Friendly Reminder - New Postage Rates Effective Today

[Cozumeleno]

Originally Posted by x2drich2000

Just thought I'd through out a friendly reminder that new postage rates went into effect today. 4oz first class package through Ebay went from $2.13 to $2.60.

DJ

Thanks - I hadn't heard about this. I ship many packages in the 1-3 oz. range. Has that price increased?

[Louieman]

I ship mine pretty much exclusively 1 to 3 oz, and to my surprise today (and before checking this thread, of course), yes that increase applies to those weights as well

[gregr2]

It seems that 4 oz and below are all set at $2.60 for USPS First Class shipping with tracking. There is no eBay discount until you get to 5 oz. This is painful as I was charging $2.25 for shipping on eBay. Now I have to charge $3.00. Ouch!!

[Cozumeleno]

Ugh

[Beatles Guy]

Originally Posted by gregr2

It seems that 4 oz and below are all set at $2.60 for USPS First Class shipping with tracking. There is no eBay discount until you get to 5 oz. This is painful as I was charging $2.25 for shipping on eBay. Now I have to charge $3.00. Ouch!!

Yep, I had a few auctions ending today and I was caught off guard by the new prices.

[buymycards]

UPS and Fed Ex also raised their rates, and their increase was a higher % than the Postal Service increase.

The cheapest eBay discounted rate for a 4 oz package is $6.04 through Fed Ex and $11.25 through UPS. $2.60 from the Postal Service is still a good price.

For low priced single cards, your best option is still a 6x8 photo mailer. Put your card in a top load, put the card and the receipt in the photo mailer. As long as the height of the photo mailer is under 6 1/8", the photo mailer is considered a non-machinable letter. It will weigh a little under 2 ounces. So, you have the 2 oz letter price of 71 cents and the non-machinable price of 22 cents, so you just need to buy some 93 stamps and you are ready to go. The only drawback is that tracking is not available for letters.

I made up some labels to apply to the mailer just in case a postal employee somewhere along the line is not aware of the rules and tries to collect postage due at the package rate. This "non-machinable" letter rule was put in place 4 years ago to accommodate Net-Flix DVD's. You can get some good buys on eBay for the photo mailers, or try U-Line if you want to buy them by the case.

If I remember correctly, I got the idea for the labels when I purchased a card from someone - it may have been Mike Wheat, but I'm not 100% sure.



Rick

[Laxcat]

Great info Rick. Thanks. I was hit with the surprise this morning as well. 6 cent discount? I think that word should be surcharge.