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Nicola O

e-bay advice needed, please...

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Hi there

 

I've got 26 items on at the moment, all finishing over the weekend. I've noticed that three t-shirts (all listed seperately) have been bought by the same person. They haven't paid yet and I'm wondering if they are expecting combined postage costs.

 

I don't mention or offer combined postage in any of my listings (simply coz I've not had one person buy more than one thing so I haven't really thought about it) so I'm sure I don't have to offer it now, but if the buyer asks for it I suppose it's up to me to decide if I want to or not.

 

I know e-bay send automatic invoices to the buyer so how would I change them and combine all three t-shirts and postage on to one invoice ?

 

Any help and advice would be appreciated...thanks guys :D

 

Nicola

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When all the listings are finished Ebay will automatically list the sales to the same person together, on your sold items list . When you click on 'send invoice' it will list all of the sales to that person and at that point you will have the opportunity to send separate invoices or just one.

 

26 items! You will be busy wrapping and posting tomorrow!

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Thanks for that - I've clicked send invoice and, hey presto, they were all listed on the one invoice, so I just adjusted postage and sent it. I don't normally send invoice myself as e-bay sends one automatically and I rely on that - and being a techno numpty I'm always worried that if I click on something else it will all go wrong and I'll end up sending the wrong thing :lol: , if you know what I mean. But thanks for the info.

 

26 items! You will be busy wrapping and posting tomorrow!

 

Last weekend was too horrible to go in the garden so I had a massive clear out instead :lol: .

 

Nicola

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Ah yes postage discounts. Postage is always a tricky one, I add a little bit on to cover my time and effort (and recoup a few of those awful paypal fees). I do offer a postage discount for combined purchases NORMALLY - trouble with that is you need to work out how much to charge by weighing them together - seperately you can just look at similar items and see what everyone else is charging. That means you need a good set of kitchen scales OR another trip to the post office. At the moment my scales are broken and I'm too busy to get to the post office at all!

 

I also make it clear in my listings that I WILL NOT be posting the next day - there are a lot of people out there who will try and neg if they don't get the item till the end of the week. I currently state I won't be posting before Wednesday on an item that finishes on Sunday - again this is just because I feel guilty if I say I'll post and dont get the time to get to the post office.

 

Finally I often just take the chance - when my scales are working I print off the postage labels using PayPal and just leave the packages out on my doorstep for the postman to collect. That means I have no completed certificate of postage so I couldn't make a claim if they didn't turn up.

 

Last week this all fell to pot and Mum offered to take the stuff to the post office for me. I did say to her "it doesn't need to go first class" but turns out she didn't process the information. She only realised when she got to the post office that she would have to pay the postage as there weren't paypal labels on them. So she posted them using "the middle one" I nearly had a heart attack when I saw the price. She sent a whole load of CLOTHES via SPECIAL DELIVERY!!!!! She remembered that's what I was sending things as before of course before was CHRISTMAS and they were NINTENDO WII'S!!!!!!! It cost £20 more than it should have.

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I have had a big listing day today - mainly handbags.....to make a bit of room in my handbag space for all the new ones I seem to have bought :oops::roll:

 

When I list I do offer a postage discount,but I don't specify what it is in case someone buys 2 very heavy things :?

Generally though I would charge half again for a second item (if its about the same weight) & maybe half again for a third.

You don't have to offer tham a discount but to be honest they are probably expecting it as most eBays do. They should have asked rather than presumed,if they are presuming that is :lol:

 

I never,ever charge less that £2 for any item,even if its the smallest thing like a T Shirt, as i use tissue & nice bags to send my stuff out.

 

last week I won a gorgeous top & the seller charged me £4 to send it....then stuck it in a Tesco carrier,inside a paper envelope & posted it 2nd class for 80p :roll::twisted:

Sorry,didn't mean to make this into a rant about that .....just got carried away for a sec :lol:

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I never,ever charge less that £2 for any item,even if its the smallest thing like a T Shirt, as i use tissue & nice bags to send my stuff out.

 

last week I won a gorgeous top & the seller charged me £4 to send it....then stuck it in a Tesco carrier,inside a paper envelope & posted it 2nd class for 80p

Sorry,didn't mean to make this into a rant about that .....just got carried away for a sec

 

I tend to charge about the same as everyone else. I don't use nice bags but recycle packaging I already have, including all the tissue that arrives when I buy from Ebay! I make everything clear up front though.

 

"Items will be sent within 3 days of the auction ending - due to work commitments I cannot always manage next day posting.

 

Items will be packaged using recycled materials - I buy and sell so I get a lot of packaging coming in.

 

The item comes from a smoke free home but we are not pet free - we have cats and chickens, although the chickens live outdoors!

 

I try to make the descriptions as accurate as possible - if you have any issues with the item PLEASE email me first before leaving feedback."

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You sure your home is 'smoke free', Pengy! :wink:

 

Seriously, there are some useful points here. I had never really sold on Ebay before, but I had a big clear-out recently and listed some items, after receiving some very helpful tips from Cinnamon.

 

Because I don't ebay regularly, I didn't have a lot of packing stuff - I did seal stuff in plastic bags, on the basis that then if the parcel got wet, it wouldn't get damaged, and I am the world's worst parcel-wrapper. However everyone posted nice feedback.

 

TBH I'm not sure it was worth it. The postage was deliberately set to cover the eBay fees and a bit towards the packing. I made about £25 overall though, and I'm not sure that was really worth the hassle of packing, wrapping and getting everything to the Post Office!

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I tend to charge about the same as everyone else. I don't use nice bags but recycle packaging I already have, including all the tissue that arrives when I buy from Ebay! I make everything clear up front though.

 

 

I should have made it clear - I use recycled stuff normally too,but I have bought so little & sold so much at the moment that I have run out :roll:

I have a similar disclaimer after a lady took offence to a reused Jiffy bag :?

 

' As a responsible person,I recycle & reuse packaging wherever possible.If this upsets or offends you in any way,please do not bid'

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:shock: I am going to add that disclaimer to anything I sell in future!

 

I re-used several padded envelopes to send my stuff, "Ooops, word censored!"ody complained but then why on earth would someone take offence at that? I always save large ones, you can't recycle them and they are usually perfectly good to use again.

 

I dunno - half of us are trying to save the planet, I think the other half are hell-bent on destroying it!

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I should have made it clear - I use recycled stuff normally too,but I have bought so little & sold so much at the moment that I have run out :roll:

I have a similar disclaimer after a lady took offence to a reused Jiffy bag :?

 

' As a responsible person,I recycle & reuse packaging wherever possible.If this upsets or offends you in any way,please do not bid'

 

 

:shock::shock::shock::shock: The world has gone mad :?

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I don't mind if I receive stuff in recycled packaging, as long as the postage isn't a rip off.

 

When I sell, I charge what it costs to post the item (rounded up to take account of the 3.4% Paypal fees on the postage), plus a small amount to cover packaging costs. If it's something like a DVD that can just go in a jiffy bag, then I might add 20 or 30p. If I;m selling china, then it'll be a little bit more to cover the extra packaging. I weigh the item (incl packaging) before I list,

 

I state on my listings that I do not make a profit from P&P, and if I find I have overcharged people (which has happened, for example if I find a lighter box to send something off in) then I make a partial refund.

 

On the other hand, if I receive something and see that the poor seller has got the postage wrong and has undercharged me, then I make them an additional payment to cover the extra: assuming that I got the item cheaply, that is.

 

Written down, i'm sure it sounds sanctimonious (sp?). I don't mean to be. I just like to play fair.

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I hadn't thought of adding a disclaimer about recycled packaging, but I think that I will now. It would cost a fortune to buy it all new.

 

We save packaging throughout the year, but usually have to buy a big roll of bubble wrap. We also buy packs of about 8 rubble sacks from poundland which are great for wrapping larger items and means they are waterproof.

 

We always get good feedback on our packaging, we once sold some plates and one was broken when it arrived and the person stated that the plate was broken in their feedback but left postive saying it wasn't our fault but was the fault of the Post Office :D

 

I really hate it when you buy something and pay a lot of postage only to find it arrives late and in a carrier bag :x

 

We generally combine postage if asked, but sometimes it works out more expensive if you have to use a larger heavier box, so we always weigh things before listing and before combining postage.

 

We had a lady who bought some Playstation games at Christmas she bought 3 different ones and paid for them all seperately and I made quite a bit on the postage but it was her choice and I did package them well and seperately.

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I state on my listings that I do not make a profit from P&P, and if I find I have overcharged people (which has happened, for example if I find a lighter box to send something off in) then I make a partial refund.

 

On the other hand, if I receive something and see that the poor seller has got the postage wrong and has undercharged me, then I make them an additional payment to cover the extra: assuming that I got the item cheaply, that is.

 

Written down, i'm sure it sounds sanctimonious (sp?). I don't mean to be. I just like to play fair.

 

You are good WitchHazel, I would love to do business with you on ebay :wink:

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Can I grump a bit? I don't often bother selling stuff on ebay, because I hate gointo the postoffice, but I sold my bike last month. It originally cost £500 a year ago, but they are selling new for a lot lot less :evil: so I put it on with a buy it now for £200. Stupidly, I forgot to take the paypal thing off, so my buyers paid by paypal, straight away. Thanks for that, I really wanted to pay £7 for my money, when you had to come and pick it up anyway. They got it a couple of days later, after I had scrubbed it up, pumped up the tyres, replaced the inner tube on one wheel and replaced the saddle with a brand spanking not-ripped one. The next day I got an email saying

 

Thanks for the bike. everything is great apart from I have have noticed the back tyre is very bald. This was not mentioned in your item description. I will have to replace the back tyre as i feel it is unsafe to ride how it is. This will cost £26.50, I would like to ask for a refund for this amount so I can replace the back tyre.

 

The back tyre was not bald. And I had two days before ridden through torrential rain with no skidding or breaking issues. And back tyres do NOT cost £26.50 for that bike. I tried to be as polite as possible when refusing, but I was so close to just saying bring it back then. I would have easily sold it three times over and it just made me so cross that they had cost me money, and then tried to get more out of me. Never heard from them again thankfully, although they've not left feedback.

 

rant over. :oops:

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Goodness yes - you collect an item you've seen it and therefore have no comeback if something is later discovered as "wrong".

 

Mind you you should have refunded the paypal payment and stated that you would rather have cash on colleciton. When I was selling the Wii's I had a number of people collect, but the only payment type ALLOWED on the listing was PayPal (Ebay have a million and one ways to rip us off!- remember the charges in the USA are nothing like ours!).

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