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Specifying your postage costs and locations


All sellers are required to specify a domestic P&P for deliveries within the UK. New listings without a specified domestic P&P will be blocked.

There are limits to P&P charges in certain categories for deliveries within the UK. New listings for which P&P charges exceed these limits will be blocked.

Offering free postage

Offering free postage is a great way to attract more buyers and get a higher placement in search results. Also, if you offer free P&P, and we can confirm a buyer chose this option, you'll automatically receive a 5-star detailed seller rating for P&P charges.

Here's how to offer free postage:
  1. When you're listing your item, select a postal service from the drop-down menu.

  2. Tick the box next to Free P&P.

If you're using a listing tool that doesn't have the free P&P tick box, specify your postage cost as '0'.

Note: When you select the free P&P tick box, this sets handling costs to '0' for your buyers when they select free P&P.

In search results pages, the word 'Free' appears next to your listing in the P&P column.

Using flat rate postage costs

When you select 'Flat: same cost to all buyers' in the listing form, you decide the postage and packaging costs and which services to use. This option enables you to enter flat costs for UK and international delivery.

If you are selling more than one item, you can enter a postage and packaging cost for each additional item a buyer purchases. The cost you enter will be shown on your item listing. Your buyers will be charged the cost you specify when they pay for the item.

Note: You'll also be required to specify a dispatch time when you list your item, which is how long it will take you to put the item in the mail once you receive payment. If you don't specify a dispatch time, we select a default dispatch time for you.

Using delivery rate tables

You can use delivery rate tables to set the amount you charge for postage by delivery method and for specified destinations within ‘Special domestic regions’. Special domestic regions in the United Kingdom are: Channel Islands, Isle of Wight, Isle of Man, Scilly Isles, Scottish Highlands, Scottish Islands and Northern Ireland. You can choose not to post to one or all of the special domestic regions.  Buyers will see the item you are offering, but will not be able to bid or buy.

There are 3 ways you can specify postage costs in your delivery rate tables:

  • By item: With this option, the postage cost to a buyer depends on where you're posting the item and the delivery method you use. For example, you can choose to charge £2.75 for economy delivery to the United Kingdom (excluding special domestic regions), and £3.50 to the Channel Islands. If you choose this option, the postage cost to the buyer won't vary based on the weight of the package.

  • By weight: If you choose this option, you can set a fixed base cost for any destination and delivery method, and then add an additional fixed amount per kilogram. For example, for an item posted within the United Kingdom (excluding special domestic regions) by express delivery you can charge £2.50 plus £0.50 per kilogram.

  • By surcharge: This option lets you set a fixed base cost and then add a surcharge to it for any destination and delivery method. For example, you can charge £2.75 for standard delivery and then add a £1.00 surcharge for delivery to special domestic regions such as the Channel Islands and a £2.00 surcharge for delivery to Europe.

Using delivery rate tables to set your P&P costs:
  1. Click My eBay at the top of most eBay pages. You may need to sign in.

  2. Click the Account tab.

  3. Click Site Preferences on the left side of the page.

  4. Click Show to see the Postage and packgaging preferences section.

  5. Click Edit next to the option to Use postage rate tables.

  6. On the next page you can set your domestic postal rates by item, weight, or surcharge by selecting that option from the drop-down menu.

  7. Once you're finished, click Apply.

Once you've set up your delivery rate tables, you can use them any time you list an item. To do so, select the Apply my domestic rate table rates option when listing your item. These options are in the Give buyers P&P details section of the listing form under the Delivery rate tables heading.

Specifying where you post to

You can exclude certain regions or countries from the places you're willing t opost to.

To specify locations you don't post to:
  1. Click My eBay at the top of most eBay pages. You may need to sign in.

  2. Click the Account tab.

  3. Click Site Preferences on the left side of the page.

  4. Click Show to see the Postage & packaging preferences section.

  5. Click Edit next to the option to Exclude postage locations from your listings.

  6. On the next page, select the regions where you don't want to post your items. If you only want to select certain countries in a region, click Show all countries next to that region's name.

  7. If you want to apply these exclusions to your current listings, select the Apply to all current live listings option.

Special domestic regions

Region

Postcode

Channel Islands

All postcodes containing GY and JE

Isle of Man

All postcodes containing IM

Scilly Isles

TR21 to TR25 inclusive

Scottish Islands

IV41 to IV49, IV51, IV55, IV56, H51, H53 to H59, ZE1 to ZE3, PH42 to PH44, PA20 to PA38, PA41 to PA49, PA60 to PA78, PA80, KW15 to KW17

Scottish Highlands

IV1 to IV32, IV36, IV40, IV52, IV54, IV63, HS1 to HS9, PH16 to PH26, PH30 to PH41, PH49 to PH50, AB13, AB14, AB30 to AB45, AB51 to AB56, KW1, KW3, KW5 to KW12, KW14, KW15, KW17

Northern Ireland

All postcodes containing BT

Isle of Wight

PO10 to PO39, and PO60 to PO69 inclusive

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