At what price would you track delivery?

[TheReluctantBride]

I'm a casual eBayer. I sell the odd bits of baby clothes or regift things. All starts at 99p and Usually sell stuff for a few pounds and charge £2.80 postage which all goes on 2nd class small parcel. I wrap in paper and plastic/reuse Jiffy bags etc to save cost. I don't track stuff - and have never had an issue. One of my items is currently at £40 (yay!!!) - £2.80 postage. Would pay you track it? To be clear I don't mean to charge the buyer any more
Obv.

I might think about sending it 2nd class 'signed for' at £3.90, but that's only because unlike at a lot of other posters I have never had a problem with Royal Mail not bothering to get a signature. I would definitely do so if it reaches £50.00. but that's probably more to do with me thinking that I'm tempting fate for something to go wrong if I don't, rather than it being based on a logical reason.

I'm even more inclined to use 'signed for' if the item goes for more than I expected and am happy to take the hit myself on the extra postage. Your fees will only be based on what you actually charge your buyer on the invoice, so you won't be charged fees on the £1.10 difference between 2nd class and 2nd class 'signed for' which makes your out of pocket less IFYSWIM.

At one time I used to send more expensive items 1st class because I felt that the less time they were in the system, the less chance there was of them going missing, but recently my feedback has shown me that a lot of my 2nd class items are actually arriving the next day plus of-course the £2.80/£3.90 charge is far cheaper than the 1st class option which increases substantially with the weight of the item.

I would definitely track it. Getting a certificate of posting for normal 1st or 2nd class only covers you for up to £20 compensation if it goes missing.

Thanks good to know

Yes, definitely - purple frog is right - standard first or second class post is only covered up to £20.

signed for RM is up to £50 so I would deffo post signed for (never had a problem) and add tracking number to the transaction.

yes do track - MyHermes would only cost you £2.98 and is fully tracked. I send everything this way - no exceptions.

I also prefer MyHermes I have never in all the 200+ transactions with them I have never had a problem,make sure you add the tracking number to the details of the sale in your selling list and on pay-pal or as others have said Royal Mail signed for at £3.90 I always track anything costing more than £15.00.

Tracking £40 item is a no-brainer.

£10 after postage costs, is my rough rule for when it's worth tracking. Should be £20 really, given £20 is what Royal Mail cover with ordinary post.

If you send via MyHermes you can link ebay to them - it uploads your parcels and sends the tracking info to eBay automatically. Just make sure you amend the weight as it uploads most things to weigh 2kg, and you need to manually change that to get the cheaper rate if it is lighter.

I also send anything over around £10-£12 tracked. Also, anything that might be considered as "valuable", or sometimes if I have a bad feeling about a buyer. I have used MyHermes for heavier parcels and have had problems with a couple of people complaining too soon that their parcel hadn't turned up. I also had one parcel that got severely delayed when they had their depot fire before Christmas, but I would use them again for anything that works out much cheaper than Royal Mail.

I posted 2 parcels on Saturday lunchtime going to north of Scotland and had great fb from both buyers today. Really happy that RM delivered so fast. I sent them large letter 1st class signed for (they were tops) and it cost £2.36 per item. I usually charge £2 for tops or any items I think will go LL then make up any difference.