Aus Post satchels - pricing question

[silvervisions]

Hi, I've just started selling again after a long break. I looked on Aus Post's website for the prepaid satchel prices to set postage prices for my auctions, as I always used to do, but today when I went to buy satchels at the Post Office the small one had a ticket of $9.20 on the shelf, although it said $8.95 on their website. But the receipt shows the price at $8.95 plus another 25 cents fee that I can't for the life of me figure out, whatever it is, it brings it up to that $9.20 total. Can anyone tell me please what the extra cost is for? Do you include it in your postage costs or just absorb it? Thanks! 🙂

[gutterpunkz05 · Accepted solution]

$8.95 is the postage cost.  25c is the cost of the satchel

[11dustyattic · Accepted solution]

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@silvervisions wrote:

Hi, I've just started selling again after a long break. I looked on Aus Post's website for the prepaid satchel prices to set postage prices for my auctions, as I always used to do, but today when I went to buy satchels at the Post Office the small one had a ticket of $9.20 on the shelf, although it said $8.95 on their website. But the receipt shows the price at $8.95 plus another 25 cents fee that I can't for the life of me figure out, whatever it is, it brings it up to that $9.20 total. Can anyone tell me please what the extra cost is for? Do you include it in your postage costs or just absorb it? Thanks! 🙂

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$8.95 is the cost of postage if you were to post in your own packaging (you can use free boxes from Bunnings or whatever you like). The small satchel however has no weight limit up to 5kg, so it's not just the satchel you're paying for.

For comparison: Let's say I need to post 2 items, a bulk lot of beyblades weighing 2kg and a small doll weighing 200g. The beyblades would need to fit in the small satchel, first and foremost, consider that when doing the listing, adjust the quantity (or reduce bulk) to best utilise the open weight limit on satchels. But I could charge $9.20. Given the weight is over 500g, it would otherwise cost $12.20 in my own packaging so a significant saving for the buyer.

The doll I can either send in my own packaging or in a satchel, whatever I choose I only charge the buyer what it has cost me. I quite often charge $9.20 on the listing if I'm unsure the finished packaged weight won't go over 500g. Be careful with that. That way I don't have to stress. Again it would have to be small enough to fit into the satchel.

Up to you how you include your postage in your listing, but never overcharge for postage and be transparent

[11dustyattic]

Another thing I'll add is to be careful calculating postage if you don't have spare satchels at home to check to see if your item will fit. Those satchels seem to get smaller all the time

The old medium satchel was the size of the current large satchel 

[tazzieterror]

For satchels to reduce in size they would need to be subjected to quite a strong heat source.

I'd suggest reevaluating your storage arrangements if yours have indeed experienced a reduction in capacity.

[silvervisions]

Thank you all so much for your answers - wow, Aus Post has certainly changed things!

And 11dustyattic I do agree that the satchel size has shrunk - yesterday I blithely thought I was going to fit a neatly-tied bundle of four pieces of young child's clothing into a medium satchel (I remember fitting at least 6 in one of these a couple of years ago), but had to untie it and absolutey cram them in, then perform all sorts of contortions to get it actually sealed 😞  Thank you so much for the extra suggestions/info too - that's really interesting. I'll certainly try to have a satchel of each size to hand ready for next time so I can judge it better.

Cheers!

[gutterpunkz05]

Also remember that ebays FVF also applies to your postage charges, so unless you blend that into your item price, you need to add at least %10.9 onto your postage charges just to break even.

[11dustyattic]

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@silvervisions wrote:

Thank you all so much for your answers - wow, Aus Post has certainly changed things!

And 11dustyattic I do agree that the satchel size has shrunk - yesterday I blithely thought I was going to fit a neatly-tied bundle of four pieces of young child's clothing into a medium satchel (I remember fitting at least 6 in one of these a couple of years ago), but had to untie it and absolutey cram them in, then perform all sorts of contortions to get it actually sealed 😞  Thank you so much for the extra suggestions/info too - that's really interesting. I'll certainly try to have a satchel of each size to hand ready for next time so I can judge it better.

Cheers!

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lol I've performed similar contortions in the PO on occasion 😂

[silvervisions]

Thanks - it has always baffled me that ebay is allowed to charge the seller a percentage of a fee that's related to a postal service - I mean, fee for selling the item, sure - but we're not the ones providing the postal service so why on earth do we cop the fee for it? Seems like double dipping to me. Sigh.

[padi*0409]

It's been said that the reason for charging fees on postage was because some sellers used to list items for $1.00 with $100.00 postage to circumvent eBay fees for selling items.