Postal strike no-show.

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tony ingram
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Re: Postal strike no-show.

Post by tony ingram »

Raven wrote:
Lew Stringer wrote:
Some sellers are still charging postage. They ask buyers to wait for an invoice and add it on then. The amount is mentioned in the comic's description.

Lew

Most I've checked lately still seem to be doing this - for comics, magazines or books.

One seller has quite a lot of comics up there now and lists them as 'postage free: pick up only.'

Down below he writes 'I will post this item if required, but it will cost £2.75 for UK.' (That's for a single comic.)

A few are pulling that one. Of course, it's that kind of rip-off postage pricing that made Ebay insist on stopping charging for postage (not that people are).

Just noticed another seller trying to sell a 1985 Buster for £29.99! Don't all crowd at once. Says 'free postage' in the official bit, but down below 'postage is £1.95 to UK buyers.'
Thing is, £2.75 for one comic is obviously overpriced, but most sellers were only charging around the £2.00 mark for P&P, and if you always send comics bagged and in a padded envelope that is actually about right; the seller might make a few pence on the postage, that's all, and you still have to actually go and post it. And ebay are already cracking down on sellers flouting the new rules; I was bidding on a Dr Who Annual last week, quite happy with the seller's terms, and got a message from ebay saying they'd canceled the item because the seller was breaching the rules by charging postage. As a buyer, this did not help me; I just lost the book. ebay are not doing this because sellers were overcharging, that's just an excuse. They're doing it because they want to weed out the small sellers.

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Re: Postal strike no-show.

Post by Raven »

tony ingram wrote:As a buyer, this did not help me; I just lost the book. ebay are not doing this because sellers were overcharging, that's just an excuse. They're doing it because they want to weed out the small sellers.

I think they're basically doing it to move into line with all the other online media retailers - Amazon, Play, HMV etc. none of whom charge postage. But I expect rip off postage *was* one of the main complaints they persistently got from customers - I remember almost quitting using Ebay a while back because of the overcharging.

I'd say maximum £1.50 is right for a single comic, and above that is pushing it a bit - but many sellers wouldn't properly combine postage for multiple orders. You might win six comics at £1.50 postage each, but they'd just discount £1 from the total postage; that sort of thing. The £2.75 per individual comic became quite commonplace in recent times. Of course, there are many really great sellers, too, who'd offer superb, honest service, but so many who'd spoil the experience.

But Ebay probably do feel they need to compete with Amazon, Play and co. on the postage front.

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tony ingram
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Re: Postal strike no-show.

Post by tony ingram »

Raven wrote:
tony ingram wrote:As a buyer, this did not help me; I just lost the book. ebay are not doing this because sellers were overcharging, that's just an excuse. They're doing it because they want to weed out the small sellers.

I think they're basically doing it to move into line with all the other online media retailers - Amazon, Play, HMV etc. none of whom charge postage. But I expect rip off postage *was* one of the main complaints they persistently got from customers - I remember almost quitting using Ebay a while back because of the overcharging.

I'd say maximum £1.50 is right for a single comic, and above that is pushing it a bit - but many sellers wouldn't properly combine postage for multiple orders. You might win six comics at £1.50 postage each, but they'd just discount £1 from the total postage; that sort of thing. The £2.75 per individual comic became quite commonplace in recent times. Of course, there are many really great sellers, too, who'd offer superb, honest service, but so many who'd spoil the experience.

But Ebay probably do feel they need to compete with Amazon, Play and co. on the postage front.
Last I heard, Amazon still charge postage up to £2.75 in all media categories. As for £1.50 being about right for a single comic: I always charge a flat rate of £2.00, since I send everything out bagged and in padded envelopes. The envelope will cost between 58p and 70p depending on where and how you buy them (packs of ten from my local place work out at 58p each, but I sometimes have to buy singles if they're out), and while there is obviously variation in comics, many do indeed cost over £1.00 to send once the weight of the packaging is added in; a new style Doctor Who Magazine (quite heavy) will cost me £1.24 to send once it's packed, meaning that with the large padded envelope's price on top it can cost me £1.94 plus the cost of the bag (about 2p). Yes, a single issue of Buster, say, would be lighter and therefore cheaper, but then an oversized 2000AD from the eighties has to go as a packet because it won't fit a large letter envelope, and a packet is automatically more expensive. Generally speaking, unless you want your comic sent stuffed into a too small, non padded envelope with no protection at all, you ain't going to get it for £1.50. I firmly believe most buyers who complain about P&P costs don't actually tend to know what the actual cost is if the item is properly packed. And for ebay to suggest sellers should absorb the cost of the postage when the postage cost is frequently more than they'll actually make on the comic is ridiculous.

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Re: Postal strike no-show.

Post by Raven »

tony ingram wrote: Last I heard, Amazon still charge postage up to £2.75 in all media categories.

No, Amazon postage is free now for books/dvds etc. to move in line with all the others.

tony ingram wrote: I firmly believe most buyers who complain about P&P costs don't actually tend to know what the actual cost is if the item is properly packed.

I am thinking of titles like Buster - traditional sized UK comics - and presuming that the seller would indeed buy their packets in bulk making them quite cheap, and going by the postage prices I see on the fronts of the packets I receive. Maybe £1.75 would have been more realistic in some cases, and £2.00 in others if oversized and heavy comics, and are truly well packed, as long as discounts are properly applied for multiple wins.

Unfortunately I've often paid the high postage and still had comics stuffed into too small, non padded envelopes with no protection at all. As I say, some comic sellers are great - I expect fellow collectors/fans will be best - but many aren't so caring or professional.

And I think problems have been caused over time by many who have a 'hey, this is supposed to be fun, an auction site for small sellers' approach and have assumed that they therefore don't have to comply with the Trade Descriptions Act, customers' rights and the trading laws of the land. But of course they do, just as much as any high street shop or professional mail order business, and I can see Ebay's need to make the whole affair more professional (and competitive), while understanding the impact on good, professionally-minded small sellers.

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Re: Postal strike no-show.

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tony ingram wrote:ebay are not doing this because sellers were overcharging, that's just an excuse. They're doing it because they want to weed out the small sellers.
I can't agree, Tony. There are far more small sellers on eBay than big ones. I think the issue is much more fundamental. The fact is that eBay are in business to make money for themselves. They make it by levying a commission charge on the auction seller, based on the winning bid. As far as I am aware, they do not take the p&p into account. By insisting that sellers in certain categories are no longer allowed to add anything at all to cover or offset their genuine p&p costs, they would appear to be trying to persuade sellers to add the p&p to their starting bid. That way a comic valued at £1.50 which would cost £1.50 to post would end up being listed at a starting bid figure of £3 with free p&p. The commission on that sale would therefore be worth double to eBay even if there is only a single bidder. Finding somebody to bid £3 for a comic that potential buyers know is worth £1.50 might be a bit difficult in the short term because the free p&p might not be perceived as equating to the extra £1.50 on the starting bid. However, people are basically reasonable and fair-minded, and will soon realise that sellers are trying to cope as best they can with the dilemma, and the sellers themselves will soon realise that they cannot buck the system by claiming that their items are free of postage in their presentation but then charging it by the back door, because eBay will simply act against them. I don't like the new system but it will tend to force those sellers who have been consistently overcharging on the p&p to fall into line with everybody else, because if they are selling a comic worth £1.50 and then adding p&p at their original rate of say £2.75, they would have to offer it with a starting bid of £4.25. You and I are going to take one look at that and walk away, saying ''Who on earth does he think he is?''

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tony ingram
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Re: Postal strike no-show.

Post by tony ingram »

Phoenix wrote:
tony ingram wrote:ebay are not doing this because sellers were overcharging, that's just an excuse. They're doing it because they want to weed out the small sellers.
I can't agree, Tony. There are far more small sellers on eBay than big ones. I think the issue is much more fundamental. The fact is that eBay are in business to make money for themselves. They make it by levying a commission charge on the auction seller, based on the winning bid. As far as I am aware, they do not take the p&p into account. By insisting that sellers in certain categories are no longer allowed to add anything at all to cover or offset their genuine p&p costs, they would appear to be trying to persuade sellers to add the p&p to their starting bid. That way a comic valued at £1.50 which would cost £1.50 to post would end up being listed at a starting bid figure of £3 with free p&p. The commission on that sale would therefore be worth double to eBay even if there is only a single bidder. Finding somebody to bid £3 for a comic that potential buyers know is worth £1.50 might be a bit difficult in the short term because the free p&p might not be perceived as equating to the extra £1.50 on the starting bid. However, people are basically reasonable and fair-minded, and will soon realise that sellers are trying to cope as best they can with the dilemma, and the sellers themselves will soon realise that they cannot buck the system by claiming that their items are free of postage in their presentation but then charging it by the back door, because eBay will simply act against them. I don't like the new system but it will tend to force those sellers who have been consistently overcharging on the p&p to fall into line with everybody else, because if they are selling a comic worth £1.50 and then adding p&p at their original rate of say £2.75, they would have to offer it with a starting bid of £4.25. You and I are going to take one look at that and walk away, saying ''Who on earth does he think he is?''
Trouble is, that doesn't work: if I list a comic worth 99p at 99p and charge a perfectly legitimate £1.95 P&P, that's fine: ebay listings are free for items under 99p, so I don't pay to list, and ebay take 10% of 99p. If I have to add the P&P cost to the actual price, a) my 99p comic now costs £2.94 and nobody will buy it and b) it's no longer free to list as it's over 99p: it now costs me 10p per time insertion fee, so every time it fails to sell and is relisted, its value to me goes down. Plus, ebay are now getting 10% of £2.94, which means that to even approximate my original projected profit, I actually have to list it at £3.25, which is even less likely to sell. It simply isn't worth listing the item in the first place, as I'll just end up losing money on it. Which from the prospective buyers POV means they have no chance of even seeing it. This helps nobody. Not even ebay in the long run, as sellers will be forced to move to other auction sites.

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Re: Postal strike no-show.

Post by Lew Stringer »

tony ingram wrote:I'm waiting for a parcel that was posted the Saturday before last. Today I received an apologetic email from the seller, explaining that he'd just come back from a weekend away to find that Royal Mail had delivered it back to him, apparently having mistaken the sender's address for the recipient's.
This is what happens when they employ stand-in posties. It's becoming increasingly obvious that the strike has caused considerable problems for the Post Office and its customers. I'm still waiting for mail posted over a week ago, including a large cheque. I'm just hoping that "clearing the backlog" hasn't been taken by some to mean "dump it in a ditch". It wouldn't be the first time:
http://www.ayrshirepost.net/ayrshire-ne ... -24812843/

Lew

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Re: Postal strike no-show.

Post by Phoenix »

tony ingram wrote:if I list a comic worth 99p at 99p and charge a perfectly legitimate £1.95 P&P, that's fine: ebay listings are free for items under 99p, so I don't pay to list, and ebay take 10% of 99p. If I have to add the P&P cost to the actual price, a) my 99p comic now costs £2.94 and nobody will buy it and b) it's no longer free to list as it's over 99p: it now costs me 10p per time insertion fee, so every time it fails to sell and is relisted, its value to me goes down. Plus, ebay are now getting 10% of £2.94, which means that to even approximate my original projected profit, I actually have to list it at £3.25, which is even less likely to sell.
We are still singing from the same hymn sheet, Tony. You are just repeating the essence of what I said earlier. I don't know what the short term answer is, but obviously there is absolutely no point in losing money on an eBay sale. Over the next few months eBay will surely be monitoring the situation, and if they see a significant percentage fall in profit from the comics sector because small sellers are en masse failing to list, they may realise that they have shot themselves in the foot and restore the permission for sellers to make a fair p&p charge. In the meantime, just take a chance, list a 99p comic at £3.25 and see whether it sells or not. Currently you are only guessing. The glass may well be half full. You only need one bid.

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Re: Postal strike no-show.

Post by Digifiend »

Lew Stringer wrote:
tony ingram wrote:I'm waiting for a parcel that was posted the Saturday before last. Today I received an apologetic email from the seller, explaining that he'd just come back from a weekend away to find that Royal Mail had delivered it back to him, apparently having mistaken the sender's address for the recipient's.
This is what happens when they employ stand-in posties. It's becoming increasingly obvious that the strike has caused considerable problems for the Post Office and its customers. I'm still waiting for mail posted over a week ago, including a large cheque. I'm just hoping that "clearing the backlog" hasn't been taken by some to mean "dump it in a ditch". It wouldn't be the first time:
http://www.ayrshirepost.net/ayrshire-ne ... -24812843/

Lew
It definitely wouldn't be the first time. Some more examples:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/rss/-/1/hi/eng ... 180296.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/7607013.stm
http://www.stockportexpress.co.uk/news/ ... y_postman_

Can't trust Royal Mail... :x :(
Last edited by Digifiend on 11 Nov 2009, 23:57, edited 1 time in total.

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stevezodiac
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Re: Postal strike no-show.

Post by stevezodiac »

Now that we are not allowed to charge for postage surely all sellers are entitled to just say "Sorry but as I am not allowed to add postage you will have to come around and collect it in person - or I can keep hold of it forever on the understanding that you own the item although it stays in my possession". Fair enough? I haven't sold anything for a few months but next time I do I will simply state in the description that if, say, a comic is £3 it is £2 for the comic and £1 postage. If I sell a bulk item I will have to put it under courier and state that the courier is Royal Mail.

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Re: Postal strike no-show.

Post by tony ingram »

stevezodiac wrote:Now that we are not allowed to charge for postage surely all sellers are entitled to just say "Sorry but as I am not allowed to add postage you will have to come around and collect it in person - or I can keep hold of it forever on the understanding that you own the item although it stays in my possession". Fair enough? I haven't sold anything for a few months but next time I do I will simply state in the description that if, say, a comic is £3 it is £2 for the comic and £1 postage. If I sell a bulk item I will have to put it under courier and state that the courier is Royal Mail.
Which is what some sellers are doing, and ebay are slowly but systematically weeding them out. They don't want your business Steve, or mine. What they want are Power Sellers who generate lots of income for minimal effort on their part, and soon that's all that'll be left on ebay.

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Re: Postal strike no-show.

Post by steelclaw »

Got my refund, shame I didn't get the free gift I bought. I Bet he never sent it.

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Re: Postal strike no-show.

Post by Lew Stringer »

steelclaw wrote:Got my refund, shame I didn't get the free gift I bought. I Bet he never sent it.
My parcel turned up this afternoon, - 12 days after it was posted.

Lew

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Re: Postal strike no-show.

Post by steelclaw »

Lew Stringer wrote:
steelclaw wrote:Got my refund, shame I didn't get the free gift I bought. I Bet he never sent it.
My parcel turned up this afternoon, - 12 days after it was posted.

Lew
If I had of got mine today it would have been 28 days it was only a small envelope.

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Re: Postal strike no-show.

Post by steelclaw »

If you didn't get an item from ebay that you bought,who said they sent it, but might have used the postal strike as an excuse not to send it.

What feed back would you give them?

I've had a refund but would rather have had the item, he didn't hesitate giving me refund which makes me think he didn't send it.

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