AnPost prices shocking

Canacourse

I sold an item today to a person in the UK on ebay. Package weighs 1.5KG and will cost nearly €27 to ship to the UK by Registered post. Does any know of any cheaper alternatives apart from hoping on a ryainair flight?


TIA..

Zippie84

yes it is shocking alright.

although having checked doing it from uk to ireland by royal mail wouldn't have cost that much less at £17.49.

the key i think is that it was signed for. was this necessary?

did the buyer cover the costs?

Shaneod21

Thats ridiculous, nearly an incentive not to sell on ebay! You should look into the fees before you list an item, otherwise you could end up making a loss.

Zippie84

Shaneod21 wrote: »

Thats ridiculous, nearly an incentive not to sell on ebay! .

how would it be an incentive not to sell online?

the buyer covers the cost of postage not the seller, so if anything it's an incentive not to buy online.

as the seller, once you find out the correct cost of postage before listing the item, advertise it as such, and get the money before postage then there shouldnt' be a problem.

jor el

It's not shocking at all. 1.5kg is quite heavy, and shipping to the UK is international. So you have a quite heavy parcel being shipped internationally for €27, which seems reasonable to me. That's registered post too, and you do pay a premium for this service. Regular post for 1.5kg is €22, but not recommended for eBay sales.

Using a courier is going to be a lot more expensive.

If the problem here is that you listed a P&P charge that is way below €27, without first checking how much it was actually going to cost, then you're going to have to pay for your mistake, as you can't ask the buyer to pay more just because you didn't check beforehand.

Canacourse

jor el wrote: »

It's not shocking at all. 1.5kg is quite heavy, and shipping to the UK is international. So you have a quite heavy parcel being shipped internationally for €27, which seems reasonable to me. That's registered post too, and you do pay a premium for this service. Regular post for 1.5kg is €22, but not recommended for eBay sales.

Using a courier is going to be a lot more expensive.

If the problem here is that you listed a P&P charge that is way below €27, without first checking how much it was actually going to cost, then you're going to have to pay for your mistake, as you can't ask the buyer to pay more just because you didn't check beforehand.

Sorry but it is shocking! I posted the exact same item to the UK in October of last year by registered post and it cost €15.10 now less than a year later it costs €27.00

I did not check the shiping prices before I placed the ad on ebay this time but I also did not expect the shipping price to nearly have doubled in the space of 9 months either.

rccaulfield

Sure i shipped four 0.5 kg plates from germany and the shipping was 10 euro-rip off ireland!

Zippie84

Canacourse wrote: »

Sorry but it is shocking! I posted the exact same item to the UK in October of last year by registered post and it cost €15.10 now less than a year later it costs €27.00

and u got it registered post last time also did you?

jor el

Canacourse wrote: »

Sorry but it is shocking!

No, it isn't. It's quite a reasonable rate for what you are posting.

Canacourse wrote: »

I posted the exact same item to the UK in October of last year by registered post and it cost €15.10 now less than a year later it costs €27.00

In 2005, An Posts rates for 2kg by registered post to the UK were €28, so I don't see how it could have been €15.10 last October. Comreg have not granted any price increases to An Post since 2007.

rccaulfield wrote: »

Sure i shipped four 0.5 kg plates from germany and the shipping was 10 euro-rip off ireland!

And to send 500g packet from here to Germany would cost... €9.20. Your point?

Cr8or

To entertain a bit of a more constructive conversation .. does anyone have any experience with alternatives to AnPost?

I've heard of a couple of people going up north to post back down to Ireland as it was cheaper to do a volume mail shot this way. I'm sure this would also work with parcels .. if you are doing some kind of volume.

Would parcleforce, DHL or UPS have been cheaper to a UK location?

rubadub

Zippie84 wrote: »

how would it be an incentive not to sell online?

the buyer covers the cost of postage not the seller, so if anything it's an incentive not to buy online.

The point is that it not even worth bothering trying to sell items online since you cannot compete with other people in countries with cheaper postage. For a lot of items the cost of postage alone to the seller would be higher than the overall cost to buy the item brand new including shipping from another website. I would like to sell a lot of stuff on ebay but know there is no point wasting my time, since I would get no buyers, even if they got it free they would be mad to pay for the postage. I wish they had a real slow boat cheap service I could offer.

jor el wrote: »

It's not shocking at all. 1.5kg is quite heavy, and shipping to the UK is international. So you have a quite heavy parcel being shipped internationally for €27, which seems reasonable to me.

Well UK is "zone 2" which is second up, then zone 3 is Europe, and zone 4 is rest of world. I think it is quite expensive.

jor el wrote: »

Using a courier is going to be a lot more expensive.
.

Depends. I have gotten a few bicycles delivered from the UK for about €20 by DHL. The company in my sig link delivery up to 26kg in a few days for £6.95 and they can be very bulky boxes. The company I work in delivery to the UK all the time and there is now way they pay that much. I am sure they get discounts for the volume of business but I bet some courier is out there that would be cheaper than an post, it is just hassle organising it.

jor el wrote: »

And to send 500g packet from here to Germany would cost... €9.20. Your point?

He got 4x500g, so 2kg and probably another .5kg packing. I got an item on ebay €15 DHL and had to return it which cost €35 with an post.

jor el

DPD, formerly Interlink, get good reviews, not sure of the cost though.

For 1.5kg, FedEx will charge between €54 and €175 for Ireland to UK. The others don't have online cost calculators.

Unless you live on the border, the cost of traveling north would negate the saving.

fifth

I'm sending off an xbox today (within ireland) and i'm dreading the postage costs.

Cr8or

jor el wrote: »

DPD, formerly Interlink, get good reviews, not sure of the cost though.

For 1.5kg, FedEx will charge between €54 and €175 for Ireland to UK. The others don't have online cost calculators.

Unless you live on the border, the cost of traveling north would negate the saving.

I agree .. depends on where you are located too .. For me .. from Dublin -> border town costs me about €15 in petrol up and back. Might be worth it if you had a number of items to ship.

Since SDS disbanded have the prices gone up?

the groutch

Canacourse wrote: »

I sold an item today to a person in the UK on ebay. Package weighs 1.5KG and will cost nearly €27 to ship to the UK by Registered post.

they have charged it as a parcel, which unless it was a box of feathers, should be only a packet at that weight, and the staff at the post office are in no position to guess the size

here's more details for you:
http://www.anpost.ie/AnPost/What+Are+You+Sending+Details.htm#parcel

Canacourse

In 2005, An Posts rates for 2kg by registered post to the UK were €28, so I don't see how it could have been €15.10 last October. Comreg have not granted any price increases to An Post since 2007.

€15.10 is what it cost. I have the receipt in front of me and I always write the item on the receipt so I can track how much I make (or lose) on Ebay.

jor el

It must have been a packet the last time, and parcel price this time. Try get it sent as a small packet.

fifth

6.99KG package today cost me €16 standard post, within Ireland.

Canacourse

funkyflea wrote: »

6.99KG package today cost me €16 standard post, within Ireland.

Thats reasonable enough.

bladespin

Have to admit i always found our postal rates ok, UPS etc cost a lot more for the same size.

fifth

Canacourse wrote: »

Thats reasonable enough.

True, I was worried it would be more, but ended up being surprised.

Access

Canacourse wrote: »

I did not check the shiping prices before I placed the ad on ebay this time

The first thing i always end up doing now is weighing and checking the postage price on the an post website to see what its costing before i even put up an item on ebay.

An post can be very steep price wise on certain locations, but its the cheapest and the item always gets there... well 98% of the time!