You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I've had a bike listed for sale for quite a while (Here*, FB and eBay), I've had a bit of interest, but no-ones actually come and bought it. I've listed it as Collection only which obvs puts off a lot of people. One person on ebay has asked about shipping, and as it's been a while I'm considering it.
He'll pay the asking price via eBay, but I'll pay the shipping costs out of that (seemed a fair haggle, although I guess I'd be paying shipping before eBay release the funds to me).
He suggested using Shiply to find a courier, I've never used it before but I got some reasonable quotes from there (approx £80-£100).
Before I go ahead, I was hoping for some impartial sanity checking 🙂 He seems a legit buyer from the back-and-forth chat we've had, but is there anything I should be doing to cover myself? If he receives it and tells ebay it's not as described or something else, do I lose the bike and the money?
Anyone used couriers via Shiply and have any thoughts on that? It looks like I can pay extra to insure upto 5K which seems sensible.
I've never sold a bike before, so not sure how to go about packaging it? I assume I need an empty bike box from the LBS and a lot of bubble wrap, then wheels off, seat post down, handlebars turned.
Cheers in advance for any tips/advice.
*I've reduced the price significantly on ebay and FB since I posted it here (£1150), but I can't seem to edit the price here...
I used Paisley Freight for a price last time I did it, and I think it was a fair bit cheaper than your quote. The fact I took it to a depot rather than have them collect might have had a bearing on that though.
As for boxing, yeah, box and bubble wrap is your best option really.
Do eBay not have a shipping option in their new simple shipping system? (I genuinely don't know, perhaps someone else can comment).
Do eBay not have a shipping option in their new simple shipping system? (I genuinely don't know, perhaps someone else can comment).
Cheers. I think that isn't showing as I listed it as Collection Only. I guess I'd need to relist it to get that option
I think simple delivery might not give an option if over 1.5m long. They may have updated it but be very wary. I tried to sell a large item a few weeks ago. I put all of the dimensions and weights in and it gave a delivery price of £13.65. Seemed good.
I sold the item. Went to make the delivery label and went through the process and it came out at £54 so I had to cancel the order. It was a lot smaller than a bike.
Huh, so not so simple then. Can't say I'm entirely surprised.
I've sent a bike since the rules changed. Set up as custom postage. Paisley Freight has always worked well for me, but I know others on here have had issues. Got a box from LBS and asked them to give me any extra cardboard they had as extra packing.
Measure box, weigh it. Add extra for compensation, i sold at 750 quid and the total price was £64.99.
Custom postage on eBay. Large/Extra large/outsized size picked, send by "other freight" and type in the £64.99 price.
Paisley send a weird tracking number that won't work in eBay's system. But the actual courier round here is APC and I used their tracking number to record on eBay. Then there's proof of delivery, sorted.
Used Paisley plenty of times and they've been decent. Only time I had a problem was when they tried to charge me more for a box that was too big but luckily the buyer took pictures to prove it wasn't. Much cheaper than your quote at around £45. They will also sell you packaging although you may as well ask at your local Halfords first as they'll probably give you it for free.
The most important thing when packaging is to make sure the bike can't move around in the box and parts are not rubbing against each other. Bubble wrap and pipe insulation are great but not always necessary if you can stop the bike moving about. I find the polystyrene that comes with washing machines/fridges/ovens etc really effective for that. Putting a layer of cardboard between the frame and removed wheel(s) is a good idea as well.
I posted a bike recently. Wheels in one box, rest of bike in another (fork and bars off and shuffled round to keep the box smallish). Both boxes booked into Parcel Force under the same consignment.
Can’t remember exactly how much but it was circa £20.
You can book to send a bike sized package directly with dpd for around £10, it’s ridiculously cheap. More expensive for multiple thousand bikes with insurance but still very reasonable.
I posted a bike recently. Wheels in one box, rest of bike in another (fork and bars off and shuffled round to keep the box smallish). Both boxes booked into Parcel Force under the same consignment.
Can’t remember exactly how much but it was circa £20.
Yeah, that's certainly possible but think each box needs to be not much over 1m so modern L or XL frames are a struggle.