Selling audio equipment in UK - which courier service?

Discussion in 'Marketplace Discussions' started by Porkpie, Nov 20, 2021.

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  1. Porkpie

    Porkpie Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    UK
    I’m selling a few items (speakers and an amp) on Ebay and buyers are contacting me to ask if I’ll ship them (I have them listed as collection only). I’m not opposed to it as I have the original packaging but I’d need to insure them up to £1,000 and have read horror stories about UPS in cases of damage/claims.

    This is a question for anyone who’s sold and shipped audio equipment in the UK, which courier service have you used successfully and any tips?
     
  2. Eric_Generic

    Eric_Generic Enigma

    Location:
    Berkshire
    UPS are indeed an absolute nightmare. Avoid at all costs. Hermes too.

    Parcelforce or DPD perhaps? Although I'm not sure about such valuable contents.

    EG.
     
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  3. torquerulesok

    torquerulesok Forum Resident

    Location:
    County Down
    Why not call your local HiFi store and find out from them which courier company they rate?

    Alternatively, insist buyers make their own shipping arrangements.

    These days eBay is so biased towards protecting buyers that if anything goes wrong during transit, buyers will simply file a complaint with eBay. You end up with no sale and damaged equipment.
     
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  4. Classicrock

    Classicrock Senior Member

    Location:
    South West, UK.
    Go through Interparcel (broker). They have record of meeting claims for damages. You will have a choice of UPS, DPD and others. Personally I've never had any issues with UPS but some people have. Probably would go DPD over Parcelforce. Parcel delivery | Cheap courier | Send a parcel | Interparcel
     
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  5. Porkpie

    Porkpie Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    UK
    That’s great thanks! Given how Ebay gives all rights to the buyer I’m just worried in case something is damaged and I end up out of pocket so want it properly insured.
     
  6. norliss

    norliss Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cardiff, Wales
    In all honesty, I'd just go with collection only. Yes, it means your potential pool of buyers is smaller, but at least then it's done and dusted. HiFi is too fragile to go through the courier assault course and even putting things in their original box is no guarantee they'll get to their destination unscathed, given the way they're often tossed about. And then you have unscrupulous buyers that will damage things, claim they arrived in that condition then end up getting ALL their money back leaving you with damaged HiFi and having had to foot the bill to send it to them and get it back to you.

    If you do decide to ship items, remember:

    1/ You'll probably need to double box them
    2/ Check the T&Cs of the insurance VERY carefully. Often, it's loss not damage they'll pay for.

    You could try selling them in the Classifieds. Admittedly this site is very skewed toward North American people but try HiFi Wigwam or Pink Fish Media.
     
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  7. Porkpie

    Porkpie Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    UK
    Thanks for this response, I don’t trust anyone (outside my own “circle of trust” ;)) so am a bit worried someone might just not like them and then damage them in order to get a refund. I’ll stick with collection only and check out those sites you recommended, cheers.
     
  8. norliss

    norliss Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cardiff, Wales
    Yeah it's definitely worth doing that. There are good people on both sites and my experience (albeit only as buyer thus far) has been overwhelmingly positive. The community is such that people will often do collections/ drop-offs on behalf of people sans transport a "WAM taxi" so both sites are way better places to buy/ sell audio than Ebay.

    You could also try AVForums - that has a bigger user base and potentially bigger pool of buyers BUT the site is more general AV/Tech and not so HiFi specific. Consequently, it can be easier to shift more well-known/ mainstream brands such as B&W, KEF, Denon etc but less easy to sell lesser-known HiFi brands.

    Also worth saying that in the case of the Wigwam and Pink Fish that they normally require a period of membership and a number of posts before they allow you to place ads in the classifieds in order to stop bandits coming on and trying to scam people. I think there may be something similar at AVF but possibly not quite as stringent?
     
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  9. norliss

    norliss Forum Resident

    Location:
    Cardiff, Wales
    @Porkpie - hey dude: have you made any progress on this? Interested to see what you decided to do. What amp/ speakers are you selling, btw?
     
  10. Porkpie

    Porkpie Forum Resident Thread Starter

    Location:
    UK
    Hey, no not yet, Christmas is catching up with me so not had time to register with those 2 sites and just have them sitting on Gumtree, here & Ebay. I actually sold the amp to someone locally that picked up and now I’m waiting to sell a pair of Kef R3’s.
     
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