Why is Ebay still charging high postage rates for items weighing less than 100g.

[7377olivia]

Why is Ebay still charging high postage rates for items weighing less than 100g. It is not economical to sell an item for less than £3 which weighs hardly anything and have to pay almost £3  to post it. I have reluctantly had to remove any item for sale that weighs less than 1k as it is just not worthwhile. What happened to the seller having an option to choose the postage costs when listing an item?

[jonatjonatjonat]

ebay believe enough of their seller base will use Simple Delivery.

The cynic in me would guess that sales less than £3 aren't worth ebays resources.

[style_wise]

eBay Simple Delivery are charging less than over-the-counter price. For items under £20 Sellers often have the option to use Custom Postage for a cheaper untracked service.

[7377olivia]

No you don't have the option at all

[7377olivia]

No choice so you have to use Simple Delivery or not use Ebay

[papso22]

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@7377olivia wrote:

No you don't have the option at all

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You might not, but there are exempt items where custom postage is available. 

[jonatjonatjonat]

There are some exemptions - and its probably best to just copy ebays line on the matter...

Opting out

The option to opt out and select Custom postage is only available for items in specific categories that are priced £20 and under. This includes items which are typically letter or large letter-sized and 100g or under. The £20 limit applies to the item price only and excludes the Buyer Protection Fee.

You can see if your item is eligible for Simple Delivery, or if you have the option to choose Custom postage, when you're creating your listing.

But in general - Simple Delivery is mandatory for Private Sellers.

[7377olivia]

How do you find out what these exempt items are??

[jckl1957]

Items have to be under £20 and letter or large letter size and under 100g.

Then, you have to put them in an exempt category - you may have to be patient and try several different categories depending on what you want to list.

You should have a hunt around in the Simple Delivery pages on Ebay but I am not sure there is a definitive list of exempt categories.

You could look at sellers who are listing items like the ones you want to sell and check the ones that have custom postage to see what category they are listed in.

Most jewellery (almost all of the items I have listed) still qualifies for custom postage.