How to work out postage on parcels to sell.

Hi Lorraine. Everyone has their own way of sending parcels but my life got a lot easier once I discovered Trade Me’s Book a Courier system (BAC) and Pass the Parcel. Both are a door to door courier service so I never have to go to the post office.
BAC allows you to send courier bags and boxes with either NZ Post Courier or Aramex. You don’t need a printer because they will print the labels for you. There are set prices depending on what size bag or box, whether the buyers address is urban or rural, same island or inter island. You can get an idea of shipping costs at the time that you list your item and these can be added to your auction, or you can add your own.
Pass the Parcel is another good option. They tend to be cheaper for rural delivery and large boxes. They supply their courier bags for free, you write the address on and book a pick up online. If you have a printer and can print your own labels, you also have the ability to send A4 envelopes and boxes at a very competitive price. Their prices are very clearly set out on their website.
I always add my shipping costs to the auction as buyers like to know in advance how much these will be. But you can calculate them after the auction closes and email the buyer. It just means that the buyer won’t be able to pay for shipping via Ping and would have to do so using internet banking.
Re equipment- a tape measure and set of kitchen scales is essential. I buy my courier bags from r3 pack but others buy them here on Trade Me. I get my tape from Kmart but a friend has started buying hers on Temu. All my boxes come from the supermarket and my newspaper packaging is recycled too. I never use bubble wrap unless it’s recycled. I do print my own labels and I buy these on Trade Me. People often add on a little bit more to the actual courier cost to cover the cost of materials.
Hope this will get you started. Have a look at some of the larger sellers here on Trade Me and see how they set out their shipping costs in their auctions.
Like all things it sounds complicated but once you send a few items you will soon get the hang of it. You could start by calculating the shipping costs after the first few auctions close and once you’re feeling more confident you could then start adding your shipping costs to your auction descriptions. That way you are less likely to underestimate shipping and be left out of pocket.
Good luck!

Hi Lorraine - I can only say, do NOT trust the "specify shipping costs" section where you can (supposedly) calculate courier costs. These are not accurate - my courier cost increased by over 100%. You cannot change shipping costs once specified - the only way is to ask the buyer to pay the difference, and this is very difficult if they have paid by Ping. So, I would say, best to manually estimate your own costs via NZ Post (or other ) website.