As I gradually start to get orders from bookshops for Fallen Warriors and The Great Scottish Land Grab, I’m learning how important packaging and delivery choices are.
I went to post my latest order from The Orcadian Bookshop in Kirkwall yesterday. Two copies each of Fallen Warriors and Land Grab. I’d placed the four books in a box, put the invoice in along with some flyers for Land Grab and wrapped the whole thing in brown paper. I weighed the parcel before I left home: 1.992 Kilos.
I got to the post office only to find the parcel actually weighed 2.007 Kilos…!
That’s a big deal. Currently in the UK we can post under 2 Kilos for £2.90.
Because of the size of the parcel and those extra seven grams, it was going to cost me £13.75! That would have wiped out all my profit and put me at a loss for the sale.
I asked for the parcel back.
I actually went to a second post office in the mad hope that maybe there was some difference in the scales that would have got me under the limit. Nope. Exactly the same weight. At least UK post offices are consistent in their scales!
Flyers. I’d put flyers in the parcel… I asked if I could borrow a pair of scissors, cut open the parcel, removed half the flyers and then asked for it to be reweighed. 1.940 Kilos.
I had been thinking I needed to buy more tape, so happily bought some, retaped the parcel and was able to post it at the expected rate.
Seven grams… It doesn’t seem all that much, does it. Crossing some boundary lines can be very expensive…