Friendly Reminder - New Postage Rates Effective Today

[rhettyeakley]

As bad as the domestic shipping rates increasing, the International First Class rate hike is unbelievable! I sell quite a bit to Canada, Australia, and the UK (especially when dealing with Hockey and Non-Sports cards)

A small 1 oz. package that several years ago cost about $4 to ship had increased to $7.10 a year or so ago but today that same package to Canada will run $9.50 and to he UK and Australia we are now paying $13.50 and $13.75, respectively. A near 100% rate increase, and they don't even deliver the packages, just hand them off to that country!

All this being said I have never understood why we expect the Post Office to be the ONLY Government Agency to be 100% self reliant and to break even (I often hear people complain that the post office loses money). No other agency is self-sufficient, of all the things our tax dollars are used for I have no problem with the post office being subsidized (sorry for the politics).

[thecatspajamas]

A big part of the rate increases you are seeing on small, light packages has to do with the changes to where the incremental jumps are set for packages. Previously, anything under 3 oz. was charged at the 3 oz. rate, in an incremental increase for each oz. above that. Now, anything up to 8 oz. is charged at the 8 oz. rate, with smaller incremental increases beyond that.

This means that the 2 oz. package that used to default to a 3 oz. package weight for $2.04 (using commercial base prices) now defaults to an 8 oz. package for $2.60. The increase has much more to do with the default weight than the rate increases. In fact, the 8 oz. package that used to cost $2.71 to ship now costs $2.60. Unfortunately, for many of the collectibles we deal with, package weights are often well below that 8 oz. threshold. Basically, I see it as the USPS saying that, for them to handle my shipment as a package, including multiple scans of a bar code on the package, the baseline cost to them is basically the same for a 2 oz. package as it is for an 8 oz. package. In other words, the cost of handling the package is weighted more heavily than the weight of the package itself.

As Rhett noted, the increases are even more dramatic on international shipments. I have been selling a larger number of photos (due to listing more Entertainment photos than sports) to overseas buyers lately, and what I used to be able to ship to Europe as a 4 oz. package for $9.18 now defaults to an 8 oz. weight (the minimum increment for a package) and costs $12.83. The price for an actual 8 oz. package only went up $0.50, from $12.33 to $12.83, but lighter packages are now even less economical to ship. I have had several buyers ask if there are cheaper shipping options, and a few who have sworn off buying from the U.S. altogether (and I have to figure for every 1 that has taken the time to write me to tell me they will no longer buy from the U.S., there are at least a dozen others who have silently made the same decision).

At the end of the day, it is what it is, and postage costs are a necessary part of doing business without a physical store front. I just wish that more buyers would realize that and increase their order sizes in order to spread that shipping cost across more items rather than 1-at-a-timing it until they get frustrated and stop buying altogether.

[D. Bergin]

Yeah, International rates have killed me. Used to be a good portion of my sales and bids. Now it's just a trickle.

Meanwhile, Chinese vendors ship to the U.S., practically for free.

I've lost track of the number of times my wife has ordered some cheap widget or part off Ebay for just a few bucks, it takes forever to get here, my wife complains to me about Ebay being slow, I ask if she bought the part from a Chinese vendor, she swears she didn't, and then when the package shows up it's got Chinese tags all over it.

Meanwhile, I know she spent less on that entire package WITH shipping, then it would cost me to just ship that same package to the U.K.,......or back to China.

[D. Bergin]

Holy crap, I don't know if it took awhile to get the new International rates in place, but I just noticed the following and got sticker shock.

Now it's a flat price of $12.83 or so from 1 oz, all the way up to 8 oz., then at 9 oz's it jumps all the way up to almost $22 bucks, and that's with commercial online pricing.




That's nearly double the previous price for a 9 oz. item. That just about kills any sales of publications, books, or any non-photo or card items to International buyers.

What a dagger.

[thecatspajamas]

Originally Posted by D. Bergin

That's nearly double the previous price for a 9 oz. item. That just about kills any sales of publications, books, or any non-photo or card items to International buyers.

Doesn't help much with photos either, unless the price of the photo itself is cheap enough to justify the shipping expense (which means the seller isn't making much off of it, in my case).

[D. Bergin]

Originally Posted by thecatspajamas

Doesn't help much with photos either, unless the price of the photo itself is cheap enough to justify the shipping expense (which means the seller isn't making much off of it, in my case).

Yeah it sucks, but at least with photos you can pack around 5 or 6 pretty securely and keep it under 9 oz..

A single magazine or program, that generally sells for no more then a lower end photo, now costs 22 bucks on it's own.

You can't use the cheaper flat envelope rate either, if you are using any sort of rigid material to protect your items from damage.