EBay is Not the way to go

[ArabianNights]

You just pointed out the EXACT reason why claiming compensation from Royal Mail is NOT a reason to use them. £20 compensation is great if you sell tat, but not if you have to spend an hour doing it.

So I wouldn't be touting that as an advantage. Plenty of companies offer the same, and it's easier to claim.

Assume away.

I’m sorry. What are you arguing about exactly? Have a lot of time on your hands, don’t you? What’s the issue here exactly. RM provide compensation. So?

 

[UKSBD]

Hello - I produced a pack of cards similar to tarot and sold them on EBay for a number of years. The cost to me to produce them was £1.60 per pack. It cost £1.63 (one first and one second class) to post them, so far £3.23. I then put them on EBay at £4.95 per set.

Rename them as limited edition and advertise them for £49.50 a set

 

[DontAsk]

You just pointed out the EXACT reason why claiming compensation from Royal Mail is NOT a reason to use them. £20 compensation is great if you sell tat, but not if you have to spend an hour doing it.

I've done it several times (I have two claims in at the moment). It does not take anything like an hour. I have received way more than £20 (even with the most basic service you also get the original postage refunded). Payment is usually in a few days but they seem to be busy at the moment. I can't think why.

 

[Marantzdigital]

I found that when items got lost with royal mail, their online form was a 2 page simple process and I was paid out.

The max amount is 20 pounds, but my items were much less. Try probably paid out quickly as they could see It was genuine in the respect that if I was pulling a fast one surely I would surely try to milk the 20 max amount.

Honestly, let the royal mail proof of postage compensation put your mind at ease with dodgy buyers. Let it get lost, you can show them a similarly priced item and they will compensate if genuine and let them investigate any dodgy buyers.

Have you thought about the 80 percent off variable fees eBay? Maybe list when that comes up.

I agree that althought to you it's a hobby, you still have some money and time invested and you should do your best to get back as much as you can.

If you really do decide it's the end of your chapter with them, the charity shop is a great option. Or even to somewhere that can use them for activities etc.

eBay is tricky one, can get you down but best way it to try to cover yourself business or hobbyist. Easier said than done but it is possible.

Best of luck either way.

 

[Mr D]

Hello - I produced a pack of cards similar to tarot and sold them on EBay for a number of years. The cost to me to produce them was £1.60 per pack. It cost £1.63 (one first and one second class) to post them, so far £3.23. I then put them on EBay at £4.95 per set. Now here is the reason for this post. On your article ‘Side Hustles‘ it says consider EBay as they charge a small commission, well I consider the charge they made to me was anything but small.
EBay charged me 98p on a sale of £4.95. (I‘m an individual not a business).
So my total costs are £4.21 leaving a profit of 74p per set. I’m not arguing with that at all, I enjoy my walk to the post box (average one a week sale) but I do think that EBay charge a great deal more than a ‘Small Commission’.
NB. I stopped using EBay recently after three people within a month said they had not received their packages, I had to resend them. Postal strike or just got lost? I’ve never had to resend cards before. Am I being pedantic or is this the real world now! Cheers, Peter

Apart from you selling the items too cheap, what cost did you think ebay was going to charge?
The fees for private seller (which you are not by the way) is 12.8% plus 30p per sale.

Ebay charge a small commission. 12.8% plus 30p. You don't like how little you get? Charge a higher price.
No one sets the price for you.

Whatever site you sell on you will have some sort of cost. There's cheaper sites that have a lot less buyers.


As for losing packages that's down to your delivery service, not ebay.
If you sold on another site or even your own site that could still happen. And you'd still resend them or refund the buyer.
You do know that recently royal mail had strike action which impacted delivery of goods? Stuff stuck in backlogs for over 4 weeks in some instances.

 

[Mr D]

Royal Mail also posts the signature of the person receiving the item, on their tracking. We have used this many times as evidence of delivery on eBay claims by buyers.

Just out of interest who has signed for the item? Anyone here signed for anything with royal mail in last 35 months? Or has postie signed for it with customer's surname as they have been doing for quite a while?

 

[alan1302]

Anyone here signed for anything with royal mail in last 35 months?

Yes

 

[Ryan Paul]

Ebay has declined in the past 5 years.
Marketplace, Shpock, Gumtree, Vinted, etc are all taking a slice out of ebay, partly because of the cost of a sale.
However, they are still a market leader with millions of customers and transactions each day.
I'd increase your price on ebay but also sell on the aforementioned sites.

 

[DontAsk]

Just out of interest who has signed for the item? Anyone here signed for anything with royal mail in last 35 months? Or has postie signed for it with customer's surname as they have been doing for quite a while?

No, and the posties don't sign either, they scan it with their PDA. I watched him do it with something that was too big to go through the letter box. Once I answered the door, he scanned the QR code and handed over the parcel. No signatures anywhere.

 

[Justin Smith]

We use RM Click and Drop and it is tracked on delivery only, i.e. the RM will report when it was delivered but there is no signature unless you pay a lot extra. Anyone saying theye have not received a parcel that RM has given a delivery date and time for is probably pulling a fast one.
It very rare for us to get an order going missing, though that may be partly because we don't sell on E Bay any more. We tried it once years ago and it didn't work for us. People on there are generally only interested in cheap stuff, plus we found that unless you offer free carriage the stuff was way down in the search results. But free carriage only really works if the customesr are only buying one item, nearly all our customers (who deal direct with us) buy multiple items so we do a flat rate carriage charge with discounst for amount spent, i.e. "free" carriage on orders over £120, and half price carriage on orders over £60. For the odd E Bayer who wanted to combine postage it was a nightmare having to do an individual E Bay invoice etc. Also, as you say, E Bay are expensive, esp once the PayPal fees are included.
Lastly, we seemed to get more issues with E Bay customers than those dealing with us direct, Whether it was because we have quite an individualistic website with massive amounts of info so our direct customers see us a human beings whereas E Bay buyers don't is probably the answer. Plus E Bayers know we know they can give bad feedback so some take the ****.