pottery postage

It's becoming an increasing problem (well for me anyway) in obtaining shipping for items bought at auction. Mail boxes were our normal route but over the past year in some areas they have become too busy and their system called 'Auction logistics' doesn't seem to function that well. In house packing and posting is ok in some auctions but terrible in others and a number now are charging compulsory insurance around 3%-5% which actually pretty useless and cannot be claimed on for damage if sent through certain carriers for example Royal Mail. Anybody else having problems?.

I am currently claiming for a £900 piece that Royal Mail broke.
It was insured for 2 grand but they have been sending the claim around in circles since early Jan

Sorry to hear that and i hope that you get some satisfaction but a friend of mine who had an early piece of pottery smashed some time ago was told that claims for insured ceramic and glass items sent through royal mail could only be considered on items with total loss, meaning lost in transit.

Nothing worse that the sadness of finding out your item has been broken by some fuxkwit - hope it gets sorted Dan.

Croker - It's a big part of why I'm put off buying from auction. Postage is a nightmare. I've had the situation where independents reply but when they find out the item is of low value (it was a poster <£50) they stopped replying to my emails. = Not enough profit in it for them. I suppose if you are spending £1000+ then it's not a problem spending £50+

Would be good if there was a country-wide service with links to every auction house who cared about their customers and their reputation.

I couldn’t get any quotes lower than £50 and I don’t spend more than £100 so it’s not worth the hassle. If I ever buy at auction again I’d do it from somewhere I can collect from in person, or via a buddy system where a friend collects for me in exchange for me collecting for them

Long time ago I had an expensive item broken it transit. The claims were a total failure. Never again! I have only ever bought from auction where I picked it up myself.
Really good packing takes a very long time. There's the rub!
I think the really big problem now is that Royal Mail is in a complete and utter mess. Some places hardly seem to be getting any mail at all, and it is a complete lottery what happens to your parcel. The alternatives are even worse.

I once bought about 35 Briglin animals at auction as a job lot. The postage was something like £40. When the huge box arrived (600mm x 600mm x 600mm) the postage on it was something like £25 alone. So they had vastly under priced the job. They individually bubble wrapped the 35 animals for £15 profit. I kept the rare half and selling the common ones paid for the lot including the postage. I mean would you spend two hours packing up other peoples stuff for basic wage money? You are not going to get rich on it. Then 1 in 10 go wrong, get lost broken / are hassle.

You were extremely lucky to find a auction house to pack and send a multiple lot for £40, most rooms won't touch multiple lots for in house posting, it's hard to get anything posted for under £50 for a small single lot, only recently it cost me £118 postage for a tea bowl from London, very few rooms have in house shipping with the exception of jewellery ,watches etc ,these all fit in a jiffy bag. Most of the postage on my items seem to range between £100-£200 with Scotland for some reason being cheaper.
I find in house shipping a bit hit and miss although i have been surprised on the odd occasion by the quality of packing and strangely sometimes for the cheaper objects.

There seem a good deal more dealers with Studio Pottery items for sale on Ebay now. I wonder if postage problem's are part of this? Private buyers are now running a bit lukewarm on buying items that they cannot pick up themselves?

We are only getting post deliveries about twice a week - appalling service.
I only buy at auction ( or ebay ) if it is near enough/profitable enough to collect myself , or if I know someone local who can collect on my behalf. If its too far away I think it is best to leave it and hope that one day something will turn up closer to home. I have no wish to pay someone for post and packing but have absolutely no control over the quality of the service