Royal Mail Small Parcel Guide for eBay Sellers

Royal Mail sells parcels in three formats. A Large Letter is 35.3 × 25 × 2.5 cm and 750 g (1 kg on Tracked). A Small Parcel is 45 × 35 × 16 cm and 2 kg. A Medium Parcel is 61 × 46 × 46 cm and 20 kg. The limits are measured on the packed parcel, so a padded envelope that bulges past 2.5 cm is a Small Parcel and a box that is 17 cm deep is a Medium Parcel. The 2 kg weight limit is the one that catches eBay sellers of books, shoes and homeware: a mailing bag adds 30 to 80 g and a cardboard box 200 to 500 g, which is enough to tip a 1.8 kg item over the line.

Royal Mail raised prices on 5 October 2026. Online (Royal Mail app, Click & Drop, and labels sold inside eBay, Etsy, Amazon and Whatnot) a Small Parcel is £4.40 by 2nd Class, £5.70 by 1st Class, £3.75 by Tracked 48 and £4.80 by Tracked 24; a Tracked 48 Large Letter is £2.90 and a 2nd Class Medium Parcel £7.00 up to 2 kg. Over the counter at a Post Office the same Tracked 48 Small Parcel is £4.70 and Tracked 24 is £6.05, so buy online whenever you can and either print the label or show the app's QR code at the counter.

Because Tracked 48 (£3.75, £75 of cover, full tracking) is now cheaper than 2nd Class (£4.40, £20 of cover, no tracking), there is no reason to send an eBay parcel untracked.

Private sellers on eligible items up to £750 do not buy Royal Mail postage at all. Simple Delivery prices the postage from the parcel size and item value you listed, the buyer pays it, and when eBay assigns Royal Mail you get a printable label or a QR code. The QR code is printed for you at a Post Office, Collect+ shop or Royal Mail locker; the printed label can also go in a parcel postbox. eBay uploads the tracking and covers loss and damage from the first scan if you post inside your handling time. Business sellers, and private sellers on items outside Simple Delivery, still buy Royal Mail labels through eBay's postage tools at online rates.

A prepaid, barcoded Small Parcel up to 44 × 35 × 16 cm and 2 kg can go in a parcel postbox (Royal Mail has more than 1,400) if you scan the barcode in the Royal Mail app for proof of posting. Royal Mail lockers accept Tracked and 1st and 2nd Class parcels and print the label from a QR code. Collect+ 'Royal Mail Shop' counters (around 8,000, often open later than a Post Office) and the 11,500 Post Office branches take everything, and Special Delivery must go over a Post Office counter. Parcel Collect from your door costs 50p per parcel since October 2026 and adds a working day to the delivery aim.

Tracked 48 for most sales under 2 kg: full tracking, £75 of cover, delivery in two to three working days. Tracked 24 when the buyer paid for speed. Special Delivery Guaranteed by 1pm (from £9.85 for 100 g, £750 of cover, signature) for anything worth more than about £100. Untracked 1st and 2nd Class give you no evidence in a 'not received' case and only £20 of cover, and since October they cost more than Tracked 48 anyway.

A hardback book sold for £18 by a private seller. Packed in a bubble mailer it is 28 × 22 × 5 cm and 900 g: a Small Parcel. Under Simple Delivery the buyer pays £2.94 and eBay gives you a Royal Mail QR code, which the Collect+ counter at the petrol station prints at 8pm. Had you been a business seller buying your own label, Tracked 48 at £3.75 online beats £4.70 at the counter. Had the book been a box set at 2.3 kg, it would have been a Medium Parcel: eBay prices it in the 2 to 10 kg band at £5.21 for the buyer, and bought direct it would be £9.00 by 2nd Class.