Just seen jaw dropping Royal Mail price increases for large letters😯

[runninginlane4]

I'm sure this has been brought up before and I apologise for any repetition but I just could not believe the huge price increases for large letters. 

As someone that mostly uses 2nd class large letter 100g and 250g services I've seen two large price increases this year :-

A less than 100g 2nd class large letter will have risen from £1.05 to £1.55 this year. That's a 47.6% increase.

A less than 250g 2nd class large letter will have risen from £1.65 to £2.40 this year. That's a 45.5% increase.

Less than 500g has thankfully only increased 25.6%, £2.15 to £2.70. 

Their huge increases drive business away and reduces number of letters posted and this is then used as justification for the next price increase which drives further business away etc. So many industries have a regulator these days but the RM seem to be able to do what ever they want without or with little regulation. 

I've done my best not to rant too much but, like many others, I'm a little miffed at these rises. 😡🥺😖

[rosslee21]

As of 2nd October, 2023 the £1.15 up to 100 gm large letter is now £1.55    This will affect Ebay I have no doubt about that.  I will be scaling back much of my large letter business.

[a45heaven]

Yes ebay will get more in fees from each and every seller who charge postage.

Please remind me what ebay do to merit this?

Maintaining a problem free platform wouldnt be high on any list i would imagine.

[sesomas]

I used to think postage was really cheap, maybe 15 years ago, but the constant near-on 10% rises every year soon put a stop to that.  Whether it is still a bargain or not, the fact is a lot less people will be able to sell lower price items on eBay now. 

After being charged £2.40 for posting an item I only received a fiver for today, I don't think I'll bother selling items for much less than £10 in future - no point for the hassle and potential risk of it going missing and getting negative feedback.

[nik_moore]

Well, you CAN blame Royal Mail, because any business run in such a terrible manner should have rooted out the problem by now...!

[sagr2519]

There is the option of offering free collection in person instead, but that means a much smaller number of possible customers.

[keeptheroof]

I don't understand what the current owners of the Royal Mail license are up to. It seems to me, as a business owner in many areas for about 40 years, it seems they don't have a clue. On one hand, they increase the prices while reducing the service constantly and playing politics pretending to the public that they are offering more service. They are happy to advertise they'll collect and bring an address label but rather less happy to advertise that they make a lot of money selling off "lost" mail which their insurance company pays the compo for. They don't even look for lost items now.

It is just another privatized industry failing and I can only assume their only target is for it to fail so they can sell of all the property. 

[estorilhammy]

You sell on ebay, yes? Then why not buy stamps via ebay? I buy and sell good quality stamps in combination to whatever value people require and it means that people are still paying last year's prices for this year's stamps.

Give it a try.

Estorilhammy 

[sagr2519]

Haven't you seen the community posts about counterfeit stamps?

[keeptheroof]

The more the postage goes up the more fees eBay make. But the higher the prices need to be to make it worthwhile listing and the higher the price of the final value the more eBay makes in fees.

It'll soon be pointless to list items less than £5 even if they fit in a letter-size envelope. Most people might not think that is an issue but think of all the collectibles like stamps, cards, programmes, photos that must generate a hell of a lot for eBay. Even now I struggle to sell magazines where the postage has to be higher than what people will pay for the magazine alone. The result will just be less buyers on ebay and more landfill.

[sagr2519]

Here's an idea for Ebay: Remove the 30p fixed fee on sales under £5.

[dunstun365]

People decide not to buy the item due to the shipping price rise

[susapric-68]

They have, If you sell mainly cheap items then its 15%+5p. Used to be invite only But eBay opened it up to everyone. Replaced Paypals micro payment discount they offered

[dunstun365]

No they won't, they'll get even higher shipping fees due to this crippling price rise. RM blame it on the energy price increases

[dunstun365]

I had to pull a lot of listings last October because they simply weren't worth sending & other sellers like MMagpie don't put their prices up for ages if at all. I don't know how that works.  I had to accept offers for the items on world of books by scanning the barcodes, then what's left sell as joblots on Facebook

[keeptheroof]

I'm about to end all my free postage listings, how can you get any leverage with free postage if the postage is now so much more than the actual item value? all free postage items will need a starting price of £5.00. So when people search on price your free postage items will be pages down the listing. Won't matter to people who sell items over say £20 but for people who deal in memorabilia like programmes this market is going to shrink and items are going to be sent to landfills rather than being in collections - where their true value is.

[4_bathrooms]

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@susapric-68 wrote:

They have, If you sell mainly cheap items then its 15%+5p. Used to be invite only But eBay opened it up to everyone. Replaced Paypals micro payment discount they offered

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I wasn't aware it had been opened up but apparently it was. However, the only way for someone who was not already enrolled via an invite to enrol now is by contacting customer support...

There are a couple of caveats, though. The 15% + 5p was originally offered to business sellers only and - as with all business seller fees - was advertised net of VAT. So, unless you're VAT registered it is really 18% + 6p (the terms suggest it is still only available to business sellers). Also, in the days when sellers could use PayPal's micropayments the PayPal account for receiving payment could be configured per listing. So, it was possible to only use the micropayment account for low priced items and a standard PayPal account for higher priced items within the same eBay account. Sellers who enrol in eBay's Low Cost Item Promotion will be enrolling all the items listed in their account regardless of value. Therefore, if the seller has a mix of £10.00+ and sub-£10.00 items they will need two eBay accounts (one enrolled, one not) if they don't want to pay higher fees on their £10.00+ items.   

[sagr2519]

The link says it's only for business sellers. Most of my items are under £10 but I'm a private seller. Though with the postage prices going up, 30p becomes a smaller portion of the costs.

[robbtyke132010]

Again from 4th April 2024 prices are increased across the board with one notable exception - 2nd class large letter  101g - 250g drops from £2.40 to  £2.10 - EXACTLY the same price as  FIRST CLASS LARGE LETTER STAMP. I do not think there is anything to stop anyone putting on a first class large letter stamp to pay second class postage. Am I correct in this?

[*devils.advocate*]

It might be the first stage in trying to amalgamate letter rates and large letter rates into one?

[tranceenthusiast]

Welcome to privatisation..