be worth it for me if i were paying it out of the value, but i'm not, i will of course be listing postage fees for the buyer to pay, if they can't/won't do collection. I'll still have the collection option available

I just need a good, reasonably priced courier to handle these deliveries and let me calculate the prices in advance.

And I am well aware that even reasonably priced transit will still cost more than the actual item sells for, thats fine.

But i think its unreasonable to expect to pay more than £100 to ship a large item like this, £50-100 each is the pricepoint i'd expect

My point was that why would a buyer pay for an item at market value and then another £80 or so extra to have it shipped with no way of seeing it working? Buyers surely would just buy locally and find a mate with a van to colelct. Buyers usually take the full cost in account plus any protection they might need for buying white goods from a private seller.

Remember as well that if you do find someone to pay postage and buyer claims SNAD then you would have to bear the cost of postage both ways. A refrigerator would also need to have special handling due to the gases, so much better to get a buyer to see it working, then let them take the risk of shipping it home as then if it doesn’t work later you wouldn’t have to refund.

one last tip, if you sell a washing machine you will need to refit the packing bolts to the drum if shipping yourself to save damage en route,  

They have my guarantee that it's working, backed by the reputation on my ebay account, and ebay's money back guarantee. This is a matter of trust, but there are enough ingredients here for that trust to be present

Paying £50 for a dishwasher and another £80 for delivery, is still cheaper than paying 200-300 to get it new

You are being a bit optimistic, but good luck.

The delivery option you are looking for may work if you are in a large city and your buyer is in another large city, as there's likely to be someone who runs a van regularly between those two places. Then you are hopefully just paying for the extra cost of picking up and dropping off the goods.

Obviously, that won't work if you or your buyer live in the back of beyond. So, you won't be able to specify carriage costs in advance.

GabbaGabbaHey

Nanako said:

Paying £50 for a dishwasher and another £80 for delivery, is still cheaper than paying 200-300 to get it new

1) You're comparing buying brand new (perfect, with all accessories, never previously used, and with full warranty) with buying second-hand (with all the risks that entails).

2) If your buyer raises an SNAD case, then you'll be £160 (2 x £80 deliveries) out of pocket, and will still have your dishwasher to sell.

the_lunatic_is_in_my_head

Have you look on Shiply OP?