eBay Simple Delivery UK: 2026 Price Guide & Who Can Use It

eBay Simple Delivery is the flat-price postage option eBay UK now puts on most private-seller listings - one set price, full item-value cover, no printer, tracking handled for you. Two things the forums get wrong: it isn’t available to business sellers on eBay.co.uk, and the “Evri is cheaper” line almost always quotes Evri’s ParcelShop-collection rate, not home delivery.

The short version: it’s private sellers only, for items with a Buy It Now or auction start price of £750 or less (£300 for mobile phones). The label price depends on parcel size, the couriers you allow and the item’s sale-price band: a 1 kg large letter is £2.70 for an item under £75 but £6.84 for one priced £375-£750. At the cheapest price band it’s 7-48% cheaper than Royal Mail Tracked 48 at Royal Mail’s 5 October 2026 Online prices, and cheaper than Evri home delivery on every band in our comparison (by just 3-4% for a small parcel under 2 kg). eBay’s Simple Delivery rules and prices, and Evri’s prices, were re-checked on 17 October 2026. For your exact parcel, use the Simple Delivery vs independent carrier calculator.

List an eligible item and eBay sets the delivery price, picks the carrier (Royal Mail, EVRi, DHL or InPost) and handles the tracking. In the default “Buyer pays” mode the buyer is charged for the label at checkout and the money goes to eBay - you hand the parcel over with a QR code and never buy a label yourself.

Three things set it apart from posting with Royal Mail yourself:

1. Built-in full-value cover. eBay carries the risk on loss or damage up to the item’s sale value (capped at the £750 eligibility ceiling) - no Special Delivery-tier add-on needed.
2. Tracking is auto-uploaded. eBay gets the carrier scan directly, so your On-Time Shipping stat updates without you touching it.
3. Buyer pays by default. Offer free postage instead and the label cost comes out of your eBay account - see the accounting note below.

If you’re a private seller - clearing a wardrobe, selling a bike, moving on trainers you no longer wear - Simple Delivery is the only delivery method on most listings. The opt-out (Custom postage) only appears for items priced £20 or under in certain small-item categories, such as trading cards, coins and stamps, so on almost every normal sale you’re using it whether you chose to or not. Plenty of sellers go hunting for a toggle to switch it off, can’t find one, and assume their account is broken - it’s just restricted.

If you’re a business seller - registered with HMRC, VAT-registered, or you ticked the business box when you opened the shop - Simple Delivery won’t appear at all, and you’ll keep using Royal Mail, Evri, Yodel, DPD or another carrier of your own. One thing not to do: if you buy stock to sell on, eBay and HMRC both class that as trading, so you should be registered as a business seller even at low volume. Don’t stay on a private account to keep the Simple Delivery perks.

One catch on eligibility: mobile phones priced above £300 are excluded, even for private sellers. £750 is the headline cap, but for phones it effectively drops to £300.

Three things set the price: the weight and size band, the item’s sale-price band (eBay’s table now runs from under £75 up to £375-£750), and which couriers you allow. Leaving all four couriers selected gives the lowest price; excluding one bumps you to that remaining carrier’s single-carrier rate. Click & Collect is priced separately. Each courier takes a different maximum size and weight:

Current home-delivery prices with all couriers selected, from eBay’s table on 17 October 2026 (cheapest item-value band to dearest):

• 1 kg large letter: £2.70 (item under £75) to £6.84 (item priced £375-£750)
• 0-1 kg small parcel: £2.94 to £6.84
• 2-10 kg parcel: £5.21 to £11.76
• 10-20 kg parcel: £7.19 to £16.82

The two tables below are from our May 2026 check, when eBay used just two item-value bands: £100 or less, and over £100. The under-£75 prices above still match the first table’s all-couriers column, but the dearer bands have changed, so use eBay’s live page for anything priced £75 or more. May 2026 rates for items priced £100 or less:

May 2026 rates for items over £100 (no longer current: eBay now splits this range into finer price bands):

There’s a separate Click & Collect tier for buyers who pick up from a locker or shop. Unlike home delivery, it doesn’t change with the item’s sale price: on eBay’s current table an Evri or InPost 0-2 kg small parcel costs £2.26. The table below is from our May 2026 check, when that price was £2.62:

Five details change what you pay:

• The item’s price band can more than double the label. A 1 kg large letter goes from £2.70 (item under £75) to £6.84 (£375-£750), and a 10-20 kg parcel from £7.19 to £16.82.
• Excluding a courier raises your rate. Drop Royal Mail and you pay the EVRi-only rate; drop EVRi and you pay the Royal Mail-only rate; opting out of InPost leaves you on the all-couriers rate.
• Overriding the parcel size can cost you. If you change eBay’s recommended size and the parcel turns out bigger, you pay the price difference plus a £1 administration fee (including VAT).
• No next-day tier as standard. eBay doesn’t publish a delivery speed for standard Simple Delivery; buyers can pay extra for express, and if they choose it they pay its full cost, not you. For guaranteed next-day on something valuable, Royal Mail Special Delivery by 1pm covers £750 as standard (up to £2,500 paid extra).
• Out-of-area postcodes add 5-7 working days - Scottish highlands and islands (AB30-AB56, FK17-FK22, IV*, KA27-28, KW*, PA17-PA80, PH3-PH50), the Isle of Wight (PO30-PO41), the Scilly Isles (TR21-TR25), plus the Channel Islands and Isle of Man. Simple Delivery still reaches them, just slower.

Full sale-value cover. If your item is lost or damaged in transit, eBay covers its full sale price (up to the £750 cap). Royal Mail Tracked 48 and Tracked 24 cover £75; Evri drop-off covers £20 by default (paid upgrades to £999). On anything mid-range, that gap is the real reason to use Simple Delivery.

A QR code, not a printed label. Show it at a Royal Mail or EVRi drop-off, an InPost locker, or DHL collection - some carriers print the label for you on-site. No home printer required.

Tracking uploaded automatically. Your On-Time Shipping metric updates from the carrier’s scan, not from anything you type - your best protection when a carrier has a bad day.

Performance-metric protection. If you use the prepaid label and the carrier scans the parcel within your stated handling time, a delivery that then runs late won’t count against your shipping performance, and you can ask Seller Help to remove negative or neutral feedback about delivery. Miss your handling time and that protection lapses. Self-ship, and late delivery is your problem.

Tracked 48 is the closest like-for-like for a tracked parcel (Royal Mail aims for 2-3 working days; eBay doesn’t publish a Simple Delivery speed). The table uses standard Tracked 48 Online rates (bought via Click & Drop) from Royal Mail’s 5 October 2026 prices - pay at the Post Office counter and it’s dearer still. The Simple Delivery column is eBay’s cheapest item-value band (items under £75, all couriers selected) on 17 October 2026; for the five sizes in our May chart below, those prices are unchanged.

At that cheapest band Simple Delivery wins on every row. The gap is modest on large letters and 1-2 kg small parcels (7-10%), wider on a small parcel up to 1 kg (22%) and widest on medium parcels (31-48%) - and it covers your item’s full value, not Royal Mail’s £75 cap. Dearer items change the sums: a large letter for an item priced £375-£750 is £6.84 on Simple Delivery against £2.90 with Tracked 48, so at that level you’re paying mainly for the full-value cover Tracked 48 doesn’t include.

This is where the forum wisdom is most wrong. “Evri at £2.62 beats Simple Delivery” quotes Evri’s ParcelShop-collection rate - where the buyer collects from a locker or shop. For home delivery, which is what nearly every eBay buyer wants, Evri costs more.

At the cheapest item-value band, Simple Delivery is cheaper on every home-delivery band, and Evri won’t carry parcels over 15 kg at all. Above 2 kg the gap is wide: 21% at 2-5 kg, 22% at 5-10 kg and 30% at 10-15 kg. Under 2 kg it depends on the parcel’s size. Evri now charges less for its Small size (up to 45 × 35 × 16 cm): £3.04 at 0-1 kg and £3.52 at 1-2 kg, so Simple Delivery’s £2.94 and £3.38 are only 3-4% cheaper. A bigger parcel pays Evri’s Standard price of £3.29 or £4.79, against £2.94 or £3.71 for a Simple Delivery medium parcel - 11% and 23% less. Add the cover gap (Evri’s £20 default versus your item’s full sale value) and the protection alone is worth real money on anything £40+.

Two reasons you might still pick Evri:

• You already run a high-volume Evri business account with negotiated rates below the public prices above.
• You prefer Evri’s own ParcelShop service for Click & Collect - a preference, not a saving: Simple Delivery’s Click & Collect tier is £2.26 for an Evri or InPost 0-2 kg small parcel on eBay’s current table, against Evri’s own £2.62 ParcelShop price.

Pick your situation:

1. Business seller? Stop here - Simple Delivery isn’t offered to you; keep using your own carrier.
2. Private seller posting to a home address? Use Simple Delivery. At the cheapest item-value band (items under £75) it beat Royal Mail Tracked 48 and Evri home delivery on every band in our comparison, and it covers your item’s full value.
3. Selling something worth £40+? Another reason to use it - the full-value cover earns its keep against Royal Mail’s £75 cap and Evri’s £20 default.
4. Got something heavy or bulky (up to 30 kg)? Simple Delivery is often the only option that’ll take it - DHL handles the 20-30 kg band, and Evri stops at 15 kg.
5. Happy to offer Click & Collect? Use Simple Delivery’s Click & Collect tier - an Evri or InPost 0-2 kg small parcel is £2.26 on eBay’s current table.
6. Need a doorstep collection? eBay’s help says to make Royal Mail your only selected courier if you want parcels collected from your door; Evri and InPost are drop-off only.
7. Need it there next day? Simple Delivery can’t - use Royal Mail Special Delivery by 1pm.
8. Still not sure? Run your parcel through the shipping calculator for a side-by-side cost.

Bottom line: for UK private sellers it’s a clear win on cover, and on price for cheaper items; on dearer items you pay more for that cover. Business sellers stay on Royal Mail OBA, Click & Drop or their own courier. Either way, postage and fees move constantly - DashVue (£19/month or £179/year, with a 7-day free trial) works out your real net profit per order, every fee and postage line stripped out.

One scope note: Simple Delivery is UK-domestic and tops out at 30 kg / 120 × 80 × 80 cm via DHL. Selling on another marketplace, or shipping bigger than that? It won’t apply - you’ll need Parcelforce, a pallet carrier, or that platform’s own service. International eBay orders are the exception: eBay’s help says you can use a Simple Delivery label to send an eBay International Shipping (or Global Shipping Programme) parcel to the UK hub.