Anybody kind enough to guide me on postage.

[LizzieMacQueen]

I've recently listed a few pieces of clothing and shoes. In the listing, when it came to the P&P part, the automatic suggestion of £2.80 was recommended so I clicked and continued.

Then I googled and saw that ebay commission is now also 10% of P&P and I looked at Royal Mail and saw a small parcel would be £2.85 to post. So not including any costs of packaging or getting to the post office, you would need to charge £3.20 - ish to break even.

Am I missing something? When I did sell something I was asked if I wanted to print a label. I thought, okay that'll save me writing on the parcel, but it was to print off a postage paid label (assume like the returns labels you get with online shopping) which I assume I would be charged for.

I suppose what I am figuring out is if I tick the recommended £2.80, is that what I pay to Ebay to print their label off, and is that then free of their commission?

I did try looking through their FAQs but still couldn't find the answer. Just some stuff about how they want to promote a free P&P environment.

According to ebays T+Cs you're not allowed to bump up postage costs to incorporate their commission. Stupid yes, and no, I'm not saying people don't do it...... I'm just saying.

eBay take their commission from the total amount a buyer pays you. If you buy a label from them or not, doesn't come into it.

Oh I didn't realise that, so if I sell something for £2 and charge their P&P of 2.80 the ebay commission will be 48p. I'll be charged £2.85 by the post office so I'd only make £1.47 - and that's before the paypal charges.

I may need to rethink this because, as it stands, with transport and parking at the PO (only 50p) I will be out of pocket.

don't sell an item for £2 is the answer, it is not worth it. And as a private seller you can't change for transport and parking. I use Hermes tbh - they collect and your parcel is tracked too.

Okay, thanks for the tip, I'll look up Hermes in my area.

Hermes do collect, yes, but you can only specific a date for collection, not a time, so it's only of use if you're willing to wait in from 7am - 7pm.

Or you can leave the parcel in a safe place like shed, porch etc. It really is not a problem.

Thanks, I've looked at Hermes but think I'll stick with Royal mail, I'll walk to avoid the parking charges.

I'll rethink my pricing, so far I have been guided by ebay with their 'similar items start at £1.00' or some such.

I send everything myHermes, and put in a P&P of £3.50 (so this includes 40p on top of the courier charge for packaging and taking to my local pick-up place).

Unless I can squeeze it into a Large Letter, in which case I charge less and stick it in the post.

And I second the suggestion of not bothering to sell for less than £3. If it's worth so little it goes to the charity shop or car boot.

If you have a few things for under £3 then put them in one mixed lot, they seem to go well.

YY, bundling works really well for kid's clothes.

I always charge £4.00 postage for clothing etc it's £3.95 second class recorded , and put items together for anyone buying more than one thing , would never send not recorded and post office is localish for me to used - the 5p over doesn't cover cost of packaging but can't really justify more

I send a postal refund if I put two or more items together **