Cheapest & Safest postage envelopes?

[hsvcc64]

Hi,

Ive been selling quite a bit here on ebay & ive noticed the postage fees are ridiculous & high! Not to mention the ebay fees when you sell an item. For a thin bit of material to be posted, it costs $8.25? Are there any types of postage envelopes people can recommend that will still make sure the buyer receives their item in perfect condition & that doesn't cost a fortune? 

I dont like to raise my postage prices anymore because i know i dont know like to pay heaps of postage for an item, at the same time i dont want to raise the prices of my items because they wont sell. 

Kind of at a loss end with both sides! Any recommendations on how to cheaply send something or what type of envelope is the best. (Generally i sell things like clothes,etc) 

Any advice would be greatly appreciated,

Thank you! 🙂

[hsvcc64]

Thank you for all of the recent posts on the cheaper way of postage. I had been under the impression if posting something other than a letter, paper etc in those standard A4 paper envelopes that things would have to be posted in parcel packaging. Anyhow, you have offered me a cheaper, safer & better way of postage and various ways to go about this.

[amber-eyed-girl]

If you will be posting in a paper envelope, put material items in ziplock first to help protect them if it rains, or the envelope rips in transit 🙂

There are a few brands of bulk ziplocks available at the supermarket.

[phorum_junkie*]

Under 20cm thick you can send as a letter, if it is cheap or easily replaced then you just need the stamp, if you want to qualify for Paypal seller protection you will have to register, still available for letters.

Your PO should be able to provide you with a cardboard letter guide which you can use to check.

For anything that won't post as a letter then you are best off using click & send with the ebay branded satchels, they cost a few cents for the satchels and then $6.95 and $11.55 for the 500g and 3kg satchels. If an item is expensive then I add signature on delivery which is an extra $2.95 and for anything over $100 I add extra cover.

[ajarnjenny]

So, could you post a thin book which is less than 2cm thick and is the length and width of large letter in a large letter envelope?

[ajarnjenny]

You do mean 2cm, don't you?

[haolove13]

Whatever postage method you use get the post office to put a DO NOT SAFE DROP sticker on all parcels. The recent show on A current affair showing items being left on top of unit letterboxes was an eye opener. That is where a lot of non delivered parcels seem to go missing along with the "I did not receive the item" and that is hard to fight when the item is scanned as it is handed over or picked up from the post office.

Since tracking and DO NOT safe drop stickers have been standard for me "losses" real or imagined have dropped considerably.

I also use a4 flat packs for magazines and books as often you can get it less than 20mm and the corners of the books are protected.

(If you stay friendly with your post office as the flat packs are technically 1cm too long for large letter you need to fudge a bit.)

The A4 flat packs are also useful for larger items as you can fould them out to a box that holds quite a lot. and they cube out less than the standard boxes as you can easily flatten them to the size of the product.

I no longer use self made boxes as the time taken to custom make packaging reduces your efficency considerably.

Try making custom cartons for half an hour and compare that to the cost of buying a ready made product.

If you are selling quantities of items you can save a lot of time and money by using commercial packaging.

[davewil1964]

Yes. I do it all the time.

[hsvcc64]

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@phorum_junkie* wrote:

For anything that won't post as a letter then you are best off using click & send with the ebay branded satchels, they cost a few cents for the satchels and then $6.95 and $11.55 for the 500g and 3kg satchels. If an item is expensive then I add signature on delivery which is an extra $2.95 and for anything over $100 I add extra cover.

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I have purchased 50 ebay satchels. 25x 500g and 25 3kg satchels because there was a $10 minimum to spend on the website haha. Hopefully they don't take too long to arrive. 🙂 Hopefully this does work out cheaper in the end..... !

[davewil1964]

If you buy them from the AP store on eBay there is no minimum spend.

[billexploited]

I buy my postage materials from spare change in Geelong they're dirt cheap from cd mailers to satchels priced from 30 cents to 2 bucks you can get even with australia post there some loop holes you send items from as little as $1.20 to Australia. Also when at Australia post make sure use the self serve checkout you can weigh your items and the checkout will detirmine to the best postage.