eBay have announced today that they will be raising some of the P&P maximum levels in response to price hikes from Royal Mail that come into effect on 30th April.
According to eBay’s post on Sellersphere, “where Royal Mail have increased the prices of their second-class services beyond the P&P maximum limit allowed, we’ve updated the site and increased this accordingly.”
Full details can be found on the Postage and Packaging policy page. But as an example, the previous chargeable P&P rate for a CD was £1.25. It has been revised to £2.25.
P&P maxiumums apply to items sold in these categories: Books, comics & magazines, Computing, DVD, film & TV, Consumer electronics, Music, Photography, Video games, Mobile & home phones, Clothes shoes & accessories.
It would seem that the new limits have already been put in place and have been valid since 11th April.
9 Responses
Looking at the chart again it is cheaper to send 2x 1st class packages up to 750g than to combine these into a single 1st class package up to 1250g. There may be other anomolies.
In future it may be cheaper (or not much different) to send things seperately than to do the much requested “combine” thing that is a favourite with ebay buyers.
How is this going to pan out with DSR scores and ebay buyers generally?
A reminder that 10 day auctions listed from and including today, if the items are to be shipped after the auction ending weekend, will be subject to the new RM shipping rates if RM is to be used.
Be interesting to see who has overlooked this in the newly listed auctions.
Still plenty of punters listing 10 day auctions with shipping well under £2.20 for what is clearly a small packet lowish value item.
It does seem that where sellers have recognised that the new RM shipping rates will be in play then the range £2.85 to £3 is now the new bottom line figure charged for shipping small packets.
Now how is this going to effect final values for auctions and ebays fee revenues on these smaller ticket items?
And how many 99p starts will end up with no bids?
Could be a serious rethink of strategy may be required for a lot of sellers, buyers, and ebay.
It’s none of ebay’s business anyway. In a competitive market, sellers have to be reasonably sensible on P&P or risk getting reduced sales and/or hammered stars.
The postage contols are just another example of ebay contol freakery.
This is going to cause huge headaches – even for the savvy seller who has prepared for the rises. I see a massive problem with the hoards of uneducated buyers who already hit you with a low rating for postage costs because you charge 5p more than the stamp price to cover your costs. We are going to get unfairly hit by poor postage cost ratings – which in my opinion is the quickest way to loose power seller rating & discount. My main products have a franking price of £1.14, this is going up to £1.92 – I am dreading the backlash from my customers
Really concerned about the P&P charge raised by the Royal Mail, as our products are small like laptop batteries and chargers adapters and need to ship in a fast way, the first class is our priority.
stars dsrs postage etc etc the bottom line is
sellers need to make a profit!
ebay need to get this or their goosed