Selling Stuff!

Just a few things to consider when one thinks 'Perhaps I should pass on some of the accumulated M/h bits that are kept back when a 'new' pride and joy 
is in pole position on the drive.

Pricing of the article. At least 1/2 current price if in vgc. 
Postage & Packing for transportation to new owner. Remember to include the all important packaging cost especially if it is large portable eg Silverscreen.
(Bike racks and Fiamma boxes really need collecting.) 'Jungle' tape and protective material has to be bought or replaced.
Multiple transportation expenses to Bank, PO & Courier centres!
Small packs, with PO is approx £3-£5 and the under 10kg with Parcel Force about £13. Size does matter but remember repack 'As it was delivered to you by the original supplier.' And remember 'It was a good idea to keep all the original packing it came in' even though shmbo said 'Why are you keeping all that stuff?'
People do want your stuff, as most of us always get the best, so don't sell yourself short unless of course you are selling to me. 

frederic

PS I still have the VW supplied, T5 locking wheel bolts
plus carriage & packing though!

Agreed, it's better to shift stuff on forums than to Ebay it, as you will lose near enough 15% to them in fees if the buyer pays by PayPal (most do).

But for postage I seldom use RM, and I can't remember the last time I used ParcelFarce. Neither are competitive on price, and the quality of service is no better than anywhere else. When looking for postage costs I quite like the "syndication" style sites which just aggregate all of the main shipping companies and show you a range of services, ordered by cost. I often use https://www.parcel2go.com/

The other thing is - don't forget to factor in the cost of insurance, assuming you want it. It's gone up in price a fair bit recently. Obviously as a seller it's your problem, in that if an item gets trashed in transit it's your loss, not the buyer's. But you do need to read the exclusions carefully - for example Hermes has an exclusion list that seems to exclude nearly everything!

My latest PF48 gave me insurance cover >£100 for Approx £13 (non folded Silverscreen)
all the ones on your site seem to be £20 for not much less as far as I could see
Will recheck
Thanks
frederic

I usually give away all but the most expensive stuff.

Can't be bothered with all the faff for a few quid, specially when the buyer wanted to send it back because he hadn't bothered to read the details of which van it fitted!

It wasn't on this forum I hasten to add.

I guess it depends how essential insurance is. I tend to take the view that if they can damage it by dropping it, and provided the item is not in the exclusion list, I'll pay for insurance if it's not outrageous. If it is something that an incompetent delivery driver is unlikely to damage I probably won't. I don't tend to worry too much about parcels getting lost because in my experience it rarely happens - in fact the last time for me was with PF roughly 10 years ago, and even they managed to find it again after a month!

Hermes, for example, would carry your item for £7.65 inc VAT (weight 2-5kg, sig required, £60 insurance), provided it meets their (admittedly slightly hard to understand) volumetric rules. Note that this is direct with Hermes - not via Parcel2go, who cut back the insurance as the cost of using their service!

But of course there are lots of factors - the one overriding reason why I use Hermes a lot is that I hate waiting in for couriers to turn up and collect things! With them (and Collect+) I can pay in advance, print a prepaid label and then drop it off at one of their dropoff points without any unnecessary waiting/queuing. It saves maybe 20p a package to do that, but they will of course collect from you if that suits you better...

-mojo- wrote: I don't tend to worry too much about parcels getting lost because in my experience it rarely happens - in fact the last time for me was with PF roughly 10 years ago, and even they managed to find it again after a month!

You obviously haven't seen Hermes delivering in this road!

They left a parcel of mine "in a secure out building". Nobody living in this block of flats has any idea of where this outbuilding would be.

They left a parcel for Heather on the doorstep in the rain but apparently somebody with an unreadable signature signed for it and we have had several deliveries left on the doorstep because there had been nobody in, while one of us had been in the flat all day. The other thing to point out is that our doorstep is clearly visible from the A22 so easy to help yourself.

OK, that is only one parcel actually not delivered but I feel more by luck than anything else.

I think of Hermes being well named, mythical.

Agreed - but it's true of most delivery companies, because they all have drivers of very variable quality. I've seen shocking things from Yodel and others - but really, it is the luck of the draw. Hermes (and a few others) had a very bad reputation a couple of years back, but they seem a lot better now - at least in this area!

I always use Hermes when I sell on eBay, also have them deliver parcels to me,

Most delivery drivers are working to a strict time and only have minutes for each delivery, they have to contend with road works, diversions, finding properties and the traffic, it cannot be an easy job, and I for one thank them for a safe and timely delivery.

Royal Mail, well that is a different kettle of fish altogether, I wouldn`t use them to send parcels. they have lost a few of mine to me and also some I have sent.

When you are selling online remember there are other sites along with eBay
Gumtree dont charge selling or insertion fees for example. 
There are free ones but never had any luck with them other than junk mail

daisy mae wrote:
Royal Mail, well that is a different kettle of fish altogether, I wouldn`t use them to send parcels. they have lost a few of mine to me and also some I have sent.

 Royal Mail have now lost three parcels of mine, two for goods I sold on Ebay which 'didn't arrive'. Stupidly, because they were of low value, I sent them untracked. The buyer only then has to claim they didn't arrive and you end up refunding and also losing the goods. The third is still missing now but I only sent it last Tuesday , first class, and can't make a claim for 10 working days. As I also sent it untracked, I can only claim for the postage. This is an item sent to a member of this forum who I'm sure is an honest member. I've used Hermes several times and they've never lost any. I only used Royal mail because they were actually cheaper due to the light weight of the items concerned. If you use their tracked service then of course the cost increases.

Silverscreen arrived in time frame and customer is happy. Express48
frederic

Paulmold wrote:
 Royal Mail have now lost three parcels of mine.

From what I've read, the experience you get from Royal Mail varies a lot depending on where you are. In the past there have been some sorting offices where they did not seem able to keep out a criminal element.

When I lived in South London the RM service was pretty bad and things (especially items that could be assumed to be credit cards in transit) would regularly go missing. Where I am now, things never go missing.

I guess one of the good things (IMO possibly the only good thing) about the privatisation of one of our longest standing national assets is that, as "just another private company", they will probably have the will to stamp it out completely - as near as you can with that sort of activity.