Profit, postage and stock
Posting parcels without losing money
Weigh every parcel with its packaging before you pick a service, because postage is priced in weight and size bands, not by the gram. Use light mailing bags for clothes, flatten and squeeze out the air, always keep tracking, and photograph the sealed parcel with its label. Most lost margin comes from skipping one of these.
Why do weight bands catch people out?
Carriers price by bands, not by the gram. Going just over a band limit can push the price up a step even though the contents have not changed. The habit that pays straight away: weigh before you choose, with the packaging included.
A kitchen scale is enough and pays for itself quickly. Without one, you round up to be safe, and you pay for being safe on every parcel.
How should you pack each kind of item?
Packaging adds weight and adds protection. You trade one off against the other by type of item:
- Clothes: a plastic or paper mailing bag. Light, flexible, it hugs the contents and adds almost no weight.
- Shoes: a box, but not the original one if it is heavy. It can push the parcel into the next band; offer it to the buyer as an option.
- Anything fragile: double-walled box, padding on all six sides. This is not where you save money: a broken item costs the refund and the review.
Reusing boxes from shops is fine and free. Take every old label off, or the parcel may go somewhere else.
Does the size of the parcel matter as much as the weight?
Often, yes. Many services have a maximum thickness or size. A thin garment folded flat and squeezed can fit a cheaper size where the same garment folded in three will not. Fold flat, push the air out, seal: a few seconds that change the price.
Who should pay for postage?
On Vinted, postage is added to what the buyer pays at checkout, along with the Vinted fee. On eBay you choose: the buyer pays, or you offer free postage and build it into the price. Three approaches, each suited to different items:
| Approach | When it works | The risk |
|---|---|---|
| Buyer pays postage | Cheap items, modest postage | Postage can cost more than the item and put buyers off |
| Free postage, built into the price | Items worth more than the postage several times over | A wrong estimate comes straight out of your profit |
| Free over a certain spend | Encouraging bundles | You have to keep track of baskets |
"Free postage" is never free: it is a higher price that includes postage. Work it out before you advertise it. Example: an item you want €20 for, with postage that costs you €3.50, has to be listed at €23.50 to leave you the same €20.
Which mistakes cost the most?
- Not weighing and guessing. By far the most expensive habit.
- Forgetting the weight of the packaging itself.
- Posting without tracking to save a little. A lost parcel with no proof of postage is entirely on you.
- Waiting days to post. Slow dispatch hurts your reviews, and reviews affect how visible you are.
- Not photographing the sealed parcel with its label. That one photo settles most disputes.
Batch your drop-offs
Posting each parcel as it sells costs you a trip every time. Two drop-offs a week is enough in almost every case, keeps you within the dispatch time you promised, and frees time for listing, which is the real bottleneck.
Postage you pay is part of an item's cost, just like its purchase price. Leave it out and you get a ghost margin. The full calculation is in the guide on working out your real profit.
Where the figures come from
Fees and rules change. Every platform figure or official threshold on this page comes from the page below, read on the date shown. If it has changed since, the official page is right and this one is out of date.
- Vinted Ireland Help Centre: Is using Vinted free?, checked on
- Vinted Ireland: Price list (Vinted fee for buyers, last updated 5 October 2026), checked on
A tool for this: Profit calculator, postage included
The tool
Try resellflip on one item
From one photo: a price range, and the net profit you would keep before you buy. Listings are written for you on a paid plan. No card needed.