As you know postage prices are one of the biggest killers to your sales on ebay and can actually affect how well your item sells at the end of the day!!  This will also open your eyes as to how much people are currently overcharging for postage on ebay!

Hopefully you will get from this something small to help you along the way!!

Lets start with something simple.  A DVD.  This item can be posted for £0.52p (i managed this with around 100 DVDs on different accounts) first class.  On top of this recorded delivery only costs £0.72p extra.  this sums up to £1.54 for first class recorded delivery, sometimes will cost slightly less though all depending on the amount of leaflets inside etc.  If your using a Jaffa/jiffy bubblewrap padded envelope then individual unit price for these are around £0.40p, this comes to £1.94p in total.  Ebay do allow for a certain amount for covering your time and effort for postage and packaging, but really popping something in a bag sealing it and sticking an address label on, some people charge up to £1- £2 extra on top of P + P for their effort, for me not good for you customers and not a good way to get them to come back to you! 

The above is one example of how alot of ebayers DO NOT work.  Personally if i am buying a DVD on ebay, i only search for listings with free postage.  Sometimes this can be a lesser service, or slightly slower (but not always) but, overall what you bid and win the item for, is all your going to be paying not another excessive amount for the postage.

Where to organise your postage?  The easiest way i have found of organising postage is through paypal.  Once your item has sold and provided the item has been paid for, i find it good to use the button in your sold items screen.  All you have to do is package the item up weigh it (if your starting ebay as a business id advise using an acurate set of digital scales) (if your a private seller, use your kitchen scales, never failed for me!!) After doing this put the info in and print you label, stick it on with what you would like and all now sorted.  After doing all of my postage, i tend to take them down to the post office to get them all checked, make sure theres going to be no delay in my buyers getting their items, or that the buyer would have to pay an additional fee when going to retrieve their item from the post office. 

Maximum fees for sending items:  From using paypal, and having had previous expensive experiences with royal mail, i decided the other day to try using parcel force 48.  I was a parcelforce virgin, and although one and the same, i found that the service could not be faulted, any package up to 30kg, 48hour free trakcing on the delivery for £10.99p or 24hr for just £11.99p.  i mean royal mail would be charging alot more for this service.  Even better with the service if you have multiple orders to the same address i believe the postage is free (for the additional packages) but you would have to check this out for yourself, im only summarising what i believe i read on the postage website and what ive written cannot be taken for gospel.  This means, that you can offer your customers 24hr/48hr service on heavey items and keep the postage down to an acceptable level. 

I hope this guide will assist new sellers in some of their postage escapades, and will help them gauge what has helped me.  Should you have any questions or comments, please dont hesitate to contact me through the contact member button.  Established sellers, please note do not take offence to this guide, all i am trying to do is assist new sellers, and new buyers in the ongoing land of ebay through the world of overcharging etc.