POSTAGE & PACKING

Why our postage costs what it does

Buying vintage and antique items online means that your purchase has to make a journey from our storage facilities in Normandy, France to your home. Postage isn’t simply the price printed on a courier label. It includes the time, materials, insurance, paperwork and logistics required to get your purchase to you safely.

We believe in being open and transparent about postage and packing costs, rather than hiding them inside the price of an item or pretending that shipping is free.

There is, of course, no such thing as genuinely free shipping. Somebody always pays for the courier, the packaging and the work involved. We prefer to show those costs separately so that customers can see what they are actually paying for.

We’ve been packing and shipping items internationally for decades. Between us, we have experience sending everything from consumer electronics and high-end fashion to antiques, collectables and delicate objects. We don’t use cheap or budget shipping services simply to make a postage price look attractive.

Our priority is simple: your purchase should arrive safely.

WHAT DOES YOUR POSTAGE CHARGE INCLUDE?

There is more to shipping an antique than putting it in a box

When we calculate postage and packing, there are several genuine costs involved.

Courier postage

We use fully tracked delivery services appropriate to the size, weight, destination and nature of the item. International shipping costs can vary considerably depending on where you live and what you’re buying.

Packaging materials

We reuse packaging from local businesses wherever practical, but recycled materials still have to be collected, sorted, stored and transported. Some items and international journeys also require new specialist packaging.

Protective and recyclable packaging

We continually try to reduce our use of new plastic packaging. Where suitable, we use recyclable alternatives and compostable materials, while reusing plastic packaging wherever we can.

The most environmentally friendly parcel isn’t much use if your antique arrives broken, so protection always comes first.

The time spent packing

A small item might take only a few minutes to prepare. A large, fragile or unusually shaped antique can take 30–60 minutes or more to wrap properly.

We don’t cut corners here.

Insurance

Loss and damage during transit are relatively rare, but they can happen. Packages are insured for loss or damage so that both you and EVE have protection if something goes wrong.

Paperwork and customs

International shipments require booking, labels and, where applicable, customs documentation. Preparing an international parcel can take considerably longer than sending something domestically.

Local logistics

Our items are held across multiple storage locations in rural Normandy. Preparing an order can involve moving the item to our dispatch point and then travelling to the Post Office, which is approximately 10 km away.

Marketplace fees

When you buy through Etsy or eBay, the postage price can also be affected by marketplace and payment-processing fees. These platforms can charge commission on postage as well as on the item itself, and the total impact varies according to the platform and how the customer found the listing.

This is one reason buying directly from EVE through our own website can be cheaper.

Packaging and environmental fees

Some destinations and countries impose fees or licensing requirements associated with packaging and its eventual disposal. These costs can form part of the expense of sending goods internationally.

WHY DOES POSTAGE VARY SO MUCH?

The same antique can cost very different amounts to ship

The destination makes a huge difference.

Imagine a 10 kg table priced at €250.

A customer in France might pay a relatively modest amount for delivery. A customer elsewhere in Europe may pay considerably more, while sending the same table to a destination such as China can involve much higher transport, insurance and customs-processing costs.

The price of the table doesn’t change according to where you live. The cost of getting it safely to you does.

We try to calculate postage as accurately as possible, but international shipping involves variables that are difficult to predict precisely. When we occasionally overcharge for postage, we refund the difference. Our experience is that actual costs are more often higher than the amount customers have paid than lower.

WE DON’T SUBSIDISE POSTAGE

Why isn’t our postage “free”?

We don’t hide postage costs inside our item prices or ask customers elsewhere to subsidise the cost of sending parcels to other parts of the world.

If you collect an item from our Normandy office, you don’t pay for delivery because there is no delivery service involved.

If we send that same item across France, Europe or around the world, there are real costs involved in preparing, protecting and transporting it.

We believe the fairest approach is for the customer receiving the parcel to pay the actual cost of getting it there.

That also means our item prices don’t have to be artificially inflated to cover the postage paid by somebody else.

HOW CAN YOU SAVE MONEY ON POSTAGE?

There are several ways to reduce what you pay

Buy directly from our website

Our own website doesn’t have Etsy or eBay marketplace fees built into the transaction. We can therefore offer lower item prices and lower postage costs when you buy directly from EVE.

Buy multiple items

When you buy several items directly from our website, you will generally only pay postage for the heaviest single item, subject to the applicable postage terms.

This is one of the biggest advantages of combining purchases directly with us.

Let us price match

Find the same or a comparable item in similar condition elsewhere for less? Send us the details.

We’ll look at the comparison and, wherever possible, try to match or beat the price.

Arrange your own courier

You’re welcome to arrange your own courier if you prefer. There will still be a charge for the safe packing, paperwork and logistics required to prepare your purchase, but you can use whichever transport provider you prefer.

Collect from our Normandy office

If you’re visiting the area, you can arrange to collect your purchased items from our office in Normandy. We are an online business and don’t operate a public retail shop, so collections are by arrangement rather than an opportunity to browse stock.

CAREFUL PACKING IS PART OF THE SERVICE

We’ve spent decades learning how to get things there in one piece

Vintage and antique objects can be fragile, awkwardly shaped, heavy or simply irreplaceable. We’ve learned through many years of international shipping that good packaging isn’t an optional extra.

We use appropriate materials and techniques for the item and destination, including reinforced and padded packaging where necessary.

We would rather spend the extra time and materials protecting your purchase properly than save a few euros and risk it arriving damaged.

We don’t do cheap shipping. We do careful shipping.

HONEST, OPEN AND TRANSPARENT

We know that postage can sometimes look expensive, particularly when you’re buying a relatively inexpensive vintage item from another country.

We hope this page helps explain why.

We’re not trying to make a profit from postage. We’re trying to get your purchase from our part of Normandy to your part of the world safely, reliably and with as little unnecessary environmental impact as possible.

If you ever have a question about the postage on a particular item, please ask us before buying. We’ll be happy to explain how the cost has been calculated.

Beautiful things deserve a safe journey.