johna's blog

What's the cheapest way to send a DVD through Australia Post? (1 July 2024)

2025-06-30T12:00:00+10:00

Updated with 1 July 2025 price increases.

The average DVD including plastic case weighs around 100g.

These can be sent by regular post as a large letter up to 125g without any tracking for $3.40.

You will need to use your own envelope or packaging for this rate. DVDs usually fit snuggly in a C5-sized envelope (229 x 162mm).

For heavier DVDs such as those with more than one disc, a booklet, or a heavier case, you can send up to 250g for $5.10 but it's better value to purchase a prepaid C5 envelope (229 x 162mm) for $4.30. These can be up to 20mm thick and 500g in weight.

If you need faster delivery you can pay an extra $1.00 for priority mail, which might be 1 to 2 days quicker than regular letter delivery.

For the quickest delivery option, you can send in a C5 Express Post envelope for $9.35 for overnight delivery to capital cities. Express Post includes tracking.

Another option is a prepaid medium domestic letter with tracking for $7.50. These envelopes will fit a DVD up to 500g (240 x 162mm envelope size) and include proof-of-posting and tracking. You can also add $0.70 for speedier delivery using priority mail.

Registered Post is also available for $9.90 (B4 envelope) but the only advantage over Domestic Letter with Tracking is signature on delivery.

For all of these services, there is a maximum thickness of 20mm for the item including packaging. This allows a small amount of room for a thin piece of cardboard for a little protection in transit.

What's the cheapest way to send a large letter using Australia Post? (Updated July 2025)

2025-06-30T12:00:00+10:00

Updated with 1 July 2025 price increases.

tl;dr

For letters and documents less than 250g, it's cheapest to send in your own envelope ($3.40 up to 125g, $5.10 up to 250g).

For letters and documents over 250g and under 500g, you can send in your own envelope for $8.50 or use a prepaid B4 envelope for $8.80.

If you need tracking then consider using a $9.40 prepaid C4 envelope with tracking or an $9.90 Registered Post B4 prepaid envelope.

Express post is the quickest option and costs $11.05 for a prepaid B4 envelope.

Regular letters

Australia Post define a large letter as up to 360 x 260mm in size and a maximum of 20mm thick. The weight limit for letter rates is 500g.

If you use your own envelope, you will pay based on weight:

Up to 125g - $3.40
Up to 250g - $5.10
Up to 500g - $8.50

However, in some cases it may actually be cheaper to use one of Australia Post's prepaid envelopes. For large letters, these now come only in B4 size (C4 were discontinued in July 2025), and you can send up to 500g.

B4 (353 x 250mm) - $8.80

Source: https://auspost.com.au/sending/send-within-australia/compare-letter-services/regular-letters-cards and https://auspost.com.au/business/shipping/satchels-and-packaging/prepaid-satchels-and-envelopes

Domestic letter with tracking

If you need tracking, Australia Post offer a prepaid C4 envelope (329 x 229mm) that includes tracking and proof of delivery for $9.40. These have the advantage of being a sturdy cardboard instead of paper so will better protect the contents and are unlikely to be folded. Being cardboard, though, they are heavier (about 70g) and will use up some of the 500g weight limit.

Source: https://auspost.com.au/sending/send-within-australia/compare-letter-services/letter-tracking

Registered Post letters

If you need tracking for something larger than will fit in a C4 envelope, or if you need a signature on delivery, then there is a B4 size (353 x 250mm) Registered Post envelope available for $9.90. These also have a 500g weight limit.

Source: https://auspost.com.au/sending/send-within-australia/compare-letter-services/registered-post-letters

Express Post

Express Post for large letters is available in one size only – B4 – which costs $11.05.

Express post includes tracking and delivery is next business day to major cities, although this is no longer guaranteed.

Source: https://auspost.com.au/sending/send-within-australia/compare-letter-services/express-post-letters

Australia Post Parcel Rates - Updated July 2025

2025-06-30T12:00:00+10:00

Updated 1 July 2025 with new increased prices, removal of tough bags as a flat rate packaging option, and the new extra small postage tier.

Here is what you need to know when sending parcels with Australia Post.

There are two options for postage rates for parcels:

1. Use your own packaging and pay for postage based on the weight or physical size.

2. Use one of Australia Post's packaging options that includes flat rate postage.

Both options include tracking and can be sent by regular or express post.

Flat rate postage is usually the least expensive option but is only available if your item weighs less than 5kg and fits in one of the packaging options.

What you need to know for #1 - use your own packaging

Australia Post charge by whichever is greatest out of the items weight, or the cubic weight which is the items deemed weight based on its physical size.

Postage costs for regular and express post (up to 5kg)

Weight	Regular	Express
Up to 250g	$9.70	$12.70
250g to 500g	$11.15	$14.65
500g to 1kg	$15.25	$19.25
1kg to 3kg	$19.30	$23.80
3kg to 5kg	$23.30	$31.80

For parcels over 5kg, you'll need to use the online calculator.

Source: https://auspost.com.au/sending/parcels-australia

What you need to know for #2 - flat rate postage

Not all of Australia Post's packaging qualify for flat rate postage, so you need to choose carefully otherwise you will pay for the packaging plus the same rates as if you used your own packaging.

There are five packaging size categories: extra-small, small, medium, large and extra large.

The least expensive packaging is satchels.

However, padded mailers are sometimes the best value as they are bigger than satchels for the same postage cost. For example, if your item is a little too big for a small satchel (355x225mm - $11.50), check if it fits a small tough bag (240x340mm - $12.95) before going to a medium satchel (390x270mm - $15.65).

Packaging options

These are the packaging options that are available for flat rate postage.

Satchel

Parcel Box

Padded Mailer

Padded Bag

Extra small

Type	Size	Price*	Total Regular*	Total Express*
Satchel	280x215mm	N/A	$10.05	$13.05
Padded Mailer Extra Small	215x280mm	TBA	TBA	TBA

Small

Type	Size	Price*	Total Regular*	Total Express*
Satchel	355x225mm	N/A	$11.50	$15.00
Padded Mailer Small	240x340mm	$1.80	$12.95	$16.45
Parcel Box Small	220x160x70mm	$2.40	$13.55	$17.05

Medium

Type	Size	Price	Total Regular*	Total Express*
Satchel	390x270mm	N/A	$15.65	$19.65
Padded Mailer Medium	265x380mm	$2.20	$17.45	$21.45
Parcel Box Medium	240x190x120mm	$2.80	$18.05	$22.05

Large

Type	Size	Price	Total Regular*	Total Express*
Satchel	405x315mm	N/A	$19.75	$24.25
Padded Mailer Large	483x361mm	$3.00	$22.30	$26.80
Parcel Box BX24	410x300x80mm	$3.30	$22.60	$27.10
Parcel Box Large	390x280x140mm	$3.50	$22.80	$27.30

Extra large

Type	Size	Price	Total Regular*	Total Express*
Satchel	510x440mm	N/A	$23.80	$32.30
Parcel Box Extra Large	440x277x168mm	$4.00	$27.30	$35.80

*Packaging discounts are available if buying in bulk

Source: https://auspost.com.au/shop/sending/flat-rate-packaging

What is going on with Aliexpress Bundle Deals?

2025-04-09T12:00:00+10:00

I buy a reasonable amount of crap from Aliexpress. If I need something, but not in a hurry, Aliexpress is usually my first or second choice. It's actually become a bit of a personal challenge to get the best possible deal on Aliexpress, often just to save a matter of cents.

They have a couple of buying options that can get things here (Australia) in less than two weeks and with free delivery. Items are mostly significantly less than buying locally, and many items on eBay come from China anyway and take the same amount of time.

One of the buying options is "Choice" where you get free shipping if you buy a minimum of AUD $15.00, otherwise shipping is $2.99. You also get your order within something like two weeks or they offer a small credit. My orders have always made it on time.

Choice is usually a consistent buying experience, although I have noticed that sometimes I find an unusually good deal on a product and add it to my cart, but if I don't checkout at that time, by the next day it is no longer available. I guess that makes sense if it's a great deal, but it just seems odd that I happen to find this great deal the first time looking for the product and then it disappears.

The other good buying option is "Bundle Deals". The delivery time is the same and shipping is free if you buy three or more items, even if the items are $1 or $2. You can also usually save another $2.50 if you buy six items at the same time.

But there is some weirdness with Bundle Deals. Firstly, like all Aliexpress prices, GST (Goods and Services Tax) is not included in the advertised prices and is added on at checkout time. But with Bundle Deals, the GST is not the usual 10% of the advertised price.

For example, I recently had an order for $17.17. The GST should have been 10% which would equal $1.71, but instead Aliexpress changed $3.62 – which is 21%! But sometimes it's more and sometimes it's less.

I've tried to work out how they calculate this. I've checked against the crossed-out usual price and I've checked against the price less discounts and the usual shipping cost, but nothing makes sense.

Even their help for the tax amount clearly states that they collect 10%.

The other weirdness relates to price fluctuations. Many if not most prices on Aliexpress tend to fluctuate a little and appear to be adjusted at least once or twice a day. But Bundle Deal prices fluctuate a LOT.

It's almost as if there is some marketing at work, although I'm not sure. You see a good price and you add the item to your cart, but you don't checkout. The next you come back and the price has gone up by 10%, but you still don't checkout. And then you come back later and it's gone up even more.

I've watched items go from $15 to $25 in the space of a couple of days. I've followed the AUD to Yuan exchange rate at the same time and although I have sometimes noticed a connection, the exchange rate change has never been as much as some of these extreme price fluctuations.

I've also checked that the prices I am seeing are the same as what are being shown to others, and unless there are some real sneaky tracking tactics going on, they are the same.

The strange thing is that at the same time, sometimes some prices go up and some go down.

Let me know if you have had similar experiences with Aliexpress or can explain any of this.

New eBay Australia Post extra small satchels available from 30 April 2025

2025-03-29T12:00:00+10:00

When selling on eBay, the cheapest option to send for small parcels through Australia Post has been the flat-rate small satchels which cost $10.95.

Starting April 30, 2025, eBay and Australia Post are trialing new "extra small" flat-rate satchels.

My guess is that this new offer is to compete against eBay's option to send through Sendle, which is often cheaper for lightweight, small packages.

To use this service you need to purchase satchels in advance and then you pay a flat rate through eBay when you use these for an eBay order.

The new satchel size is 280mm x 215mm (the current small satchels are 355mm x 225mm) and, like all of the flat-rate satchels, can take up to 5kg.

The price of the satchels when purchased through eBay or Australia Post is $7.50 for three packs of ten satchels (30 satchels). This works out as 25c per satchel, but you also need to pay $9.95 for regular delivery so the real cost is 58c per satchel, unless you are purchasing more than 30.

Australia Post do say on their website that you can buy satchels at post offices, but I don't know if this applies to the new satchels.

The price of postage is $8.55, so $8.80 to $9.13 including the satchel, which is about $1.40 less than the current cheapest parcel rate. You can also send the satchels Express Post for $11.25.

eBay claim that sellers get 10% off the recommended retail price (RRP) but it is not clear whether the advertised prices include this discount or will be 10% less.

You can buy the satchels now but cannot use them until 30 April. The eBay listing already shows over 300 packs purchased in the first twenty-four hours, so there looks to be demand for sending smaller items at a reduced cost.

So far there has been no word whether Australia Post will offer an extra small satchel for non-eBay postal needs.

Updated 1 July 2025: Australia Post are offering the extra small satchels for $10.05 and a new extra small postage tier. See my parcel rates post for more information.

Three tips to pay as little as possible when shopping on eBay Australia

2024-10-29T12:00:00+10:00

There's plenty of cheap items on eBay Australia but sometimes you can pay even less with a little bit of work.

Check eBay in other countries
This really only works when you are buying cheap Chinese products.

Often you will find that the same item is available in another country cheaper than on eBay Australia.

For example, take this car part I recently needed... I looked on eBay Australia and, as I usually do, set the the sort order to "Price + Postage: lowest first". The lowest price was A$18.89.

Next step is to try eBay in different countries. You can do the same search simply by changing the ebay URL in the browser address bar. Simply remove the ".au" to search eBay USA, which usually has the lowest prices. Or you can change the ".com.au" to ".co.uk" for searching eBay UK. You may even want to try "ebay.de" for eBay Germany. (For a complete list of eBay websites see eBay's Global Trade page.)

When you are using eBay for other countries obviously pricing is going to be in a foreign currency. But if you open the item page, you can change the URL back to "ebay.com.au", and the approximate converted price will be shown in Australian Dollars.

Note that not all items on foreign eBay sites will be available to be shipped to Australia. The item page will show whether delivery to Australia is an option and the price including an estimate of the converted cost in A$. However, most if not all items from China will be available to us.

For my search I found eBay USA to have the cheapest offer. The price was approximately A$11.48 - a significant saving.
Look for coupons

It's always worth doing a Google search for current eBay coupons.

Even if you haven't been notified by an email from eBay, there's usually at least a 5% off coupon for purchases over A$30 available.
Open more eBay accounts
A long time ago I opened up a second eBay account using a different email address which I used with a sniping service (a service that bids for you at the last possible moment). The reason was that I didn't want to expose my primary account password to this service as I didn't know if it was trustworthy.

I made a few purchases on this account but it stayed dormant for long periods of time.

But I started noticing that I was getting offers for this account that I wasn't getting for my primary account.

Some of the offers were incentives for me to return to eBay because I hadn't used it for a while.

The most recent offers were $10 off any purchase over $20 (titled "a little gift to lure you back") and another that was part of eBay's $100M giveaway offer. For my primary account I was offered $15 off for purchases over $120, but on my second account I was offered $7 off any purchase!

So having multiple accounts can be very worthwhile. You will need multiple email addresses but you may find you can easily create more email addresses as aliases of your current email address. otherwise you can just create free email accounts with outlook.com or gmail.com.

It doesn't seem to matter that you use the same PayPal account to pay.

I recommend that you check eBay terms and conditions to see if this is not against your agreement with eBay.
October 2024 Update - Wait for seller offers

If you are signed in to eBay and look at an item, there is a chance you might get an offer from the seller with a discounted price. I don't know exactly how this feature works, but to give yourself the best chance of getting a seller offer you should add the item to your watchlist. If there are multiple of the same item by different sellers, view all the items and add them all to your watchlist, and leave them there for at least a few days,

As an eBay seller myself, there is a page which tells me if there are some people who have looked at or watched one of my items and allows me to send them an offer. I can set a price and eBay will send the interested people an email with my offer. It also gives the option to automatically send the same offer to any other interested people in the future, until the item sells.

I use this technique often and although I don't always get an offer, it sometimes pays off.

Australia Post now enforcing cubic weight checks for parcels

2024-02-07T12:00:00+10:00

Most transport companies charge for delivery based on which is the greater of actual weight or cubic weight.

Cubic weight is a comparative weight calculated based on the volume of the item. This means that the company can charge a more appropriate fee for transporting an unusually light but large item.

The industry standard is that one cubic metre is equivalent to 250kg.

Australia Post have always advertised that they do charge by cubic weight if it is greater than the actual weight, but from my experience at least, it is rare for staff to actually measure parcels unless they happen to be unusually large.

However as of this month (February 2024), I have heard from Australia Post staff that they have been instructed to always measure parcels and charge based on cubic weight where it is the greater weight.

What does this mean to you? If you send physically large packages then you are now likely to pay more for postage.

Even a light weight package that might have fitted in the under 1kg postage rate, will now be measured for size and may be charged at a higher rate.

To calculate the cubic weight:

Measure the package dimensions (length, width and height) in metres
Calculate length times width times height, then multiply this by 250
This final result is the package's cubic weight, in kg

So a 30 x 20 x 10 cm parcel would be charged at 1.5 kg, even if it was less than 1kg.

To minimise your costs you should keep your packaging size to a minimum, and measure both actual weight and cubic weight when working out your shipping costs.

eBay not acting on unscrupulous seller practices

2022-09-08T12:00:00+10:00

I have noticed that more and more sellers on eBay are marking orders as sent and adding a tracking number despite the item not actually being sent until days later -- or longer.

Through Australia Post (and some other freight companies), a tracking number can be generated in advance of the item actually being collected by Australia Post or dropped off to a post office.

When you track these deliveries on the Australia Post website or eBay, they show as something like "Shipping information received by Australia Post" with no tracking history.

Some unscrupulous eBay sellers are using this to falsely comply with their advertised posts within timeframe.

There are also plenty of sellers who don't maintain any stock locally and order from China as soon as you place an order.

eBay does display a wide potentially delivery date window, so often even if the item is not posted within the advertised number of days, it can still arrive within the window.

I recently dealt with a seller that marked my order as sent and added one of these tracking numbers. After a week it was still not showing with any tracking history, so hadn't yet made it to Australia Post.

What can you do in this situation? As far as eBay is concerned, the order has been sent but not delivered so you can't open an item not received dispute until the maximum estimated delivery date.

You can request a refund from the seller earlier, but if they don't accept refunds then there is no obligation (through eBay) for them to provide a refund at this point in the process.

Unfortunately, while eBay continue to tolerate this practise, all you can do is wait for your order to arrive and if you feel like the seller has not acted appropriately, share your opinion via negative or neutral feedback to potentially warn others.

If it doesn't arrive by the maximum estimated delivery date then you can open a dispute, but you will have to wait for up to another seven days for the seller to either respond and either provide a refund or dispute your dispute. If they don't respond after seven days then you can make another request for eBay to step in and provide the refund.

According to eBay Australia's seller standards policy, eBay do actually monitor the actual shipment date (based on the first scan) when a tracking number is entered. But a high late shipment rate on its own won't cause a seller's account to be evaluated as "below standard". A low rate is only required for "top rated status". So this means that if the seller does not also have a high number of cancelled orders or certain types of disputes then there is zero punishment for sellers who don't ship within their advertised handling time.

Perhaps eBay could add a dispute process for item not shipped within the advertised number of business days, so that buyers actually have the opportunity to report this practice.

But given that eBay still allow other unscrupulous seller practices we shouldn't hold our breath for any action in this space.

Another unscrupulous practice is allowing sellers to list different types of items in the same listing so that an item will appear in search results as a lower price. For example, sellers can list a toaster for $20, but they can also add an option to the listing for something unrelated like a $1 keyring so then the toaster shows up in listings at $1 (or $1 to $20 depending on which device and/or app is in use).

Or what about this listing for a sofa cover that shows up first when you search and filter by lowest price? You can buy 1 seater cover for $16.14 or you can select "free to contact us" for $1.08.

eBay should only allow one type of product with only variations in a single listing.

This email from PayPal looks more like spam than real spam does

2022-01-28T12:00:00+10:00

I received this email purportedly from PayPal Australia. It arrived in my Outlook.com mailbox as a trusted sender which is usually a good sign that it can be trusted.

But when I scanned through the email I thought, "this is spam". There is poor quality punctuation, missing spaces and quotation marks all over the place for no apparent reason.

Even the text itself sounds like spam, suggesting inaction will result in dire consequences.

I had marked it as spam in my head but looked to see where the links went to confirm, but they all went to the PayPal website.

I logged in to my PayPal account on another device and the notification mentioned in the email was there with the same date.

I forwarded the email to PayPal's phishing service out of interest, but never got a response either way, which is odd.

But it appears this is a genuine PayPal email. What do you think?

eBay Australia FAIL - Get $0 Off (BLOOM) special offer 15 May 2019

2019-05-13T12:00:00+10:00

I always keep an eye out for discount coupons from eBay Australia, but the one I received today, 13 May 2019, is a bit disappointing.

The email I received today from eBay says, "Get $0 Off* Expires 14 May, 2019 Coupon code: BLOOM *Terms & Conditions apply."

$0 Off? That doesn't sound very good. And what are the terms and conditions? And must I act quick so I can get $0 off before the deal expires?

Surprise, but this appears to be a mistake. When I click the link in the email it gives details on the BLOOM coupon code which appears to actually be if you buy two items you get 15% off the lower priced item (minimum spend A$75), although it is confusingly worded:

"The offer entitles you to 15% off the purchase price (excluding postage costs) of one item when you buy a second item listed on www.ebay.com.au."

Ah, no thanks, eBay.

Getting annoyed with sellers taking advantage of eBay's multiple variations listing option

2015-06-19T12:00:00+10:00

It's been a while since I posted one of my rants about eBay but there has been something annoying me for some time now. eBay have a feature where sellers can list multiple variations of an item, each with a different price.

Although this sounds good in principal, many sellers are now taking advantage of this feature to misrepresent their products and make their products appear in search results that they would not normally appear in.

Take for instance a keyword search for a "watch", with the sort order changed to "Price + Postage: lowest first".

We find a listing like the one below, which shows some attractive watches with a price of A$1.00!

But when we click through to the full listing page we find that there is only one crappy watch for A$1.00, which wasn't in the picture in the search results, and the rest of the watches are around A$13.00 (which is still very cheap but the advertised price was misleading).

Surely eBay should change their search results page to show the full price range of the products in the listing, rather than just the lowest price product.

eBay Tip: How to find what best offers have been accepted

2011-09-10T12:00:00+10:00

Have you ever been interested in buying an item on eBay that is available as "Best Offer", where there is multiple quantities on offer and some already sold, and you want to see what the other people have paid?

eBay want to hide this information, of course, but it is revealed in certain places.

The first place to look is in that seller's completed items. On the item page, click "See other items" which will bring up a list of any other items that the seller has listed. On the left hand side, under "Show Only", click "Completed listings". You may need to log in at this point. This will bring up a list of items from this seller has finished. Once an item has finished all of the best offer prices will be visible in the history (click the "x sold" link next to history in the "Other item info" section of the completed item description page) so you will be able to get an idea of the seller's limits.

However there is an even better way to see what offers have been accepted for an item that hasn't finished yet. Simply look at the seller's feedback. Assuming the seller hasn't set this information to private, the best offer price is shown immediately when a buyer leaves feedback.

That is a great advantage to buyers but not to sellers, and a significant flaw in the eBay system in my opinion.

Update: eBay have now put a stop to this unfortunately, and no longer display the price. However they do still show that a best offer was accepted, so you can get an indication whether the seller is open to offers.

eBay Changes Starting 22 September 2011

2011-08-19T12:00:00+10:00

Most eBay customers should already be aware of the fee changes coming 22 September 2011.

I have mixed feelings about the change to allow you to list items with zero insertion fees. As a seller I think it's great because you can try and sell all that stuff that is probably unlikely to sell and not pay unless it sells. However, as a buyer I am not looking forward to it as this change will most likely result in having to wade through a whole lot more crap to find the good stuff. For example, most of the searches I do on the free-to-list quicksales.com.au results in 99% crap, 1% good stuff.

The thing that annoys me about the upcoming eBay changes is the deceitfulness we have become accustomed to with eBay.

As you are probably aware final value fees are increasing from 5.25% to 7.9%, which according to eBay is: "To enable eBay to offer this up front saving and simplified fee format, eBay is re-balancing and simplifying fees by slightly increasing final value fees..." (source)

However, if you list ore than 30 items per month you have to pay the same listing fee as before AND you still have to pay the new nearly 8% listing fee.

On top of the new 7.9% final value fee you will more often than not also have to pay the PayPal (an eBay company) commission on both the item final value and shipping costs, making the percentage payable to eBay quite considerable.

On a positive note it's about time we got free gallery image (shame it doesn't apply to all listings). This is a good benefit to sellers and whatever benefits sellers benefits eBay too!

eBay - your online fence?

2010-10-26T12:00:00+10:00

Although eBay have rules against the listing of items which infringe copyright and are on recordable media they have hundreds of such items for sale at any one time.

Now I understand that some items can slip through the net, but there is no excuse when items are obviously not the genuine article.

Take the case of repair manuals for cars, motorcycles, boat engines and the like. All you have to do is search for something like "MANUAL CD" and you will see hundreds (perhaps thousands) of listings for these type of repair manuals. I would suggest that most people who see these manuals realise that they are obviously either pirated copies of printed manuals or manufacturer's service data that is usually only available to dealers. Many of the advertisers even openly mention the publisher's name. I have no doubt eBay have a department full of people trained to spot listing violations such as these, but they don't appear to be doing anything about the problem, despite myself (and I'm sure many others) reporting these listings frequently in an attempt to bring this to their attention.

I guess this type of theft does not receive the same public attention as software, music and movie piracy so eBay are probably happy not to have to "waste" their resources clamping down on it, and no doubt also happy to pocket the listing and various other fees they receive for acting as a "fence" (definition: a place where stolen goods are bought and sold).

Useful links:

eBay policy on recordable media
eBay policy on copyrights and trademarks

How to report an item that you believe violates eBay's policies:

There is a link on every item page, as shown in the following image (circled in red).

eBay encourage/force you to lose money on postage

2009-12-10T12:00:00+10:00

eBay's postage calculator is a very useful tool for sellers but does not allow you to add any surcharge to cover handling or the fee that PayPal (an eBay company) will take out of the postage amount if a buyer chooses PayPal.

Not only that but eBay enforce sometimes unreasonable postage and handling charge limits on certain categories, for example a single book has a postage and handling charge limit less than the cost of postage to many areas of Australia. On top of tht they take their fee when payment is by PayPal so your loss is increased.

So you may need to up your item price to cover the money lost on postage charges, but of course then eBay take a larger commission from the sale.

johna's blog

What's the cheapest way to send a DVD through Australia Post? (1 July 2024)

What's the cheapest way to send a large letter using Australia Post? (Updated July 2025)

tl;dr

Regular letters

Domestic letter with tracking

Registered Post letters

Express Post

Australia Post Parcel Rates - Updated July 2025

What you need to know for #1 - use your own packaging

Postage costs for regular and express post (up to 5kg)

What you need to know for #2 - flat rate postage

Packaging options

Extra small

Small

Medium

Large

Extra large

What is going on with Aliexpress Bundle Deals?

New eBay Australia Post extra small satchels available from 30 April 2025

Three tips to pay as little as possible when shopping on eBay Australia

Check eBay in other countries

Look for coupons

Open more eBay accounts

October 2024 Update - Wait for seller offers

Australia Post now enforcing cubic weight checks for parcels

eBay not acting on unscrupulous seller practices

This email from PayPal looks more like spam than real spam does

eBay Australia FAIL - Get $0 Off (BLOOM) special offer 15 May 2019

Getting annoyed with sellers taking advantage of eBay's multiple variations listing option

eBay Tip: How to find what best offers have been accepted

eBay Changes Starting 22 September 2011

eBay - your online fence?

eBay encourage/force you to lose money on postage