Footybits

UK

Due to Royal Mails insistence on charging sky high prices for their monopolised service its got to the point where we can no longer offer our £1 fee for all UK orders.

Although we are able to continue offering the £1 fee for smaller items (anything Letter size) we have had to increase the cost of larger (Large Letter) items to £1.35 and introduce the Packet option for larger/bulkier items.

1st Class Letter -  £1.00 (cigarette cards, single trade cards etc)

1st Class Large Letter - £1.35 (A4 pictures, programmes, card sets etc)

1st Class Large Letter - £1.75 (Heavier magazines)

1st Class Packet Post - £2.75 (Bulky items over Large Letter size)

Irrespective of whether small items are included in the order the "standard price" will rise to £1.35 if a Large Letter item is included in the multiple items, or £2.75 if it needs to go as a Packet)

For example - if you buy 5 single cigarette cards the total price for UK postage will be £1.00, however if you buy 5 single cigarette cards and an A4 picture the total cost will be £1.35.

European & ROW page

Due to the horrendous price rises Royal Mail have introduced for Air Mail services we have had to revise our postage fees for overseas deliveries as follows;

European

1st Class Letter -  £1.50 (cigarette cards, single trade cards etc)

1st Class Packet -  £3.00 (A4 pictures, programmes, card sets etc)

Rest of the World

1st Class Letter -  £2.00  (cigarette cards, single trade cards etc)

1st Class Packet -  £3.50 (A4 pictures, programmes, card sets etc)

The above prices are for one item, unfortunately we can no longer offer our multiple items for the same price deal and multiple items will be based on weight.

For smaller items such as cigarette cards, individual trade cards, phone cards etc the postage cost will not increase from the standard as the added weight will not be significant enough to move the weight of the package out of the lower weight band that Royal mail use. 

The same for lighter items like A4 pictures, for example if you buy 5 x A4 pictures these will have little impact on the revised price as the weight difference will not necessarily take it out of the £3.50 price band, however if the 5 items you purchase are for example, programmes, this will significantly increase the weight and will then need extra adding on dependant on which weight band the revised parcel falls into

Therefore if you do purchase multiple items please wait for us to adjust the postage on the invoice before paying and we will adjust the invoices accordingly per invoice dependant on the contents of the order, we will though try and keep the costs to a minimum and we usually charge less than the actual cost to us from Royal Mail. 

As mentioned above some of the above prices are actually near enought the same or even LESS than Royal Mail charge for their Air Mail services, for example, for a Large Letter weighing 100g Royal Mail charge £2.93 for Europe and £3.86 for Rest Of The World so we are subsiding that to try and minimise the cost to you the customer!!

International orders over £25.00

Due to a number of "questionable" complaints by some international buyers as to them not recieving their orders it has become necessary for us to charge for a trackable service on high value orders.

We realise that this can massively increase the cost of the postage (Royal Mail charge £5.15 extra for this service) but we can not continue to refund lost orders if buyers do not take this service. If you do not wish to pay the extra that is fine but we will not be able to send the order and it will be refunded.

International orders - heavy magazines

For the same reasons as above (i.e dubious non receipt claims) we can no lonfer send heavy magazines via standard Air Mail but instead will only send them if a Signed For service is paid for. 

A4 PICTURES

 Some buyers have queried why an A4 picture should be included in the Large Letter section as it is so light, the problem is although the picture itself is light and falls well within Royal Mails smaller weight band the packaging we put in with it (cardboard insert) takes it up to the second weight band.  

IMPORTANT - THE ABOVE ONLY APPLIES IF YOU WAIT UNTIL WE HAVE COMBINED ALL OF THE ITEMS ONTO ONE INVOICE, IF NOT ADDITIONAL CHARGES/ORDER REFUNDS WILL BE INCURRED. (See Multiple items section)

Its not me making money out of postage - its Royal Mail !!

Because of the the recently announced Royal Mail increases I have had to restructure my postage fees.

Most buyers are fair and understand the costs but unfortunately it seems there is still some misinformed people out there that think it’s the sellers making pots of money out of postage – its far from the truth.

Ive actually had some idiots sending me abusive mails complaining that Im charging too much for postage with comments like "its just a bit of paper" and one who even gave me an abusive phone call calling me a "thieving b*******d"". 

Thankfully this sort of unwanted buyer are few and far between but I still thought it best to explain why I charge what I do just in case. 

Firstly of course, as the title above alludes to, there is Royal Mails outrageous postage fees but there are other factors which need to be taken into account.

Theres also the cost of the envelope, paper, printing, packaging etc which ok isnt exactly  a massive amount, maybe 4p – 5p per order (even more if a hard backed envelope is used) but it still has to be paid for.

There’s then the one that most people don’t take into consideration and that is the time taken to pick and pack the order, i.e - handling time - which incidentally Ebay do encourage sellers to include in their prices.

As this is my full time job and is the only way I earn my living I obviously have to pay myself (or the Temps I employ in busy periods) a wage and this has to be taken into account in the packaging charges.

I’ve done some time and motion exercises and this actually works out at an average of 15 orders an hour …. i.e 4 minutes per order.

So even at the minimum wage of £6 per hour (10p per minute) this means each order costs me at least 40p to pick / pack.

Its easy now to do the maths above and work out that even the smallest cigarette card in an envelope sent by 1st Class Letter post is going to cost me more than I actually pass onto you !!

For overseas deliveries the same principles apply, unfortunately though Royal Mail have massively increased their Airmail prices which unfortunately has to be paid for.

Hopefully the above will make it clear that I’m not trying to rip anybody off with my postage fees and that they are in fact pretty reasonable and hopefully you will bear this in mind when you come to mark me on my P&P star ratings.

FINALLY.

Of course even after reading the above you may still think Im charging way over the top, in that case I would ask you to visit Royal Mails site and see for yourself the horrendous prices they are charging for their services !!

Remember as well I am selling my (often very hard to find and very collectable) items at really low prices and havent just hidden the postal costs in the item prices like some people do, to sum it up. I could quite easily add extra onto my item prices but I believe in selling something for what its worth, not just to make sure my post cost is covered - at the end of the day ......

I DONT TRY AND MAKE MONEY OUT OF POSTAGE - ALL I AM DOING IS COVERING MY COSTS, IT IS ROYAL MAIL THAT IS MAKING A KILLING OUT OF POSTAGE !!