Postage - is this right?? Surely not!

[freerangeeggs]

Hi everyone. I'm trying to do a bit of a wardrobe clear out and put a few scarves on eBay today. I'm not expecting to make much - maybe about 50p each - and I'm not trying to profit from the postage.

I used the Royal Mail postage calculator to work out how much I should charge. Each scarf weighs about 200g. It says it'll cost £2.20 2nd class for a packet that size??

This seems too much considering the value of the scarves themselves. Have I worked this out wrongly? Should they be large letters instead? Though they might be more than 2.5cm maximum thickness the Royal Mail requires...

I'm worried people will be put off. I would be!!

Thanks for the help :)

[PoppyWearer]

£2.20 is about the minimum for anything over a large letter.

Take them to the post office and see?

Say in your listings that you will refund any excess postage. I do this (many don't) and it's easy to do through PayPal.

If the scarves aren't worth much then are they worth selling? Would they be better sold as a bundle? Can you sell them through a vintage shop instead?

[freerangeeggs]

I'm wondering myself if it was worth the bother! But I had taken the photos, so I just plugged away. All free listings anyway. Potentially could make about eight quid, which is feck all really but every little helps etc.

A bundle is a good idea. I might just do that. Thanks poppy wearer :)

[Sunshinewithshowers]

You might have to pay sellers fees still, approx 4 weeks after sales.

[sixlostmonkeys]

After FVFs, paypal fees and packaging you won't actually make any money at all if they sell for 50p :(

[lljkk]

Agree, 50p is way too low! Did you start price at that or 99p? You can still edit the start price, OP, I strongly urge you to if you really did put only 50p.

Suppose it sells for 50p & you put only £2.20 on the postage.
Buyer pays £2.70, after postage you think you have 50p.
But Ebay actually takes 5p (FVF) and 35p Paypal fees, so you're netting 10p/item.

See if you can squeeze it into an A4 size envelope less than 2.5 cm thick; I have done this before with clothes. You get large letter rate which costs £50p-£1 less. Double up the envelopes to make sure protective enough of contents.