Hi Guys
Quite often I see items listed in 'Private Exhibitions' with words indicating that postage/carriage is included in the sale price. That is certainly a great aid to getting a sale but I would like to suggest you think that through first, as there are a number of factors you need to take into account.
Firstly the Royal Mail should really be called Royal Fail, they lose lots of mail regularly so in my opinion you should only post by *Recorded Delivery or Special Delivery* these are the only methods whereby post can be tracked (if anyone knows differently then please say so)
I would really however encourage you to factor in the cost of using *Special Delivery* as this is really the only Royal Mail service that still works well, it means next day delivery, tracking and insurance on the goods being sent + decent levels of compensation if the item is lost. However this is going to cost.......
Secondly your generosity re paying the postage may well end up being greater than you originally thought; regardless of what service you use. Postage charges vary for parts of the UK (as weight and size are a factor) so sending to Scotland or Northern Ireland may cost a bit more than a few miles down the road, so take this into account. You can of course state UK mainland only or England only etc re your offer of paying postage on your listing but again I would urge you to think this through beforehand.
Thirdly the bottom line here is if you post it in such away that the risk in the item getting lost is greater with no way of tracking or finding the item, then frankly this is a false economy. You may well end up having to refund the money on the item if you posted using Second or First class mail (no compensation there except cost of postage X8). If you post via a better service then at least no one losses out money wise.
Fourthly make sure your item is packed to survive WW3 and addressed well using clear large type face i.e printed or using large, black ink, block capitals. I would also protect the address details with a protective film covering sellotape or such like. Also worthwhile putting a return address on the item and info relating to both addresses, the one being sent to and address being sent from inside the item, that way if the addresses are lost from the outside there is still address info inside.
One other advantage of using a postal service were the item must be signed for, is you the sender then have proof the item was received. I guess this is really more for selling on Ebay than on AOS but I suppose better safe than sorry might be the order of the day here as well.
This post is just by way of getting sellers to think things through a bit more before placing their ad in Private Exhibitions and nothing more than that and mostly applies to smaller items that can be sent via Royal Mail, most bigger items will be sent via a courier of some sort, I suspect, but much of the above will still apply to that as well.
If anyone can think of any areas/info I may have left out then feel free to add that extra information to the thread.
Regards D S D L