How to Ship Vinyl Records in the UK

The two things that damage records in transit are movement and pressure. A disc left inside its jacket shifts with every knock and cuts through the bottom or side seam — the 'seam split' that turns a Near Mint sleeve into a Very Good one. Take the record, still in its inner sleeve, out of the jacket and place it alongside the jacket, or behind it in a separate poly sleeve. Put a stiff card square on each side so the stack cannot flex, then slide it into a proper 12" record mailer (a tight cardboard mailer with folding flaps sized for LPs). Fill any slack with a folded sheet of card so nothing slides.

Do not use a padded envelope, a Jiffy bag or an oversized box with loose filler: the first two flex, the last lets the record move. Do not tape the record or sleeve. For a double LP or a boxed set, use a mailer rated for the thickness and add a stiffener between discs. Write 'Do not bend' on the mailer by all means, but rely on the stiffeners, not the words.

Heat is the other enemy. A record can warp in a hot delivery van in summer; there is nothing you can do about the van, but avoid posting on the hottest days and never leave a packed record in a car or a sunlit windowsill before drop-off.

• Record out of the jacket, inner sleeve on, beside or behind the jacket
• Stiff card both sides, then a 12" record mailer sized to the thickness
• No padded envelopes, no loose filler, no tape on the sleeve
• Post 7" singles the same way in a 7" mailer

Royal Mail's Large Letter format is 35.3 × 25 × 2.5 cm, up to 750 g (1 kg on Tracked). A 12" mailer is about 32 × 32 cm, which breaks the 25 cm width limit, so a single LP is a Small Parcel (45 × 35 × 16 cm, up to 2 kg) however thin it is. A 7" single in an 18 × 18 cm mailer is under 2.5 cm thick and around 80–120 g, so it qualifies as a Large Letter — the cheapest tracked postage in the country.

Online prices until 4 October 2026: a 2nd Class Large Letter is £1.55 up to 100 g and £1.90 up to 250 g, with Tracked 48 Large Letter at £2.85 (£75 of cover). A Small Parcel is £3.95 by 2nd Class, £3.65 by Tracked 48 and £4.65 by Tracked 24 — note that Tracked 48 is cheaper than untracked 2nd Class for a Small Parcel, so there is no reason to post an LP untracked. From 5 October 2026 Tracked 48 rises to £3.75 and 2nd Class Small Parcel to £4.40; Large Letter prices are unchanged.

Weight adds up fast with vinyl. One LP with mailer and stiffeners is 350–450 g (heavier for 180 g pressings and gatefolds), so four LPs pass the 2 kg Small Parcel limit and become a Medium Parcel — £6.25 by 2nd Class online up to 2 kg, £8.05 to 10 kg. Above three LPs, weigh the packed parcel before you quote postage.

A 12" mailer fits an InPost Small compartment (8 cm deep, 38 cm wide, 64 cm high) with room to spare, so InPost is the cheapest way to send an LP: £1.99 to another locker or InPost Shop, £2.89 to the buyer's door, QR code, no printer. The catch is compensation. InPost lists collectables among the items it carries but does not compensate, and records sold to collectors are collectables, so a lost or crushed LP through InPost is your loss. It is a fine choice for a £10 record, a poor one for a £150 first pressing.

Evri takes an LP as a small parcel — £2.62 to a ParcelShop or £3.04 to the door, with £20 of standard cover — and its letterbox-sized Postable service does not apply because a 12" mailer is wider than 23 cm. Royal Mail Tracked 48 at £3.65 costs a pound more than Evri but carries £75 of cover and goes through the Post Office counter rather than a locker drop, which is why most Discogs sellers default to it; for records worth more than £75 use Special Delivery (from £9.45 for 100 g, £750 of cover).

For 7" singles the decision is easy: Royal Mail Large Letter, tracked (£2.85) if the single is worth anything, 2nd Class (£1.55) if it is not. Neither InPost nor Evri beats that price for a flat, light item.

Discogs does not issue labels or set postage for you. You write your own shipping policies in your seller settings — for example 'UK: Royal Mail Tracked 48, £3.65 per LP, combined shipping for multiple items' — and buyers see and pay those rates at checkout. Discogs charges a 9% selling fee on the item price and the shipping charge, billed monthly, so price your postage at cost rather than as a profit line.

The shipping deadline comes from Discogs' Seller Policy: if your terms do not state a timeframe, the buyer may request a cancellation for 'item unavailable' when an order has not been shipped within four calendar days of the status changing to Payment Received. Mark the order as shipped and add the tracking number as soon as it is posted; buyers on Discogs are collectors and quick, tracked dispatch is what earns the feedback that drives future sales.

Payment runs through PayPal, and so does protection. PayPal's seller protection applies only if you ship to the address on the buyer's PayPal payment with tracking that shows delivery, so never post to a different address a buyer sends by message. Discogs' policy also forbids charging buyers a PayPal or payment-processing fee. If a record arrives damaged, PayPal and Discogs will expect photos of the packing, which is another reason to photograph the mailer before sealing it.

On eBay, records sold by private sellers go through Simple Delivery: the buyer pays eBay's price (a large letter up to 1 kg is £2.70 and a small parcel up to 1 kg £2.94 on items under £75 since September 2026) and you get a Royal Mail, Evri or InPost label. Enter the packed dimensions honestly — a 12" mailer listed at 32 × 32 × 2 cm is a small parcel, and a 7" at 18 × 18 × 1 cm can get the large-letter rate. Vinted lists records under entertainment and issues a QR code for whichever carrier the buyer chooses. Gumtree's Delivery on Gumtree specifically excludes vinyl, so records sold there are still collection only.