Ebay Dropping Free Postage Scam

[Guest]

They probably found it wasnt legal

In 2009 a mandatory free Postage & Packaging (P&P) policy was introduced in categories where excessive postage charges were a problem. Although buyers have responded positively (like shit they have) some sellers indicated this is having a negative impact on their listings and asked for alternative options to prevent excessive postage. This is especially when listing in the auction style format with a low starting price. Therefore to help drive further sales, the existing free P&P policy will be removed and replaced with maximum limits to Postage & Packaging charges from 8 February 2010.

[Glynthornhill]

There is an hidden agenda though Steve.

Detailed seller ratings ie the marks on feedback are to be tightened up so a maximum allowance of 1% or 2% error on dispatch, post charges , items as described . Otherwise suspension or lowered standings in search .

They say its to make seller experience more professional , but it is just another example of heading to a shopping site for the big retailers.

[phillyDaveG]

Obviously the threat of legal action from several UK sources, including the OFT and the Royal Mail has twisted their arms here. As you say, the "buyers have responded positively" bit is scandalous in itself. The thread on ebay's own forums complainign about this is its largest ever. No doubt they will get this money back off us by putting up their charges yet again.

[Thecivilservice]

Yeah I hate ebay with their scam but I also hate the fact that 99% of sellers overcharge on postage - everyone knows it costs 60p to send a 45 1st class in the UK so why is £2.50 the average price? Answer is greedy sellers looking to recoup their fees from the buyers. Overseas sellers are the worst though, it costs me anything from £1.50 to £1.90 to post a 45 to pretty much anywhere in the world so why do European sellers charge anything from £3.50 to £5 for a disc? I've been told its more expensive to send from abroad but this is quite clearly bullshit when you see the postage price stamped on the package. And don't get me started on US sellers. Maybe if sellers hadn't been greedy in the first place then ebay wouldn't have had the excuse to do this.

I've never charged more than £1 to the UK and £2.50 rest of world, that easily covers both postage and packaging. That's why ebay's move to free postage pissed me off more than anything, I could no longer differentiate myself from the greedy sellers and I actually stopped getting as many bids as if I was selling the same disc as someone else then I lost the price advantage with my realistic postage rates.

Anyway I'm getting sick of ebay, are there any decent alternatives people use for selling 45s?

[Diggin' Dave]

Anyway I'm getting sick of ebay, are there any decent alternatives people use for selling 45s?

I heard somewhere that there's a website called soul-source on which soul 45s can be sold without any charge...

[Jason S]

Maybe if sellers hadn't been greedy in the first place then ebay wouldn't have had the excuse to do this.

Wasn't Ebay's 'justification' for doing this down to the fact they THEY felt they were losing out to competitors because buyers having to pay postage (both at the correct or vastly inflated price) was affecting THEIR business, regardless of the loses sellers had to take. Selling some LPs for a mate, starting at £2.50, those that sold for £2.50 made him about 90p after fees/postage. Hardly worth the effort.

[Liljimmycrank]

everyone knows it costs 60p to send a 45 1st class in the UK so why is £2.50 the average price? Answer is greedy sellers looking to recoup their fees from the buyers. Overseas sellers are the worst though, it costs me anything from £1.50 to £1.90 to post a 45 to pretty much anywhere in the world so why do European sellers charge anything from £3.50 to £5 for a disc?

I've never charged more than £1 to the UK and £2.50 rest of world, that easily covers both postage and packaging.

I can only talk from my actual costs when i've posted 45's within the UK so apologies if your experience differs to mine when i've used the Post Office in the UK...............but..................I have ALWAYS sent record via 1st class recorded, nothing else, and the prices tends to be £1.65 for 1st class recorded, one 45 single in record mailer with stiffner.

I charge £2 for postage of a single 45 within UK (£1.65 + mailers cost which is approx 30 - 40pence per record)

Completely agree with you though, greedy people mailing out abroard or even within UK are making anything between £0.70 and £3 on avg IMO on postage. Soon mounts up if they're selling 100 records a month.

I think buyers and sellers (the honest one's anyway) suffered from the 'ebay postage gate' scandal, whether hit in the pocket or hit with broken unprotected records.

[Jason S]

Just tried to upload some items to ebay with postage costs inplemneted and lo and behold "shipping service cost exceeds maximum £0.00 allowed for selected category", even though the new 'max limit' is £4 . Bunch of f**s!!!!

[Pete S]

I can only talk from my actual costs when i've posted 45's within the UK so apologies if your experience differs to mine when i've used the Post Office in the UK...............but..................I have ALWAYS sent record via 1st class recorded, nothing else, and the prices tends to be £1.65 for 1st class recorded, one 45 single in record mailer with stiffner.

I charge £2 for postage of a single 45 within UK (£1.65 + mailers cost which is approx 30 - 40pence per record)

Completely agree with you though, greedy people mailing out abroard or even within UK are making anything between £0.70 and £3 on avg IMO on postage. Soon mounts up if they're selling 100 records a month.

I think buyers and sellers (the honest one's anyway) suffered from the 'ebay postage gate' scandal, whether hit in the pocket or hit with broken unprotected records.

I charge £1.80 for the same - new mailer, 2 or usually 3 pieces of card, £1.65 for recorded delivery, 15p for my costs. Now, if I see people charging more than me I immediately wonder why, if people are charging more than £2 I'll ask them why, and I just won't buy from anyone overcharging postage.

What really bugs me are the people who say £2 first record 30p each after or 50p each after, when in fact you can send at least 3 records for the base price of £2. So they can f*ck off as well.

Mick Smith says to me, every time someone overcharges him on postage he emails them telling them that their feedback will reflect the overcharging, they often relent.

Edited February 8, 2010 by Pete S

[Ric-tic]

Just tried to upload some items to ebay with postage costs inplemneted and lo and behold "shipping service cost exceeds maximum £0.00 allowed for selected category", even though the new 'max limit' is £4 . Bunch of f**s!!!!

i noticed tha yesterday i was lising for thursday and it did the same, so i thought id try today [8th its supposed to begin] and got the same looked at listings put on today and they are all free. [double]

[Glynthornhill]

Yeah I hate ebay with their scam but I also hate the fact that 99% of sellers overcharge on postage - everyone knows it costs 60p to send a 45 1st class in the UK so why is £2.50 the average price? Answer is greedy sellers looking to recoup their fees from the buyers. Overseas sellers are the worst though, it costs me anything from £1.50 to £1.90 to post a 45 to pretty much anywhere in the world so why do European sellers charge anything from £3.50 to £5 for a disc? I've been told its more expensive to send from abroad but this is quite clearly bullshit when you see the postage price stamped on the package. And don't get me started on US sellers. Maybe if sellers hadn't been greedy in the first place then ebay wouldn't have had the excuse to do this.

I've never charged more than £1 to the UK and £2.50 rest of world, that easily covers both postage and packaging. That's why ebay's move to free postage pissed me off more than anything, I could no longer differentiate myself from the greedy sellers and I actually stopped getting as many bids as if I was selling the same disc as someone else then I lost the price advantage with my realistic postage rates.

Anyway I'm getting sick of ebay, are there any decent alternatives people use for selling 45s?

You send 45s for 60p How ?

It costs a minimum of 76 p to send 2nd class 100 to 150 grams , which is the weight per 45 with stiffeners.

Would like to use your postal office if possible !!! This is prior to absorbing costs of cardboard, envelopes , parcel tape ...the list goes on and on....

[phillyDaveG]

As an occassional ebay seller. I normally charge £2 to send a 45.

Forgetting the cost of postage and packaging, the real cost is in me getting there. It can be 1 hour round trip to my nearest post office, thanks to many of the smaller ones having been closed. Maybe you should take this into consideration before thinking £2.50 is overpricing. As for the Ebay free postage scam, they still don't appear to have changed it back. Grrrr

[Jason S]

As for the Ebay free postage scam, they still don't appear to have changed it back. Grrrr

Sent them a snotty email asking exactly why as it appears to be in direct violation of their own rules (rules which they seem to be able to make and break at will) and the terms they are advertising- will be interested to hear the excuse if they ever get back to me

[Pete S]

As an occassional ebay seller. I normally charge £2 to send a 45.

Forgetting the cost of postage and packaging, the real cost is in me getting there. It can be 1 hour round trip to my nearest post office, thanks to many of the smaller ones having been closed. Maybe you should take this into consideration before thinking £2.50 is overpricing.

Absolutely no way, you don't live near a post office, tough, that's not your customers fault so why should they have to pay? I do 30 miles a week travelling to and from my post office, I wouldn't dream of asking my customers to pay for me to do so.

[Blunny]

I've had two different stories from two different PO's regarding 1st Class recorded......

One says that records can't be classed as letters, even though it fits through the Large Letters slot, therefore must be sent as a Packet and charged £2.37. The other says no problem, and classes them as Large Letters (£1.65). The only reference to this that I can find anywhere on the Royal Mail website quotes, gifts such as books, etc, should be sent as Packets but no specific mention of records.

The last batch of records I sent went as a mixture of the two, but the packets only went as packets because they didn't fit through the Large Letters slot.

As you might have guessed, I will be using the 2nd PO for now, until I get definite confirmation that records are not valid letters.

[Pete S]

I've had two different stories from two different PO's regarding 1st Class recorded......

One says that records can't be classed as letters, even though it fits through the Large Letters slot, therefore must be sent as a Packet and charged £2.37. The other says no problem, and classes them as Large Letters (£1.65). The only reference to this that I can find anywhere on the Royal Mail website quotes, gifts such as books, etc, should be sent as Packets but no specific mention of records.

The last batch of records I sent went as a mixture of the two, but the packets only went as packets because they didn't fit through the Large Letters slot.

As you might have guessed, I will be using the 2nd PO for now, until I get definite confirmation that records are not valid letters.

The ones charging you 2.37 haven't got a clue what they're on about!

[Blunny]

The ones charging you 2.37 haven't got a clue what they're on about!

That's the assumption I'm making

[Thecivilservice]

You send 45s for 60p How ?

It costs a minimum of 76 p to send 2nd class 100 to 150 grams , which is the weight per 45 with stiffeners.

Would like to use your postal office if possible !!! This is prior to absorbing costs of cardboard, envelopes , parcel tape ...the list goes on and on....

maybe its 90p or something now but you get my point... cardboard for stiffeners i get from work or the supermarket for free and send them in padded envelopes which i also get for free as I ask the post room at work to keep any they get in for me and I re-use them for records. Is time consuming though chopping up all the fcuking cardboard, trimming down the padded envelelopes to 7" size, looking out for decent 12" cardboard. Sometimes I feel like adding on more for postage, I certainly work to keep it cheap!

[Pete S]

maybe its 90p or something now but you get my point... cardboard for stiffeners i get from work or the supermarket for free and send them in padded envelopes which i also get for free as I ask the post room at work to keep any they get in for me and I re-use them for records. Is time consuming though chopping up all the fcuking cardboard, trimming down the padded envelelopes to 7" size, looking out for decent 12" cardboard. Sometimes I feel like adding on more for postage, I certainly work to keep it cheap!

I used to do that but I send out a lot of records so in the end I started buying pre-cut cardboard, what a life saver that is.

[Liljimmycrank]

I charge £1.80 for the same - new mailer, 2 or usually 3 pieces of card, £1.65 for recorded delivery, 15p for my costs.

Not all of us can experience the bulk buy economies of scale on packaging you will benefit from though pete. Good thing is though, you're one if the honest ones who passes those benefits back to the buyer through accurate postage.

Too often see established dealers marking up to more than cost on postage. Same to be said for 'bit part' sellers too of course, the margins are just a little less obvious sometimes.

I think for someone who doesn't sell in large quantities, usually an occasional seller, £2 for 1st class recorded is about right due to actual cost, anything above is clearly into profit making/cash for their efforts teritory.

Ironically i bought mailers/stiffners through eBay!!!!!!

[Pete S]

Not all of us can experience the bulk buy economies of scale on packaging you will benefit from though pete.

Yep, I'm sat in my millionaires mansion drinking champagne here

they don't cost much and you can buy as few as you want from Tramiki Supplies...

[Guest Dave Turner]

If you charge postage or build it into the price (Buy it Now) and set your postage rates to just cover the actual costs of posting and packing then also take into account Paypal are taking circa 4% of that. Whilst I don't agree with stupid overcharging anyone charging just the actual costs of post and packing are losing money on the deal. Only a small amount of perhaps 8-10 pence but if you're charging close to the line then something to consider.

[Mick Holdsworth]

Just in case anyone is interested, you can now add postage on your UK listings (supposed to be yesterday 8th but there were problems). They finally got it working this morning - Turbo lister also works, but you may need to update it.

Cheers

Mick

Edited February 9, 2010 by sixtify

[Guest]

Just in case anyone is interested, you can now add postage on your UK listings (supposed to be yesterday 8th but there were problems). They finally got it working this morning - Turbo lister also works, but you may need to update it.

Cheers

Mick

Yep - it's back on - I popped up 2 45s today just to test it and it's back in again - me? I charge £1.90 for 1 x 45 recorded post on there - I bulk buy packaging too and I long ago gave up chopping down cardboard boxes to use as stiffeners - just don't have the time for that...

[Northern Soul Uk]

I wrote to ebay to complain when they made the free postage rule. My case was that if I started a record, let's say an album for this scenario, at 99p, to beakon the bidders in, and the record only sold for 99p, and then I had to post it, which is £1.65 UK, and then there's the Ebay and Paypal fees, I would be loosing money hand over fist.

Their reply was that i should incorporate the postage costs etc into the start price. But if you are starting a record at let's say £3.50 to incorporate the fees etc. instead of 99p, it puts folk of bidding.

I've always beleived and still do, that if a record is worth it, it'll find it's own value so i have always started my auction price at .99p. but there is always the chance that it won't get bid on.

Their excuse was that more and more online shopping sites are doing free postage so they were trying to attract more customers to Ebay by offering the same. But normal sellers are not online multi million £ companies that can afford to absorb the cost of postage, and most Ebay sellers cannot afford to give free postage.

This week I put a load of classical LPs onto Ebay, I sold 7 to one seller, the postage cost was over £4 second class, so work it out, 7 records at 99p = £6.93. take the postage off that = £3.93, then there's the Ebay and paypal fees, packaging equipment and petrol to the post office.? Is it worth it?

[Guest]

I wrote to ebay to complain when they made the free postage rule. My case was that if I started a record, let's say an album for this scenario, at 99p, to beakon the bidders in, and the record only sold for 99p, and then I had to post it, which is £1.65 UK, and then there's the Ebay and Paypal fees, I would be loosing money hand over fist.

Their reply was that i should incorporate the postage costs etc into the start price. But if you are starting a record at let's say £3.50 to incorporate the fees etc. instead of 99p, it puts folk of bidding.

I've always beleived and still do, that if a record is worth it, it'll find it's own value so i have always started my auction price at .99p. but there is always the chance that it won't get bid on.

Their excuse was that more and more online shopping sites are doing free postage so they were trying to attract more customers to Ebay by offering the same. But normal sellers are not online multi million £ companies that can afford to absorb the cost of postage, and most Ebay sellers cannot afford to give free postage.

This week I put a load of classical LPs onto Ebay, I sold 7 to one seller, the postage cost was over £4 second class, so work it out, 7 records at 99p = £6.93. take the postage off that = £3.93, then there's the Ebay and paypal fees, packaging equipment and petrol to the post office.? Is it worth it?

No mate - deffo NOT worth it...

[Larsc]

Overseas sellers are the worst though, it costs me anything from £1.50 to £1.90 to post a 45 to pretty much anywhere in the world so why do European sellers charge anything from £3.50 to £5 for a disc? I've been told its more expensive to send from abroad but this is quite clearly bullshit when you see the postage price stamped on the package. And don't get me started on US sellers. Maybe if sellers hadn't been greedy in the first place then ebay wouldn't have had the excuse to do this.

I can't send a record to europe for less than £4. Probably partly because Norway is generally expensive but probably also because the post office has a price plan that goes directly from 100g to 350g. I can't pack a record so that it weighs less than 100g. The good news is that if a buyer wants more than one record the postage is the same (at least up to five records, then it gets expensive again). I'm not too pleased about this because I have a lot of really cheap records for sale and I'm convinced I could have sold more if the shipping cost was more reasonable.