Combined postage

[stavrosgreek]

Hi, I am a private seller selling mainly small, low cost items, usually under £10. I'm struggling with ebay since the recent changes.

I used to charge £1.55 for postage. But simple delivery charges the buyer more than that. Can I change it so the higher cost doesn't put buyers off? I have good feedback so a normal postage stamp wasn't causing me issues before.

With simple delivery, how do I combine postage for the buyer? I have read all the help guides and sent links to the buyers, but none of us can figure it out. I think my settings look right. But the ebay help guides also mention tick boxes that don't seem to exist in my settings.

With these recent changes, are there better selling platforms put there? Where is the best place to research these? Most of the items I sell can be easily faked, so I would like good seller protection.

Thank you

[tressygirl]

If your items are under £10 then you do not have to use Simple delivery but can use Custom Postage meaning you can select your own postage.

Combining postage is still a technical issue, why so long to fix this?  Nobody knows!

If postage was purchased though Simple Delivery and you now post all the items together the buyer will receive a refund for the unused labels they paid for, might be worth sending them a message explaining this,  and that it may take up to / over 30 days for the refund to appear.

The best way forward would be to cancel all items, of course,  with the buyer's acceptance, and relisting them as one, so there's one  important tracking number, one postage price. Ensure any message to your buyer makes it very clear the reason why the items are being cancelled,  that they are to be relisted on eBay again,  for the buyer to buy, leave no room for doubt that this is Not an off eBay sale.

Some sellers are leaving a message on their listing,  for example.....   ' If you wish to buy multiple items,  please let me know before buying,  I will relist them as one listing so only one postage cost is charged, combining postage is not currently possible. '

@stavrosgreek 

[honeymonster007]

Have tried writing messages on listings about being unable to combine orders but after the 3rd time someone combined an order I gave up and just sent the order. 

[xyz307xyz]

This is the quote from ebay help pages "The option to opt out is only available for letter-sized items in specific categories that are priced £10 and under."

Different people have reported seeing different things. I'm not on mandatory SD, my best interpretation of the above, based on what the majority have reported is:

The option to opt out is only available for

letter-sized items or large letter sized items

weighing no more than 100g

in specific subcategories

that are priced £10 and under.

If ebay doesn't let you opt out on an item, you can't change postage to £1.55. The "only" way to not increase the overall price for the buyer is to increase the item price by £1.55* and then put Free p&p (Seller pays postage). If the SD label costs you £2.70 then overall you receive about £1.15 less (probably £1.18 less due to extra BPF, possibly less if you had promotions and any other upgrades based on final value).

(*) Assumes you were charging £1.55 for postage previously.

When a buyer buys multiple items, ebay determines the total postage cost. You will get one or more labels - it should be clear which items go with which label. Use one label per package.

[edwardian-dreams]

“
If ebay doesn't let you opt out”

why is eBay doing this (not allowing custom) when you’re listing items under 100g and under £10 and letter sized and in sub categories that re exempt from SD as OPs items are 

[xyz307xyz]

I don't know what size, weight or subcategory the OP items are; that are being forced to SD.

And I've not seen a list of which subcategories you can opt out on.

[edwardian-dreams]

I just clicked on view listings and they’re all tiny light pins/badges under £10

heres that list

https://www.ebay.co.uk/help/selling/posting-items/setting-postage-options/simple-delivery?id=5575&st...

[xyz307xyz]

So did I. Most of them are £1.55/£1.50/free postage - i.e. custom postage.

And that is a list of categories. As I highlighted in #4, it actually appears to work on subcategory - see message #20 in this thread: https://community.ebay.co.uk/t5/Seller-Central/Beyond-Stupid/td-p/7873005

At some stage, it may be worth the OP asking on that thread - e.g. replying to Marco. The OP on that thread couldn't upload/paste a screenshot for some reason, so it never got answered. I would expect Marco to ask for more details e.g.  size, weight, subcategory or item number.

[4minutemile]

ebay doesn't want anybody selling small items anymore. They have created new revenue streams for ebay and have killed all hope of selling anything small here.

Your only hope is to use some other service like delcampe or etsy or anywhere else. ebay doesn't want our business. They just want slaves to generate revenue.

[4minutemile]

But even when your item is less than £10 you are forced to use Simple Delivery. They say one thing but the reality is different. 

[edwardian-dreams]

The bits in brackets I thought were the subcategories , as it calls them at the bottom of the list 

anyway

yes good idea, if the OP can join that thread and reply to Marco they might get somewhere quicker

[xyz307xyz]

Most of your sub £10 items are on £1.55 custom postage.

If you open 116598975827 for example and select Sell a similar item - is the postage on the draft item still £1.55? If so, change the details, photos etc. to whatever you want to list. If the draft item is too big or heavy to opt out - then you will "need" to use SD.

[medealady]

Also if buyers want several items you have to create a dedicated listing for all otherwise buyers get charged BPF for each item which means 75p extra per item and the 4%. I tried creating a listing for multiple books with buyers able to select 1 or more. Beyond 2 each book had the maximum P&P charge added and each book had full BPF added even though only 1 invoice. Business sellers can however sell without all this. This is very wrong. I cancelled my listing.