Postage woes!

Shop Talk
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Hi , I set up my FOLKSY shop Little Wonders about a week ago and am having a few teething problems with postage. My items are not heavy yet I have been charged different prices at different times by different postal offices. One classed a package as a letter whilst another classed it as a small parcel which increased the price by £3! I have to put the item in a jiffy bag as they are brooches so fragile ( wooden) but I don’t want people to have to pay at least £3 more for postage! Any tips please? Thanks

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I would invest in a letter size guide - you can buy them on ebay and elsewhere. Really useful when you are trying to make sure things will pass as large letter and not slip into the small parcel category. The package needs to be able to pass through the slot without catching. If it is borderline sometimes taping around the outside of the jiffy bag is enough to make sure its small enough, or taping round the item inside if its something that might move around like clothing.

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Brilliant thanks for the tip x

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It’s often the width or depth of the letter that catches you out. For example, my handmade cards sometimes have jewel embellishments on them, and this means they are classed as Large letter, even though they are small cards.

It’s worth working out the exact size as if you get it wrong, it could end up with your customer being charged the excess postage and having to traipse to the local post office to collect their parcel!!

I agree wholeheartedly about investing in the letter size guide - my local post office has a nice easy slot which they put all post through. If it’s a struggle to push it through, they will always err on the side of caution and charge the higher amount. I found this annoying at first but I’d rather they did this then my customer having to fork out for the correct charge at the other end!!

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I use large letter boxes which you can buy on ebay quite cheap so it should keep the postage to a large letter 95 p rather than £3.30
The depth on the boxes is about 22 mm so is well within the 25 mm limit

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It’s worth buying a small set of scales as well. You can also get loads of information about sizing and weights on the royal mail website which I have found so helpful. It is worth checking. So you can even measure with a ruler I sold a lovely handmade set of pillow cases to the USA and got the weight wrong as I stupidly only weighed one instead of two and it cost me double in the end so made no profit at all.
It is quite a lot to get your head around but you do get there in the end. Hope that help a little bit

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Hi @smallwonders Welcome to Folksy

I too have lost out on postage a couple of times due to the jiffy envelope not passing through the letter slot when the post lady tried it with her sizing guage gadget.
I remember the sinking feeling well. It must have been out only by a mm or so, but I suppose rules are rules.
I’ve now invested in one of those sizer guides and its a brilliant way to make sure you get it right to avoid losing out on postage costs.

All the best with your shop

Karen :smiley:

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Hi For some reason the link to your shop doesn’t seem to be working. I was going to see what you are selling but can’t.
xx

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I think I found the shop here https://folksy.com/shops/littlewonders - the brooches are delightful!

I swear by the PIP large letter boxes too, if you buy in bulk they don’t cost much more than jiffy bags and save a whole world of packaging stress, as well as being better protection for your lovely items.

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They are lovely aren’t they. :slight_smile:

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I’ve sold brooches on another site and I put them in jiffy envelopes. I have a size guide that you see in the post office, but mine’s a thick cardboard, the PO were offering these for sale a couple of years ago, but I don’t think they are now, but you can get them on ebay. If one of my items just didn’t quite fit through the large letter slot, I hadn’t sealed the envelope, I would squash the bubble wrap inside the envelope to make it thinner and that usually worked. But I always do a trial run, with items I sell, just to make sure I am charging the correct postage, as I have been caught out and it eats into your profits. Marg.

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Look at pip boxes on ebay, they come in a variety of sizes what will all go through as a large letter, i purposely design my packaging to fit in these boxes, if its under 100g its less than a pound. Buy them in bulk and they work out a pence each. Plus they are sturdy and protect the contents better xxx

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:blush: Thanks for your advice …appreciate it !

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Thanks for the advice :blush:

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Thanks for the advice…love your shop beautiful things x

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Thanks …love your shop by the way :blush:

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