The Best Options for Your eBay Orders | Reselling

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Overview

When you’re new to eBay, delivery is a scary concept. It was a major barrier to entry for me. Years deep into this game, I really don’t know what I was playing about at. Once you’ve made the plunge, delivery will come second nature to you. It’s just a matter of working out which of the different delivery services are the most suitable for you.

Tracked vs Non-Tracked Deliveries

When I started on eBay, it was rough, but it was all down to the way I send items out. I was sending things through Royal Mail First Class, trusting that they would get there no problem. No, no, no.

Everyone will have a different experience, but I lost too many things by not sending products tracked. If you have your deliveries tracked, people will scam you. They have the right to do that, because who’s to say if it got there or not. Yes, it makes it harder to be competitive on pricing, but it also means you can lose a lot more stock, and you’ll end up having a lot of cases.

If you’re brave, do your thing. Tracked costs more, but it usually comes with insurance, and gives the sender and the recipient visibility on the status of the delivery. There’s no ambiguity if something goes missing in transit this way.

What Delivery Services are Available?

There’s loads, but we haven’t got time for them all. Sorry to Yodel, DPD, UPS, Parcelforce, for not focusing on your lot, but I don’t know why your average eBayer would be playing at sending their UK eBay orders through any of you lot. Bit pricey, aren’t you.

I’m just going to concentrate on the three main ones that I’ve had a lot of experience with. Others exist, but your average eBay seller probably won’t need to try them, simply because they’re so much more expensive than these three.

Let’s roll:

myHermes

Benefits:

Lots of drop off points
eBay integration
Cheapest tracked UK shipping (at present)
Able to collect from you (at a cost)
Open relatively late
Delivery insurance
Cost effective tracked international shipments

Drawbacks:

2-5-day delivery
Insurance only covers up to £25, unless you pay for more
Cheaper through the Parcel2Go website

Collect+

Benefits:

Lots of drop off points
Drop off tend to be open later than myHermes alternatives
Cheaper than Royal Mail
Open until relatively late

Drawbacks:

More expensive than myHermes, but without any clear difference in service
2-5 day delivery

Royal Mail

Benefits:

Cheapest UK delivery
eBay integration
You probably already know where the nearest post box and Post Office is
Most comprehensive international delivery options
Next day delivery

Drawbacks:

Cheapest delivery option is non-tracked
Queues at the Post Office
Lose non-tracked deliveries
Close early and don't open at all on Sundays

What’s My Experience with eBay Delivery Couriers?

The location of my last two homes depended on the proximity to a myHermes ParcelShop. (Big up Sunni and Rishi!). It’s my top choice, simply because their tracked deliveries are the cheapest, and they tend to do as they say. Collect+ was cheaper than myHermes at one point and I used them a lot, with only one lost parcel, so they do a good job. Just too much to be worth it at the moment.

Post Offices close too early for my lifestyle, and tend to be filled, so it just doesn’t suit me to use that very often. The only time I tend to do this is when buyers make a special request for it. Otherwise they’re getting a myHermes delivery.

If you send deliveries in significant quantities, each of these couriers will lose a couple of your deliveries. It's just how things work. They all do it around the same rate, so you can't even single any of them out for being particularly bad at this.

Royal Mail don’t care when things go missing. On the times when things have gone wrong with myHermes, they’ve gone to extra lengths to locate lost parcels, and they’ve always reimbursed me to ones that they can’t get back.