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eBay

If you buy or sell items on eBay, you will find tips and advice on this forum.

Original poster

How can sellers post so cheaply

7 replies

TomYumSoup · 05/12/2010 17:51

I have a collection of 12 paperback books which I was thinking of selling. (Horrid Henry) They weigh over 1kg so from what I can see Royal Mail would charge £4.50 for 1st class & don't do 2nd class for that weight. Standard parcels would be £4.41 & My Hermes (cheapest courier) would be £3.99 + VAT. So, how are other sellers only charging about £3.50 for the same or more books. Are they all making a loss? How can they do it? Confused

OP posts:
SoupDragon · 05/12/2010 17:54

Certain categories on eBay set maximum postage charges, DVDs is one of these and I thought books w another. Yes, you make a loss on postage so should price your item to cover this.

Original poster
TomYumSoup · 05/12/2010 18:33

I don't think books must be one of the categories at the moment as there are a few sellers charging the right amount & I have just tried to list with £4.50 & it accepts it which which makes it stranger that some people don't charge enough.

OP posts:
SoupDragon · 05/12/2010 18:42

DVDs used to require free P&P! Now you can only charge £1. it may be that they've changed the book one. It was some time ago that I thought I'd read something about a postage cap.
The sellers will have included any potential postage loss in their asking price if their P&P is low.. Either that or they have super lightweight books :)

HelloKittyIsMyBitch · 06/12/2010 15:13

Perhaps they are using a courier or their work mail?

Talkinpeace · 06/12/2010 19:39

They are including the differential in their start prices
or they are idiots!

ragged · 09/12/2010 12:15

It costs (IIRC) 96p to post a DVD first class in a Jiffy bag. So that only allows 4p to cover the cost of the bag and some parcel tape, nothing for your time certainly.

Definitely a set up for only professional buyers to truly profit!

dikkertjedap · 13/12/2010 13:38

They may be professional sellers as that would mean that they get volume discounts from the likes of MyHermes/TNT/DHL etc. Ebay is very clever by limiting some of the postage because if it forces you to list P&P below cost, you will have to increase your reserve price to cover costs which means bingo for ebay and paypal as you pay a percentage of the auction price to them ... So they will want to see as high auction price as possible and preferably as low P&P or zero P&P ...

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