New royal mail postage costs from 2 April

[CrustardCream]

Have you seen the new costs yet?

www.royalmail.com/sites/default/files/RoyalMail_OurPrices_April2013.pdf

I think they are going to have a significant impact on private sellers who sell fairly light, small items like used kids clothes

Basically small packets category is gone and is replaced with small or medium parcels. A medium parcel is anything with a thickness greater than 8cm and is double the price of the corresponding weight small parcel. A small parcel up to 1kg will now cost £2.60 second class.

Also rather sneakily they have cut the amount of compensation provided as standard for a non signed for packet. It will now only be £20 rather than £46 as is now. So they are pushing you to use the signed for service which seems to add £1.10 to the standard postage cost vs 95p now.

Sigh..........

At least letter costs remain unchanged. I will be trying to squeeze more things in as large letters to keep postage reasonable.

[lljkk]

Thanks for the info, & concise summary thereof.
I can't blame RM for changing the compensation deal, I think they get stung worse than any one else by scammers who claim never to have received an item. Incenses me because the rest of us are the ones who have to pay thru the nose, eventually.

I am thinking to add 50% to my previous postage prices until I get hang of new price regime.

I love large letter rate :).

[sarahtigh]

large letter is great for clothes and books but as my business sells mostly china I send some thinks in 6" cube boxes and most of the rest in 9x6x6 or 8" cubes it means everything is going to turn into medium parcel at £5.20 well I am sorry but collect plus is only £4 for upto 2kg and £5 for upto 6kg so they will be getting much more of my business, a shame really as my local PO is really good I just left all my parcels there, they put postage on and I go in at the end of week and pay

might investigate some of the couriers that provided you have more than 4 parcels will send for £2.50 upwards, but higher postage will really affect buyers and mean lower bids to compensate, however international postage has not changed much

[sarahtigh]

someone told me that according to Royal mail a parcel sent via an ebay sale is about 10 times more likely to be claimed as missing as parcel that has nothing to do with ebay!!!!! that is not proven fact but it has the appearance of a grain of truth

[lljkk]

Are you the person, Saraht, who ships boxes using the £4 Collectplus rate? Or do you manage to get your china safely posted in a jiffy bag?

Have you managed to ever claim successfully off of Collectplus? I feel a bit wary whether that will be smooth.

I'm interested in your research on couriers that charge £2.50 each for 4+ items, please come back & let us know what you find out.

[CrustardCream]

I'm not surprised about the push towards sending things recorded to cut their losses from the scammers out there either. But RM must realise that their costings will drive ebayers into the arms of other couriers. Seems a bit bonkers if they are struggling.

Everytime I go to the post office with eBay stuff, many of the other customers there are eBayers so they must form a big part of RM's business.

For a 1kg small parcel worth £25, it will be £3.70 2nd class recorded with Royal Mail compared with £3.99 collect plus or £3.00 with MyHermes.

I will be using MyHermes an awful lot more to keep costs down for buyers and help keep the value of bids up. Let's hope they keep their costs low to step in and steal the business RM seems not to care about losing.

[sarahtigh]

I regularly ship smaller boxes at £4 collect+ i accurately enter dimensions (mostly it is 30x23x23 boxes (12x9x9") i neve rlie about size or weight they are boxes not jiffy bags and have never ever had a problem. you have to pack really well with bubblewrap and polystyrene peanuts not newspaper and make sure the box is big enough for at least 3-5cm packing in all directions, to be honest they have not broken anymore china than royal mail, I would not send really delicate pocelain but send china/pottery vases / plates

they do not cover damage to china in fact no-one does unless you send special delivery, they are fine compensating for loss but as i send mostly china and it specifically says it will carry but not compensate for damage so I would not try claiming

couriers just like packages that are normal size so stack well in a van they hate odd sizes like a snooker cue fishing rod

the group that does for £2.28 is called "despatch bay" minimum of 4 parcels per collection and must upload £50 in advance ie about 20 parcels not good for private sellers but I imagine any home business could have 4 parcels 3 days a week ie monday/wed/friday and that would have everything dispatched within 48 hours as weekend is not counted as not a business day

[sarahtigh]

RM mail will suffer as I spend about £120 a week on postage and not much is large letter £2.20/3.50 for parcels upto 1 kg is fine but virtually nothing \i send would be less than 8cm depth so would all suddenly be over £5

to be honest people think i will spend £10 on item including postage so if it £5 postage that leaves only £5 for all your costs but if you can post for £3 you have £2 more profit that really adds up at 200 sales per month that is an extra £400

[sarahtigh]

actually noticed international postage outside europe has actually gone down in price and within europe only few pence cheaper but small parcels are going to be disporportionately expensive £8 for parcel less than 2kg when it is £4 with collect plus and £4.85 with signature ( you get tracking for free but no signature)

[lljkk]

Our local PO customers are mostly ordinary customers or folk taking cash out. I haven't noticed anyone else who seems even remotely like an Ebayer.

[LineRunner]

My post office is overrun by eBay sellers on a Sunday afternoon and Monday (all day), but it's very central with a free car park so I guess people like it for easy access, parking etc.

A short walk away is a newsagent that is a drop-off for MyHermes, which is a lot cheaper. I think their business will increase for parcels.

[lljkk]

you have a PO open Sunday afternoon?
My collect+ point is only about 3 minute walk from PO, too.

[LineRunner]

Yes, Sunday 10-3pm, but it's a city centre.

I'm going to talk to my corner shop guy to consider taking Collect+ or MyHermes because he's open till 8.30pm on a Sunday!

[sixlostmonkeys]

Well, having looked at the new RM prices I thought.... that's my business gone then :(

I noticed last week that my local shop had MyHermes sign outside, so I've just been in to check and had a look at the website (and registered). The prices are fair, so if they perform well I can stay in business.

Can you imagine what's going to happen to ebay sellers' DSRs when these high postage prices are in force? - that's if anyone gets a sale with the high postage costs....

[PurpleFrog]

I wasn't expecting such a number of changes this year. Sigh! I wonder how they are going to check "small parcel" sizes. Will lumpy but squashy polythene mailing bags fail the test, like they do for "large letter" at the moment? It will also affect the prices of a lot of the things I tend to buy on eBay and by mail order as well. Maybe I should start up a business selling flat-pack 45cmx35cmx8cm boxes!

I guess I had better list all my light, but bulky, items soon! And check out local outlets for Collect+, MyHermes etc.