topic Re: postage cost more than thought in Selling

postage cost more than thought

matthewkai — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 05:51:03 GMT

Hello I sold an item, did all the calculations, weight, size, etc and it apparenly would have cost $15. Sent it today and cost me $18 to ACT so it actually cost me. Also it was only a 1kg parceal. Why is this

Re: postage cost more than thought

davidc4430 — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 05:54:16 GMT

what did you use to calculate the post price? ebays calculator or?

Re: postage cost more than thought

matthewkai — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 06:03:13 GMT

Yeah with ebay calculator

Re: postage cost more than thought

davidc4430 — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 06:16:55 GMT

i find the ebay calculator is often wrong, but usually it over charges. ive had a couple where i ended up a few dollars out of pocket tho. the only true way of doing it is taking your packed item to the post office for a quote but thats not practical. i just make sure i factor in a few dollars in my list price to cover such errors. i can allways give a refund for over charges but cant ask for extra.

Re: postage cost more than thought

davewil1964 — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 06:26:52 GMT

If it will fit, put it in a 3kg satchel. $13.40 to anywhere in Australia.

Re: postage cost more than thought

chameleon54 — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 10:15:07 GMT

Australia Post have a postage calculator on their website. This is identical to the one used by post Office staff, so if you enter the details correctly, you will be quoted the exact same price as if you took the parcel to the post office and had them do the calculation. I use it regularly for local and international postage calculations and get the correct price virtually every time.

As Dave has mentioned 3 kg and 5 kg. satchels work out much cheaper than packing items in a box. For those who dont know ( and there are quite a few ebayers who dont use them ). The satchels are a plastic bag with pre paid postage that you buy from the post office or through ebay. They have a sealable strip at the top and places for address and air freight declaration signiture. They also have a tracking number sticker that you can peel off and keep. You just put your packed item in, seal and mail over the counter at AP office or put them in the mail box. If you put them over the AP counter you can see the staff scan them in and ask for a scanning reciept.

Re: postage cost more than thought

lyndal1838 — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 10:18:23 GMT

The PO uses cubing to calculate postage.....you are charged whichever is more.....either calculated by weight or by dimensions.

Re: postage cost more than thought

davewil1964 — Wed, 30 Mar 2016 10:57:44 GMT

And a reasonable bet the OP didn't take into account packaging, which can add a couple of cms to each dimension.

Re: postage cost more than thought

typhoon4u — Thu, 31 Mar 2016 10:25:47 GMT

Yes, totally agree with the use of satchels. Very much the best way to go.

I went into the LPO the other day. My box would have cost $90 to send express as quoted by the staff.

I purchased 5 kg and 3 kg express satchels (about $35) and split the order into them.

A substantial saving......

More than one way to skin a cat when it comes to AP!

Re: postage cost more than thought

aussie-picker — Fri, 01 Apr 2016 09:03:25 GMT

If losing $3 on a sale through your own thoughtless prep , is going to send you to the wall , Quit Now 🙂

Re: postage cost more than thought

mountainherbs-123 — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 23:11:30 GMT

I looked into that but lots of items must be packed better and don't fit into these plastic bags. I use boxes.

Re: postage cost more than thought

chameleon54 — Sun, 03 Apr 2016 23:42:36 GMT

If you look under the ebay "postal supplies" catagory, you can buy boxes designed to fit inside the satchels.

Re: postage cost more than thought

typhoon4u — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 04:39:42 GMT

There are 3 size satchels (bags) 500gm, 3kg and a huge 5kg satchel which is $17 aus wide.

They are compact, easily stored and cheap to buy in packs of 10.

If you buy the ebay satchels without the pre-paid component, you can use the ebay labels then you are billed on your ebay invoice meaning you do not have to pay postage for the satchels in advance. Only when someone has bought and paid and then when the invoice is due. Up to 6 weeks from when they purchased and paid for their order.

You have your tracking automatically linked to your order and no time is wasted writing out addresses.

I use boxes (in a satchel) at times but mainly just wrap in bubble wrap and put in the satchel.

Re: postage cost more than thought

247newdeals — Tue, 05 Apr 2016 04:54:29 GMT

MY 2 cent on this people need to be careful with the postage cost and do their homework pre-sale. In the case of the OP did you realise that even if the postage cost was $15 it would in fact cost you 17.20 with ebay/paypal fees on top if it was 18 it would actually cost you $21.If you charged $15 postage and it cost you $18 to send you will in fact lose about $5.20 off your profit margin. You need to work out the correct costs Postage/packing, ebay/paypal fees, returned items, stolen items(just because we work in cyberspace do not think we do not have shop lifters 😉 ) otherwise you will end up losing money