LOSE Money with eBay - Use their postal option

[santlache_sales]

Mods

Isn't it time with eBay now deciding to dictate Royal Mail postal prices....they updated it from Royal Mail's latest price increase....ten weeks ago !

PLUS, nothing has been added for packaging, or do eBay also expect us to take a hit on that too and give it away for free ??

I've just spent £100 on a new batch of packaging, or do I just write that off as eBay expects me to give it away for free ?

If you are going dictate to us all the time, at least get with the programme and update these things or is that too much to ask ?

[superchallenge]

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@santlache_sales wrote:

Isn't it time with eBay now deciding to dictate Royal Mail postal prices....they updated it from Royal Mail's latest price increase....ten weeks ago !

Which prices haven't been updated?

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@santlache_sales wrote:

PLUS, nothing has been added for packaging, or do eBay also expect us to take a hit on that too and give it away for free ??

I've just spent £100 on a new batch of packaging, or do I just write that off as eBay expects me to give it away for free ?

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Pretty much. It's one of the costs of doing business online. You take that £100 out of your profits as a cost of sales.

You need a computer or a phone to be able to sell on eBay as well. Do you expect them to allow you to charge your customers for a new PC? How about the shoe leather or petrol you use taking your items to the postbox? Should the coffee you drink while listing items be chargeable, too?

If so, just like with the packaging, build it into your prices. If that makes you uncompetitive then...well...work out why.

[vinylscot]

The cost of packaging issue has really been a bit of a red herring for many years now. (Or at least it's being approached from the wrong angle.)

Very few people are able to add something to their postage prices to cover postage.

I charge £4.80 for a 12" LP to go by RM Tracked 48. The actual cost to me, on my RM account, is £4.29.

But, eBay takes 58p of that £4.80 in commission, so I don't even receive enough to cover the postage. It's not really practical to increase my postage charges any more, so it needs to be built in to the item price somehow. 

I don't like that at all, but it does give a different slant on the issue.

I use a bespoke mailer, often supply a new inner sleeve, and always provide a PVC or poly sleeve, and add a business card. My packaging cost per parcel is approaching £1.00, and it has been impractical to add that to postage charges, ever since eBay started charging commission on postal charges about a hundred years ago.

[vinylscot]

In the second line of my post above, the final word should be "packaging", not postage.

Sorry.

[the_book_seekers]

Does this relate to another account as the one you're posting from is a business account and not subject to simple delivery ?

[santlache_sales]

A computer or a phone are not being posted with an item that has been purchased.

You don't allow fuel either, is that one of the costs of business or shall I list 100 more ?

You would you like to come back with another smart rear end comment ?

The bottom line is eBay's postal prices are ten weeks out of date, send an item worth over £1000 and it'll cost you £8.50 more now.

[santlache_sales]

But, eBay takes 58p of that £4.80 in commission

That is not commission in any way or form, your FVF is their commission, the 10% charge on P&P is a stealth fee added on by eBay for no reason whatsoever except greed and to fleece you more.

[jonatjonatjonat]

If eBay didn’t also charge a percentage on postage for business sellers then a reasonable number of sellers would inflate the price of postage and reduce the product cost.

eBay caught wise to that trick over a decade ago at least.

[therenewalworkshopltd]

Oh for goodness sake, get over it.

Ebay does not dictate that you use their postal services.

If you don't like their prices, then go elsewhere!

Seriously, you are banging on about nothing.

[superchallenge]

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@santlache_sales wrote:

A computer or a phone are not being posted with an item that has been purchased.

You don't allow fuel either, is that one of the costs of business or shall I list 100 more ?

Yes, fuel literally is one of the costs of business. I don't know what point you think you're making. You can list another 100 more if you want, but you would kind of be backing up what I was saying if you do.

Packaging is one of the costs of doing business online. If you don't like that, open a physical store.

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@santlache_sales wrote:

You would you like to come back with another smart rear end comment ?

The bottom line is eBay's postal prices are ten weeks out of date, send an item worth over £1000 and it'll cost you £8.50 more now.

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And still there's no explanation as to why eBay's Simple Delivery rates would affect you as a business seller, or exactly which postal costs you're rattling on about. Is this the same as last week, when your hair was on fire because they were still charging £2.70 postage when postage costs £2.80, even though buying the label through eBay actually does still cost £2.70? Or is it something else this time?

[santlache_sales]

eBay's postal charges in general are all wrong, as are their made-up delivery times which they plucked out of the air, which people have been complaining about in large numbers since they were first introduced.

My Mrs actually, she went to list a private item two days ago, the post they gave her was all wrong so she'd lose money on it plus no packaging added (large Jiffy bag costing over £1.50), then eBay added their so-called protection fee (another money grab) so she stopped the listing after it went live, deleted it and went and put it on Vinted instead.

She sold it earlier today at the price she wanted and cheaper than it ended up on eBay.

eBay is being left behind.....

[vinylscot]

I used by business account for illustration. I know there are some differences, but the point is still much the same. I have a private account, as well as this. I don't use it very often, but the figures would be the same if I was offering these products on a private account, although there's even less of a problem with private accounts, as they pay no selling commission, so it's much easier to allow for the cost of packaging in the item price.

[jlovie]

"I charge £4.80 for a 12" LP to go by RM Tracked 48. The actual cost to me, on my RM account, is £4.29."

The non-account online price for RM Tracked 48 is only £3.45. That seems a rip-off for account holders.

I'm still including postage on mine, but have been looking at trying separate postage as an experiment on some. It just becomes tricky trying to offer combined postage if some listings have it included and some aren't.

LP mailers are certainly expensive, I do wonder how some sellers with cheap LPs are posting them.

Annoyingly I had my first LP damaged in post this week, RM really trashed it, snapped in half.

[vinylscot]

I'm sorry, I'm having one of these days. Of course, I meant RM Tracked 24, as can be seen in my listings.

[santlache_sales]

Here you go...

I tried it today, listing an item from my own collection on Mrs Private account with a buy it now value of £175.

Postage options dictated by eBay is £3.25.

The only way to increase it is to take the weight up to 10kg and it goes up to £7.35 - which is still NOT enough.

The minimum postal service for an item worth £175 is Special Delivery - which costs £7.85 up to 100g.

This is totally screwed so the seller loses money and is not fit for purpose. Typical eBay.

[gemini-project]

I set my own price not eBay which includes the packaging cost , you must be doing something wrong.