Booking shipping but not able to recover cost of packaging

Hi Jane. There is no inbuilt way to do that as the cost of the courier booking is just for the delivery. Most people use those rates as a guide, then build in enough to cover bags, packing material, labels, boxes etc and set that as their delivery cost. If you use My Products, it's easy to set up shipping rates for various size parcels and modify or apply these commonly to similar size things. If you are selling easily breakable, perishable, fragile items, you may also wish to build in some time for packing as well, compared to pickups. 

The cost you calculate for bags, materials etc, you could build in to your reserve price to keep the shipping cost as the direct system as it is, but if you offer pickups, that is not necessarily the best way to do things.

Thank you Gary - I am not a frequent seller but have had a few things on here in past weeks and it struck me that if TM is all about increasing transparency, then it would be great to be able to add a packaging sum to the listing.

I front the packaging costs myself, but as I sell art works which are flat this basically involves buying courier bags from a photoshop on Trade Me (never buy from post/courier sites) which are sturdy and cheap in 50/100 lots, cardboard flats (the type you fold into boxes) from Warehouse Stationery, and rolls of wide clear packaging tape from Two Dollar shop. Labels I print on my printer and sellotape on. Basically costs me $5 a trade to package. I don't believe in presenting the buyers with more add-ons, that is hardly a "buy from me" invitation. In fact, since I've offered free shipping including rural, sales have way surpassed my previous which were getting dire due to increased courier costs to the buyer and a difficult new Trade Me site to navigate. More sales grows a business. Don't go "mean" on it. Be brave and outdo your competitors in service!