So I've received a very expensive item

Get yourself a UK based proxy, the hardware might've made it through the UK in one piece and thus your proxy could repackage it but going overseas inadequately packed is a death sentence for electronics.

 

Also remember that paypal take a cut of the postage too! so £2 shipping is completely reasonable in your case, yet the sticker will say £1.10. This is why people need to realise what the hell they are talking about.

 

Yup, should have asked me!

 

Bubble wrap is really expensive now too. Bought 3 rolls from Whsmith a couple of months ago and it cost me £12!!

 

that's probably why it cost you £12

but then depends on how big the rolls were

 

Wow... Can't believe people can be so careless. Sorry to hear about that man, reminds me of the time that person sent the Dolphin Tower loose in a box.

 

I always use more packaging than needed.

 

a lot of times in the US you can get a small bubble mailer for around $1 or £.65, and when you're shipping a little adapter, whose postage price is around $1, and you can easily ship it from home (I realize this is not the case in all regions) it definitely become apparent that the selling isn't staying entirely honest with his/her prices.

I do pay attention to these things, some sellers are perfectly honest and can even give you discounts on shipping, while others skimp to make more money for themselves.

 

I dont bother taking eBay/Paypal tax into account because most of what I get is just family clearing out there house. I list them at 99P and £1.60 postage and I don't really spend time labouring (just my free time, which i dont do much in anyway) But that is a good point.

Buy in bulk from an online retailer or hit up liquidation sales. I bought a huge roll (probably 10-11 Meters) of industrial grade bubble wrap (thicker and bigger air pockets, more protective) still in its packaging for £3 and rolled it with my feet a ten minute walk home.

 

I cant ship from home, they will only collect larger parcels. Any chips/adapters I sell I must drive to the post office, wait in queues, wait in traffic and get home. My postage prices would reflect all of this as fuel costs money, as does my time.

eBay has made buyers feel entitled to shipping for nothing (or next to nothing) and that the sellers time is worth nothing. Postage costs isnt just the price in the corner.

 

Packages are treated like that everywhere, I once had a postman hurl a package containing several fragile microchips over my garden gate while I watched on in horror from the kitchen window...

 

I share the anger:

 

Don't understand why people are cheap on packaging... that's plainly stupid and greedy to save on shipping...

What was the item? Hopefully not a PSX/SNESCD prototype

 

I once bought a Commodore 64 and the lady mailed it in an empty Diaper box with absolutely no padding inside. I could hardly believe it. It had 3 broken keys when it arrived.

Edit: About the cost of packaging materials, If you are a low to medium volume seller you can try going to local stores and ask for second hands packaging materials and often you will get it. They are often throwing out excess peanuts, boxes, bubblewrap and and all sorts of things. Thats what i do, never bought brand new packaging material. Once i had a guy who used empty water bottles as packaging protection for a particularly heavy object.

 

Yeah it's really really dumb. It may seem appealing to save a few bucks when you're packing something up but you have to stop and think - I could save a few dollars here or this could break and then the buyer will want a refund. So in reality you're prioritising $5-10 over the item and the money you got for it. Shit, if you're that stingy then save materials from packages you've received. Most of the time they can be re-used just fine.

People are dumb and it sucks to hear your item got wrecked.

 

Use a decent shipping service. I've sent sheet glass to NYC / NJ and it's arrived intact.

 

i always pack stuff like this - a few layers of bubble wrap, smaller cardboard box filled with small foam rubber pieces, then a larger box with something soft, like foam rubber or bubble wrap between two boxes. A small "crash test" proven that it's more than enough to survive pretty much everything - packed old 486 motherboard with failed VLB slots and CPU in socket, and dropped it from a 350m altitude (helicopter) It booted fine after this.

 

Sounds like this:

 

I was parked behind a Royal Mail van a few weeks ago, two guys where loading it with parcels of all different sizes, dropping them on the road, picking them up and throwing them in the back of the van, just pretty much being as rough as fuck with them, even ones with fragile tape on them, I really wish I had my phone to record it all and stick it on youtube