Large letter shenanigans

[elusiveeditions]

Hi all, just a quick question, sounds trivial but please bear with me. I sell books (only a little on ebay but will probably increase it soon for lack of anywhere else to clear my stock) and often use large letter for small books, so no tracking and must be <20mm but it's nice and cheap.

Anything larger (like your standard 300+ page paperback) goes in a 500g satchel. These are overpriced as has been discussed here before, which must put buyers off cheaper stock, but you do get tracking which is great if the buyer claims INR.

I sometimes send books as parcels, but you can't accurately pre-price postage without knowing the destination. It's too messy to be refunding postage b/c I charged too much or taking a loss b/c I charged too little.

ANYWAY- as a minor test I bought a few cheap p/backs (well over 20mm.... one was closer to 60mm) to see how other sellers do this. Two of them arrived in A4 enevlopes, with 2 or 3 $0.70 stamps on them.

That's not a large letter is it? A 600 page book? They wouldn't have met the weight requirements for large letter at those prices, let alone the <20mm.

So- is it just a fluke that these got through and you're not really supposed to do this? It'd be great if I could send standard paperbacks for $2.10 but afaik you can't, and these sellers have just been lucky/don't realise/are trying it on etc. Is that right?

Apologies for longwinded-ness 🙂

[digital*ghost]

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@elusiveeditions wrote:

So- is it just a fluke that these got through and you're not really supposed to do this? 

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Definitely not supposed to do that, and not only are the sellers lucky the packages made it through, but so are the recipients (in a manner of speaking, it is not unheard of for AP to pick up on underpaid postage and charge the recipent the shortfall, plus an admin fee, before they can receive the package, even when the sender's address is on the package - I had two just this last week, large letters where the stamps must have fallen off during transit, as both buyers said no stamps were on the packages at all. So, I paid $1.40 ea at the start, then refunded $2.90 to each buyer for what the PO charged them). 

That being said, I have been on the receiving end of some similarly dodgy packages, which made it through APs checks somehow (including one that was plastered with $1.40 of old, cancelled stamps but was way thicker than 2cm, and no return address). 

[clarry100]

I'd say they're just lucky not to get pinged by AP.

Our stuff is soft & squishy and we mostly use large letter too.

Occasionally one will just exceed the 20mm thickness but we still send anyway. They all go in the red street box. So far we have never been pinged. Knock on wood!

But we have found if we take these in over the counter 100% they will try to pass it thru the letter gauge and of course request more postage.

So methinks the red street box does the trick and unless it is wildly over, the mail sorting people are not likely to check them.

[i-love-my-sheep]

I made my own letter gauge and if it slides through, even with a little bit of resistance, I'll still send large letter. If I have to really force it through I won't. I know at the PO it has to drop through with no resistance. So far I've not had any issues, but at the most, I might be 2-3mm out.

[mbselections00]

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@i-love-my-sheep wrote:

I made my own letter gauge and if it slides through, even with a little bit of resistance, I'll still send large letter. If I have to really force it through I won't. I know at the PO it has to drop through with no resistance. So far I've not had any issues, but at the most, I might be 2-3mm out.

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sheep, I have an official PO board with the slots, so I know also if any of mine 'resist' a little    As my PO staff are awesome I tell them and they will let some border line ones of mine through without any problems, but they explained to me, if they are too thick the actual sorting machine can 'munch and mangle' them (not good for jewellery ).  So it does pay to be careful from that angle as well

[black*poppy]

My PO does the drop test  for large letters - ie they hold the letter gauge on its side and the letter has to fall through.

I think it does depend on use of the red box, lots seem to get through.  Wheras my PO meticulously weighs everything, I nearly laughed out load once when the girl weighed my 3kg satchel - it was a hefty weight of 900g. Bit of a fine line that one.

I received a 500g satchel once with an 800g item in it.  I was gobsmacked.  I get that +50g might pass a hand measure, but surely even the delivery guy would have sensed something odd about that parcel. LOL

[putney32]

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@elusiveeditions wrote:

Hi all, just a quick question, sounds trivial but please bear with me. I sell books (only a little on ebay but will probably increase it soon for lack of anywhere else to clear my stock) and often use large letter for small books, so no tracking and must be <20mm but it's nice and cheap.

Anything larger (like your standard 300+ page paperback) goes in a 500g satchel. These are overpriced as has been discussed here before, which must put buyers off cheaper stock, but you do get tracking which is great if the buyer claims INR.

I sometimes send books as parcels, but you can't accurately pre-price postage without knowing the destination. It's too messy to be refunding postage b/c I charged too much or taking a loss b/c I charged too little.

ANYWAY- as a minor test I bought a few cheap p/backs (well over 20mm.... one was closer to 60mm) to see how other sellers do this. Two of them arrived in A4 enevlopes, with 2 or 3 $0.70 stamps on them.

That's not a large letter is it? A 600 page book? They wouldn't have met the weight requirements for large letter at those prices, let alone the <20mm.

So- is it just a fluke that these got through and you're not really supposed to do this? It'd be great if I could send standard paperbacks for $2.10 but afaik you can't, and these sellers have just been lucky/don't realise/are trying it on etc. Is that right?

Apologies for longwinded-ness 🙂

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you dont need to accurately pre price the postage on 'parcels'

just choose CALCULATED POST when you are listing.  give the dimensions and weight of the parcel, and ebay / aust post automatically calculated from your Postcode to the viewers postcode, so people in SA, WA NSW or whereever each see a differnt postage price quoted, and at the end of the sale, the invoce is automatically issued with CORRECT CALCULATED postage to the buyers postcode.

[elusiveeditions]

Ah ok, taa for the confirmation digitalghost & clarry. It just stood out that 2 sellers did the same probably-dodgy postage and both items arrived with no probs.

I should say here that these were very cheap items, and booksellers make very little money even in the best of times and if they’re brilliant at it, so I hold no real grudge against these sellers. Just curious.

Sheepy, mbselections & blackpoppy- I’ve got one of AP’s slot-boards too, and do pretty much the same thing 🙂 A little tiny bit of resistance is ok (even on the drop test.. if you shake the board a tad it might fall through) but I err on the side of caution.

Blackpoppy- oh vey, an 800g item in a 500g satchel is pretty hilarious.. wonder how far you could stretch that?

So, these 2 sellers likely used the red street box (since if you handed these over the counter, the AP staff would presumably say “No, this is too heavy/thick”). And both these sellers as well as myself were just lucky not to be pinged for it.

Putney, thanks very much for that info. I must admit I quickly considered/dismissed the ‘Calculated Post’ option when I 1st signed up for ebay, out of fear that they’d never get it right and the links b/w ebay & AP will never be accurate etc. However, if a seller like yourself uses it, it’s well worth another/more thorough look from this end.

I used to sell on dedicated bookselling sites like ABE, Biblioz et al, and postage was so much easier. You listed a flat cost for each category of your stock (depending on size/weight, but it was still somewhat of a guess) for domestic & international. When orders came in and the postage wasn’t accurate (which for international it often wasn’t, domestic you could get a lot closer) you’d simply msg the buyer saying “this book weighs Xgrams and postage to your address will be $X, would you like to proceed?”. Almost all buyers said yes, go ahead, very few said no, that postage cost is too high. But they had the choice. Payment wasn’t finalised until buyer agreed to the entire transaction incl postage.

Grumble grumble, I miss the old days of the internet (sob). Sorry for the moan! but thanks again for the advice, it’s much appreciated.

[phorum_junkie*]

I only send as large letter if I have passed it easily through the slot on my PO board, not worth the risk of having an angry buyer and it is morraly wrong also if it exceeds the size or weight, why is it theft to steal from somebody's house but OK to steal services from AP.

For parcels under 500g I use ebay satchels at $7.15, for anything over but under 3kg I use the 3k ebay satchels and if it won't fit in a 5kg satchel I use calculated postage.

[meekamag2]

Yes I agree, it is theft and I certainly wouldn't take the risk of anyone having the burden of extra charges by AP just to save a few $ initially.

However, I do know of many people who openly admit to posting items as a large letter knowing full well that they are too wide. But, they drop them in the red boxes as they know that if they take them to the PO they won't be accepted as large letters.

It's just so wrong.