Simple delivery packaging costs

[daveinbirkenhead]

I can't figure out how to factor in the packaging costs on simple delivery.  I'm selling vinyl records and the packaging costs £1 per item I sell. That's a fixed cost can't reduce. I can't 'add it to the sale price' because I don't list under buy it now (mostly because I have no idea what price to put and prefer an auction to let the market decide the price) . I can't buy packaging in large bulk as I'm NOT a business seller and simply don't have the funds plus they cost more cos i pay vat like a regular customer .  I can't ship my items in fresh air but I can't factor in the of packaging into my postage costs. This is ridiculous! Some of my items sell for 99p but as I'm taking a loss of £1 on the packaging I'm literally PAYING my buyer 1p to take it off my hands! Plus all the other costs like a printer, ink, labels and my time. I'm a private seller and can't write off these as business expenses. Do you expect us to post the items without labels or packaging? Plus I do not want to use evri I haven't got time to get to a parcel shop  (also i want my items to be actually delivered) I want my items to be collected  from my home by royal mail, but there's no way to do this using 'simple' delivery. And I need to specify tracked 48 otherwise you're sitting on my money for 2 weeks until I can prove an item wad delivered. How on earth am I supposed to deal with making a loss on every item I sell?!

[daveinbirkenhead]

I'm not creating the posting label. The buyer is. All I'm doing is printing it 

[jonatjonatjonat]

I've already given you a link to remove Evri as a choice of courier from Simple Delivery - though you appear to be going off on wild trails of fantasy deciding how something works without actually finding out anything about how it works.

If you have pre purchased Royal Mail labels you can book a collection on their website - BOOK A COLLLECTION

[jckl1957]

Please, please read all the responses here.

You have been provided with a link to deselect Evri.  That will leave you posting only with Royal Mail.

I sent you the detail from Ebay's Simple Delivery page stating that you can arrange for RM to collect your parcels.  YOU arrange this to fit in with what is convenient for you.

The buyer does not send you a label.  They pay Ebay for the postage and Ebay send you a link to print the label.

[daveinbirkenhead]

But I'm not prepurchasing a label. The buyer decides what company they want to use and pays (via ebay) for a label. I put the label on the parcel. That's my only role in the process.

[jonatjonatjonat · Accepted solution]

Again, you can remove Evri as a choice the buyer can select from your listings on ebay. You have the link provided previosuly.

OK, forget the word pre-purchasing. YOU HAVE A LABEL RIGHT? Then you go to the book a collection link that again I gave you, that you could have looked at but I assume you haven't and follow the instructions.

You add the tracking numbers, then follow the instructions.

[ruby*ryan]

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@akemp1 wrote:

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@papso22 wrote:

Even if it was a comparison between Ebay's previous suggested postal rate and SD prices, that still doesn't make it valid.

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They said that the comparison was based on what buyers actually paid during a previous period for postage which of course is not comparable as it might have included label/packaging/transport costs so very misleading as normal.

When dealing with ebay it's best to assume you are under attack these days.

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What they actually said was:

*Buyer postage cost data from Oct 2024 to March 2025 comparing Simple Delivery and non Simple Delivery postage labels on eBay.

As they would only be able to compare prices where a postage label was bought via eBay, then I read it that that is the comparison. If it had been between SD and the actual cost the customer paid, it wouldn't have mentioned postage labels.

I did ask for clarification on the weekly chat, as my cost buying labels via eBay is the same as SD, but I haven't heard anything back yet.

[daveinbirkenhead]

I followed you link, thank you. But the link says literally nothing about how to specify you want your parcel collected. Or when. You can't even say if you want to send it 1st class or 2nd. If I click the 'find a drop off location ' link it just gives you a list of post offices 

 

[daveinbirkenhead]

Thank you. There's nothing anywhere that I can find on ebay that explains you have to go to an external website entirely separate from ebay to organise a collection you used to be able to specify from within the app at the same time you purchased the label. And yet somehow this new system makes it 'more convenient' by adding additional steps dealing directly with a third party with a label someone else paid for. And presumably the clock starts ticking as soon as they pay for it, instead of being within your control like it used to be.

[akemp1]

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@ruby*ryan wrote:

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What they actually said was:

*Buyer postage cost data from Oct 2024 to March 2025 comparing Simple Delivery and non Simple Delivery postage labels on eBay.

As they would only be able to compare prices where a postage label was bought via eBay, then I read it that that is the comparison. If it had been between SD and the actual cost the customer paid, it wouldn't have mentioned postage labels.

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OK well perhaps it's clear as mud then. I read 'buyer postage cost data' as what the buyers paid in postage for the labels not the potentially lower amount that sellers paid for a label otherwise why didn't they say 'seller postage cost data where labels were purchased via ebay''?

Either way they are making packaging and dropoff costs always the seller's cost.

[selective_distribution]

This unfortunately has always been a problem for sellers on eBay, who list their items at a fair BIN price, and then see other sellers listing the same items at a silly cheap price without any consideration of the costs involved, and then that seller complaining that it is costing them money to send the item to the buyer. In your case it seems that you have realized that it is costing you money to sell the items. It takes very little time to price Vinyl records (Discogs?), and then list (including costs for packaging / time etc), accordingly......I have never understood why anyone would list an item at 99p if they know that if it sells at that price they will lose money? You need to think `profit` like a business, even if you are not.

[a45heaven]

It takes very little time to price Vinyl records (Discogs?), and then list (including costs for packaging / time etc), accordingly

Thats  just what i did for my set sale items, its almost half the price of ebay, without the pain too.

......I have never understood why anyone would list an item at 99p if they know that if it sells at that price they will lose money? You need to think `profit` like a business, even if you are not.

Sometimes items are bought in job lots along with other items which make more, these items become 'Loss Leaders' which are used to encourage the Buyer  to make as part of a combined lot with post discounts, that was before some Simple created SP.

One item in one shipping package - only suits one player in this fiasco.

[studiomaster_uk]

There is no choice other than to add for any packing and handling (materials and labour) to the listed item price. To which, you will be pleased to understand, ebay will then add additional buyer protection fees, thus inflating the listed item price even further. The result being 'small items' will be additionally unattractive to buyers. Of course, sellers could mitigate this effect by absorbing costs in behalf of buyers with the result that sellers will quite likely find the process of selling to be more trouble than it's worth. At this point the use of the dustbin becomes a serious consideration, this completely undermining ebay's claimed 'green' agenda.

(Perhaps the 'green agenda' was really more related to dollar bills in their pocket after all?)

Still, apparently in your favour (albeit untested and unproven at this time) is that simple delivery avails you as seller of protection for loss or damage with no need to handle claims yourself, so maybe, if you are so inclined, you can use, err, any packaging or wrapping or whatever you find convenient in the moment and fret not. Of course, as a responsible seller I'm sure you will prefer to make sure your vinyl is 'well packed'. But how others may choose to behave, well, remains to be seen, I guess. (What could possibly go wrong?)

[akemp1]

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@a45heaven wrote:

......I have never understood why anyone would list an item at 99p if they know that if it sells at that price they will lose money? You need to think `profit` like a business, even if you are not.

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I like that other people do it, as it's a nod to the past (although ebay spoil it with their layers of charges), and I see it works with sufficiently desirable items in a place that has enough relevant footfall but it wouldn't work for me on the items I used to sell here.

Unless you get hyper-competitive bidders then in most cases auctions seem to sell for less than a buy it now although the benefit from a seller is that they don't need to work out the right price and provided it's desirable enough it will definitely sell.

[studiomaster_uk]

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@selective_distribution wrote:

It takes very little time to price Vinyl records (Discogs?), and then list...

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Very little time? You must be 'greatly' joking! Ebay listing is not a 'passtime', it's work and often has to be frequently repeated to achieve a buy now sale!

[daveinbirkenhead]

Many vinyl records are worth very little. The ones selling for 99p were mostly bought in joblots but I still need to get rid. I've sold the odd joblot before but that was when I could use a courier like parcel force. If an item is more than 5kg royal mail won't take it and therefore it'd be sent with evri by default. I may as well throw it in the bin as Hope evri would actually deliver it.

[sml192]

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@daveinbirkenhead wrote:

Many vinyl records are worth very little. The ones selling for 99p were mostly bought in joblots but I still need to get rid. I've sold the odd joblot before but that was when I could use a courier like parcel force. If an item is more than 5kg royal mail won't take it and therefore it'd be sent with evri by default. I may as well throw it in the bin as Hope evri would actually deliver it.

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Not sure where you get that idea from. Royal Mail Tracked, which is what Simple Delivery uses, goes up to 20kg.

[jc-1973]

Dave, as a small suggestion to try help maximise your results, why not list your "fresh" stock of vinyl as auctions for £5.99 each.

Then unsold ones can be tried for £3.99 a week later.

Lastly, try them for £1.99 and if they still haven't sold....*then* consider them for a bulk lot etc.

[daveinbirkenhead]

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@jc-1973 wrote:

Dave, as a small suggestion to try help maximise your results, why not list your "fresh" stock of vinyl as auctions for £5.99 each.

Then unsold ones can be tried for £3.99 a week later.

Lastly, try them for £1.99 and if they still haven't sold....*then* consider them for a bulk lot etc.

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Thank you for the suggestion but fixed price auctions won't work for me due to then having no control over when someone decides to purchase. Due to work commitments if anybody decided to buy from me between Thursday and Monday I would have no opportunity to even access the item from storage until Tuesday let alone wrap it, print the label and then, separately as an additional step in this allegedly  'streamlined' process , organise collection from my home on a day I know I'll be in. Meaning I potentially don't post it for 6 days which is outside ebay's 2 day despatch time limit. Add 2 days for delivery plus 2 more for payment to clear after delivery and I wouldn't see my money for up to 9 days. Which is why taking all the control of when to purchase a postage label out of my hands and giving all the control to the buyer is so annoying. 

[daveinbirkenhead]

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@sml192 wrote

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Not sure where you get that idea from. Royal Mail Tracked, which is what Simple Delivery uses, goes up to 20kg.

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I hadn't realised. Although the parcel size limit of  61cm x 46cm x 46cm would likely also be an issue for selling a joblot of records. 

[klondike1]

I have EXACTLY the same problem selling vinyl. NO account has been made for cost of packaging ! I even called ebay, but the guy I spoke to didn't have a clue or even quite understood what I was asking. He merely kept repeating his script.

It looks to me as though ebay haven't even thought about the cost of packaging. Not good enough.