How to Use InPost with eBay Simple Delivery

When a buyer pays and eBay has assigned InPost, the order page shows two things: a QR code and a six-digit code. They are the same label in two forms. The QR code is for the scanner on the locker screen; the six-digit code is for the keypad when the scanner cannot read your phone, and for InPost Shop staff who type it in. Both appear in the eBay app, on the website under the sold item, and in the dispatch email.

There is no PDF. Sellers who have used Royal Mail or Evri through eBay sometimes look for the 'print label' step; for InPost it does not exist, and nothing needs to be attached to the parcel before you leave the house. The locker prints a small internal label when you drop off, and an InPost Shop prints a temporary one at the counter.

Simple Delivery labels, including the InPost code, are valid for seven days. The clock that matters more is your handling time, because eBay's protection against loss and damage only starts at the first carrier scan if that scan happens inside it.

The code is not tied to a location. It works at any of InPost's 16,000-plus lockers and at roughly 4,000 InPost Shops, which include the former Yodel stores that joined the network in July 2026. The InPost app shows every site on a map with the number of Small, Medium and Large compartments free at that moment, so you can see before you leave whether the locker round the corner has the size you need.

Supermarket and retail-park lockers (Tesco, Aldi and, from September 2026, up to 700 Asda stores) are the larger units with the most Large compartments and are usually in car parks that are accessible at any hour. Street lockers and units inside small shops are smaller, fill up by evening and may only be reachable in the host's opening hours. Lockers are emptied at least once a day, so a locker that was full on Friday evening is normally clear again by Saturday mid-morning.

An InPost Shop is the fallback for a parcel that fits InPost's limits but not any free compartment: staff scan or type the code and take the parcel over the counter, and the same 15 kg limit applies.

Every InPost compartment is 38 cm wide and 64 cm high; only the depth changes, at 8 cm (Small), 19 cm (Medium) or 41 cm (Large). The biggest parcel the network accepts is therefore 41 × 38 × 64 cm, and the whole network has a 15 kg limit. Depth is the dimension that fails: a soft parcel in a mailing bag compresses into a smaller, cheaper and more available compartment than the same item in a box.

InPost will not carry anything containing a battery (phones, laptops, tablets, vapes, power banks), liquids and perfume, aerosols, alcohol or tobacco. Glass, ceramics, collectables and battery-free electronics are carried but not compensated if lost. eBay uses the dimensions, weight and category you enter when listing to decide whether InPost is offered at all, so a phone listed in the right category simply will not be assigned to InPost.

Items outside Simple Delivery altogether, over £750 or electronics over £300, keep eBay's older postage options and never get an InPost code.

Since 1 September 2026 eBay prices Simple Delivery by parcel size and the item's sale value, and the figure is the same whichever of Evri, Royal Mail or InPost carries it. For a small parcel up to 1 kg the buyer pays £2.94 on an item under £75, £3.38 up to £100, £3.93 up to £150, £5.81 up to £375 and £6.84 up to £750. A 1 to 2 kg small parcel starts at £3.38 and a 2 to 10 kg parcel at £5.21.

Buyers who choose to collect from an InPost locker pay a lower Click & Collect rate, from £2.26 for a small parcel on items up to £100, and between 1 September and 31 October 2026 eBay made locker collection free on fashion items priced £20 or under. If you offer free postage, the Simple Delivery price for the item's band is deducted from your proceeds instead.

Restricting your postage preferences to 'Royal Mail only' switches the buyer to a dearer table (the same small parcel becomes £3.38 under £75), so leave every courier enabled unless you have a specific reason not to.

When you scan or type the code and close the door, InPost confirms the drop-off on screen and eBay marks the order as dispatched within minutes; you never enter a tracking number by hand. Every later scan, through to the destination locker or the buyer's door, shows on the order for both of you.

That first scan is also when eBay's Simple Delivery protection starts, provided you posted within your handling time. It matters because InPost's own cover for second-hand goods is only £50; eBay's protection is what covers a £200 pair of trainers. Keep the on-screen confirmation or the InPost app notification until the buyer has received the parcel.

The buyer chose locker collection. You fold the jumper into a polythene mailing bag, which packs to about 6 cm deep, so it needs a Small compartment. The InPost app shows four Small compartments free at the Tesco locker on your route to work. You tap 'Send a parcel' on the screen, scan the eBay QR code, choose Small, put the bag in and close the door. The confirmation appears on screen, eBay shows the order as dispatched before you reach the car, and the buyer pays the Click & Collect rate rather than the £2.94 home-delivery price. Had the jumper been a thick knit at 9 cm deep, you would have chosen Medium on the same screen, at no extra cost to anyone.