How do sellers afford free postage on cheap, heavy books ?

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hubb
hubb Posts: 2,482 Forumite
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in Ebay, auctions, car boot sales, post & parcels
For the life of me I can't understand how people selling on Ebay managed to make any profit on selling a heavy book, with free postage that sells for around the price of the postage. How am I supposed to compete with that ? :(:(:(:(:(:(
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  • Carrot007
    Carrot007 Posts: 4,534 Forumite
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    1. Heavily subsidised non UK postal service.


    2. Abusing work postal facilities.


    3. Moron who does not realise they will make a loss.




    Choose one.
  • gardner1
    gardner1 Posts: 3,154 Forumite
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    show us some examples
  • the_lunatic_is_in_my_head
    the_lunatic_is_in_my_head Posts: 7,591 Forumite
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    Brought a book from one of the mega sellers, can't see how it would have been small enough for a larger letter.

    £2.79 free delivery.

    Neither of the options in post 1 apply that I can see, they might get a discount for sending in volume but after eBay, Paypal, postage and potential returns I can't see it's worth the bother.
  • Tom99
    Tom99 Posts: 5,371 Forumite
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    I buy a lot of books from the big ebay sellers, average price about £2.50 and all arrive within a few days.
    For example Musicmagpie have about half a million books starting at £1.29 with a feedback number of over 7m.
  • the_lunatic_is_in_my_head
    the_lunatic_is_in_my_head Posts: 7,591 Forumite
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    edited 21 March 2019 at 4:36PM
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    In the case of MM they don't care about making profit on each sale, just being the cheapest so long as they are turning a profit overall, job done.

    They must also benefit greatly from volume savings.

    Having brought a bunch of Blu rays from MM I wouldn't shop with them again, you generally get good quality from private sellers off loading their unwanted stuff (who have a photo so you can judge the item condition) rather taking a chance on the random stuff MM sends out.

    Might take you a bit longer to gain a sale OP but good clear photos of something in decent condition will appeal to may buyers who have been burnt by the mega sellers.
  • ballisticbrian
    ballisticbrian Posts: 3,937 Forumite
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    They pay postage by weight of the whole consignment, so as long as your average weight of say 50 items is low, when you bung a phone book size thing is, it's weight is divided by 51 in the sack.
    Warning: any unnecessary disclaimers appearing under my posts do not bear any connection with reality, either intended, accidental or otherwise. Your statutory rights are not affected.
  • dj1471
    dj1471 Posts: 1,968 Forumite
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    the_lunatic_is_in_my_head wrote: »
    Brought a book from one of the mega sellers, can't see how it would have been small enough for a larger letter.

    £2.79 free delivery.
    If they're big heavy books then it may simply be that they're taking up valuable / expensive storage space so they're happy to break even on the sale just to get rid of them.

    Hermes are quite cheap for shipping heavy items, in fact they charge exactly £2.79 up to 1kg.
  • the_lunatic_is_in_my_head
    the_lunatic_is_in_my_head Posts: 7,591 Forumite
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    ballisticbrian wrote: »
    They pay postage by weight of the whole consignment, so as long as your average weight of say 50 items is low, when you bung a phone book size thing is, it's weight is divided by 51 in the sack.

    If you mean Royal Mail and average weights I still don't see how they can sell a packet sized item for 2.79.
  • ballisticbrian
    ballisticbrian Posts: 3,937 Forumite
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    If you mean Royal Mail and average weights I still don't see how they can sell a packet sized item for 2.79.
    Well I know there is a rate card behind those "on account" prices, and possibly even negotiable at the top end. Certainly the freight forwarders bringing in all the Chinese goods at Heathrow must be able to feed items larger than large letter into the Royal Mail network at the cost of peanuts.
    Warning: any unnecessary disclaimers appearing under my posts do not bear any connection with reality, either intended, accidental or otherwise. Your statutory rights are not affected.
  • Tom99
    Tom99 Posts: 5,371 Forumite
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    The answer to the OP's question is that no one really knows. There is probably no one answer other than that the open market is driving the price of a book delivered to your door to under £3.
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