1st time Ebay seller - help needed re:calculating postage

RubyB82 · 24-11-2014 09:50PM #1

Hi All,

I want to sell some items on ebay..mainly shoes and two new & never worn dresses..mostly Irregular Choice, Miss KG, Carvela, River Island (ah the good old days before my mortgage repayments)..some new with box, some worn only 2 or 3 times..

Anyway my query is I am totally confused as to how to calculate what I charge for postage. I used the calculator on the An Post website and say for the heaviest shoes which are between 2 - 2.5KG postage for a parcel by standard post is

To Europe - €36.50
To UK - €30.50
To America - €36.50

Is that right...it's very steep..I looked up other sellers from Ireland and the majority seem to be stating postage as little as between €9 - €15 for the likes of Knee High Wedge boots which would be quite a heavy parcel....I don't understand how they can have such cheap postage?!?! Also I don't want to scare off potential buyers because of high postage and I definitely don't want to be overcharging anyone.

Also when you're noting your postage price on an item..as you don't know where your buyer is going to be from how do you know how much to put down?
I've been looking it up online and videos on you tube about how to put an item up for sale on Ebay however they're all US sellers so don't really apply to me..any help/ advice appreciated.

Thanks!

jimmii · 24-11-2014 09:56PM

Yep its tough selling from here due to the shipping a lot of people will subsidise the cost just to be able to compete. Try parcel2go might be cheaper to go courier. You can link your eBay account to their service too make it easier.

RubyB82 · 24-11-2014 10:24PM

Jeepers..I thought maybe I was doing something wrong that the Postage was coming up so high! Thanks a mil for the recommendation on Parcel2go...much better then an post!!

Grab All Association · 24-11-2014 10:27PM

Why not use Adverts.ie? It's a lot easier and cheaper than ebay/paypal.

Yawns · 24-11-2014 10:32PM

maybe she doesn't want to be offered a half open bag of peanuts from 3 years ago as that's the kind o stupid replies you get on adverts. It does have it's good ones too tho.

kc90 · 24-11-2014 10:45PM

RubyB82 wrote: »

Hi All,

I want to sell some items on ebay..mainly shoes and two new & never worn dresses..mostly Irregular Choice, Miss KG, Carvela, River Island (ah the good old days before my mortgage repayments)..some new with box, some worn only 2 or 3 times..

Anyway my query is I am totally confused as to how to calculate what I charge for postage. I used the calculator on the An Post website and say for the heaviest shoes which are between 2 - 2.5KG postage for a parcel by standard post is

To Europe - €36.50
To UK - €30.50
To America - €36.50

Is that right...it's very steep..I looked up other sellers from Ireland and the majority seem to be stating postage as little as between €9 - €15 for the likes of Knee High Wedge boots which would be quite a heavy parcel....I don't understand how they can have such cheap postage?!?! Also I don't want to scare off potential buyers because of high postage and I definitely don't want to be overcharging anyone.

Also when you're noting your postage price on an item..as you don't know where your buyer is going to be from how do you know how much to put down?
I've been looking it up online and videos on you tube about how to put an item up for sale on Ebay however they're all US sellers so don't really apply to me..any help/ advice appreciated.

Thanks!

For the heavier items, it might be worth limiting postage to Ireland and the UK. You could stick with anpost for Irish sales, but send to the UK with a courier. If you send by Nightline through parcel motel (it's fairly handy) it should be half the price:
http://www.parcelmotel.com/howmuch.html
I'm sure there's similar options with other couriers, like collect+, but I've never used them.
Tbh, Ireland is a tough sale on ebay, you'd be better off using a ad site like adverts or donedeal. Listing on ebay.co.uk only should still get you plenty of traffic.
Just make sure you're 100% on the postage cost before you list it on ebay, buyers can be unmerciful if you undercharge and ask for more (equally for over charging) and bear in mind, ebay now take 10% of the P&P charge too.

RubyB82 · 24-11-2014 11:37PM

Thanks a mil for your replies everyone, really helpful advice. Think i'll have a busy evening tomorrow with the weighing scales and measuring tape for all my shoe boxes!!!

I hadn't considered the likes of adverts/ buy & sell as I had thought that ebay would get more traffic (mainly as it's always my first port of call whenever I need anything) and also I thought I'd have more chance of getting a better price for my items through bids..however this is my first time selling anything on any site so I don't really have anything to compare that to.

Will definitely be limiting my sales to Ireland and UK only by the looks of it anyway!

Thanks Again :-)

campo · 29-11-2014 01:01AM

Also for UK try Parcel Motel I use them at cost runs from 14.50 to 16.50, roughly half the cost of An Post

pistolpetes11 · 30-11-2014 10:00PM

RubyB82 wrote: »

Hi All,

I want to sell some items on ebay..mainly shoes and two new & never worn dresses..mostly Irregular Choice, Miss KG, Carvela, River Island (ah the good old days before my mortgage repayments)..some new with box, some worn only 2 or 3 times..

Anyway my query is I am totally confused as to how to calculate what I charge for postage. I used the calculator on the An Post website and say for the heaviest shoes which are between 2 - 2.5KG postage for a parcel by standard post is

To Europe - €36.50
To UK - €30.50
To America - €36.50

Is that right...it's very steep..I looked up other sellers from Ireland and the majority seem to be stating postage as little as between €9 - €15 for the likes of Knee High Wedge boots which would be quite a heavy parcel....I don't understand how they can have such cheap postage?!?! Also I don't want to scare off potential buyers because of high postage and I definitely don't want to be overcharging anyone.

Also when you're noting your postage price on an item..as you don't know where your buyer is going to be from how do you know how much to put down?
I've been looking it up online and videos on you tube about how to put an item up for sale on Ebay however they're all US sellers so don't really apply to me..any help/ advice appreciated.

Thanks!

Ring up An Post ,

Ask for the Rep for your area and get them to set you up on an international priority label account ,

If you need any more info PM me

1st time Ebay seller - help needed re:calculating postage

Comments