Postal Options When Selling Online | AD

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I have always loved selling online. It feels so good to have a declutter, get rid of old clothes, old DVDs or things that the children have grown out of. Over the years I have fallen in and out of love with eBay, used local Facebook selling pages and have sold so many things to CEX too – an annual clear out of the DVDs and computer games.

But all of this selling has one thing in common – postage. How do you know what the best value and most efficient ways are to send things that have been sold online? Here are a few options for you:

Buyer to Collect – Not really a postal option I know, but when I sell things online I always offer local collection. This makes the overall cost cheaper for the buyer and means I don’t even have to leave my house. Collection is organised at a time to suit us and the buyer can then pay cash on collection too.

Post Office – You can use The Post Office to send pretty much anything by Royal Mail or Parcel Force although the costs can be quite high depending on the weight and size of the parcel. Using the Post Office is often convenient though as there’s one on most High Streets. I wrote this post about understanding postal costs when it comes to using the post office.

Courier – I always thought using a courier would be difficult but now I use My Parcel Delivery to organise eBay postage and even to send gifts to friends and family throughout the year. You put in the size and weight of the parcel and they find the quickest or cheapest service for you. Often, the parcel can be dropped off at a newsagent, petrol station or other collection point ready to be taken to the recipient. From experience this is just so convenient and a lot cheaper than the Post office too.

So there are the three main options when it comes to postage when selling things online. I always offer collection to a buyer but if not then my number one choice is always to send parcels using the My Parcel Delivery service. It’s easy to use, great value and I’ve never had any problems with it.

One thing to be careful with, however you send things, is that they are well packaged and won’t get damaged in transit. Make sure the packaging materials won’t disintegrate if rained on and that they won’t tear easily either. My Parcel Delivery have this handy guide that gives you all the dos and donts when it comes to packaging your parcels.

If you sell online I would love to know your preference when it comes to postage. Do you love organising couriers or would you rather go to the Post Office?