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?!

[trackspin]

I totally agree with you and could have ‘mirrored’ your post nearly exactly. 
I use the Post Office because I can walk there. Don’t ask me to use Evri lockers because I’m fed up of walking there to find out they are full. Additionally, the only time an item got damaged was when I used Evri.

I also post vinyl records and the cartons and stiffeners cost me over a £1 per vinyl.

I appreciate I can add that to my ‘buy it now’ price but that will make me look expensive compared to people who post in sub standard packaging. 
Regarding auctions, I will have to increase the ‘starting bid’ point and ignore the eBay recommended 0.99p starting point.

I do not believe that EBay are introducing ‘simple’ postage for the benefit of the seller, if the system doesn’t become more suited to my needs, I’ll start selling on Discogs instead. 

[snowylilliput-2]

One other thing , royal mail no longer collect for free . There is a charge off 30p per parcel now so the £1 you are adding for packaging will not cover that 

[sonnie15cars]

I know exactly what you mean. 

Most of my items are breakable, therefore I need to pack them securely, this means buying packaging materials, such as bubble wrap, foam pellets etc.

I do recycle some cardboard boxes, when i can get hold of them, but can't always find the size required, so often have to purchase them. 

All this comes at a cost which Simple Delivery does NOT allow for.

Please ditch this crazy controlling method. 

Ebay, you really are making it very difficult, especially for Private Sellers like myself. 

[akemp1]

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@sonnie15cars wrote:

Most of my items are breakable, therefore I need to pack them securely, this means buying packaging materials, such as bubble wrap, foam pellets etc.

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Next they will be forcing you to buy Ebay's bubble wrap and deducting it from your item proceeds.

Obviously supplied 1 month after the sale and in 1 inch strips to make it completely unworkable.

[ogdensnutgoneflake]

I have also raised a complaint about this after postage costs went to default and buyers were chosing 'simple' postage costs of about  £3.40, actual postage costs are currently £4.05, plus £1 P&P. I have also turned up to the PO with prepaid postage got the QR scanned and been told not enough postage had been paid. A simple system made simple has been made inviable. I had an eBay operative tell me even after having the item weighed at the post office that the postage costs was unrealistic based on the 'actual prices' for similar items eBay had. The actual price was therefore incorrect.Its nuts.

[ogdensnutgoneflake]

It's not working. Simple Delivey is not simple and the postage rubrics bear no relation to actual costs. So you can add packing costs to the price but the  closest I can get for vinyl without a loss is £5.15. I am currently charing 4.55 thats £4.05 for the postage and £.50 for packing. I take a hit. All items are now £0.60 more expensive to the buyer and I will have to got through every item adding the packing.

[sonnie15cars]

This simple delivery simply doesn't work.

What I also find extremely annoying is that when you list an item under the Custom delivery method, when it relists eBay change the delivery option to their supposedly simple delivery, therefore your having to revise every single listing. 

I have just sold a canteen of cutlery, which I listed under custom delivery, via Royal Mail with adult identification, then when it sold they changed it to UPS collection which cost around £12 more than me dropping it off at the Post Office about 500 metres from where i live, so now I've got to wait at home possibly from 08-00 until 18-00 on Monday, whereas it could have on it's way 2 days earlier, really do not like eBay's interference one little bit. 

Everything has worked so well for years, why make it so damn difficult is way beyond me. 

[oldbargainbits]

As long as buyers expect to purchase items on Ebay for the same price - or less- than at a car boot sale or junk shop, sellers will have to factor expenses such as packaging , fees etc. into their sale or auction start price. If that then makes it too expensive to attract buyers, Ebay won't work for you.

[akemp1]

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@sonnie15cars wrote:

Everything has worked so well for years, why make it so damn difficult is way beyond me. 

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Because ebay are unbelievably greedy and despite lecturing us on fast dispatch and free postage for years are happy to delay dispatch, waste people's money and inconvenience users if they can make an extra buck.