New postal rates are coming. Merry Holidaze...

[jayjaspersgarage]

From the recent announcement posted by ebay:

Effective January 9, 2022, rates for the following USPS shipping services will increase an average of:  

• Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express—3.1% increase  
• First Class Package—8.8% increase  
• Priority Mail International— 3.7% increase   
• First Class Package International Service—4.2% increase  

I don't use the other services and by now everyone will have seen the full post.

[tsme35]

Know the feeling, cleaning out inventory before April, can't ship fishing rods if they cost $25-$35 for just shipping. Passing on alot of inventory for sale now, can't take the chance it won't sell before April

[forward-motion]

Mine don't. Cost of living goes up every year. Do sales drop? No. @tsme35 

[wildpitchsports]

Can we talk about how the "Flat Rate" boxes shrink every year? I found an old large flat rate one from like 10 years ago I used to store some things and I could literally fit 2 large flat rate ones inside of it in 2021. All for 4-5x the price!

[nobody*s_perfect]

When the original Large Flat Rate Box was introduced in 2008, it measured 12 by 12 by 5.5 inches. It still does. The retail price has increased from $12.95 to $21.90, which is a 69% increase, not "4-5x the price".

https://about.usps.com/news/national-releases/2008/pr08_017.pdf

[tsme35]

Lucky you, cost of living doesn't increase 8-10% per year like postage has. Getting harder to sell small items and come April the large items.

[tedandgtreasures]

Why hasn't eBay added the new postal rates for Priority mail?? A medium box is $16.25 but eBay has it at $15.50 Large is $21.00 and small is $9.25 I know this is true because I have lost money on shipping before I got the new prices at the post office

[chapeau-noir]

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@tsme35 wrote:

Lucky you, cost of living doesn't increase 8-10% per year like postage has. Getting harder to sell small items and come April the large items.

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What happens in April?  That's about the time when I might have some larger items, but I haven't read of UPS and Fed-Ex changes at that time.  Geez - that's all I need.

[tsme35]

April 3rd, 2022   USPS is adding a $4 surcharge to packages longer than 20", $15 surcharge on packages longer than 30", ebay didn't add that to the last postage increase announcement

[chapeau-noir]

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@tsme35 wrote:

April 3rd, 2022   USPS is adding a $4 surcharge to packages longer than 20", $15 surcharge on packages longer than 30", ebay didn't add that to the last postage increase announcement

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Ahhh!  That's right!  For some reason I thought it was being bundled in with the January rate hikes!  Best get that stuff outta here pretty quickly, then.  I've already started back to listing heavier clothing items to sell hopefully before the USPS rates go up again in January.

[nobody*s_perfect]

It originally was part of the January changes, then USPS decided to give customers more time to gear up for it.

Also  "A new $1.50 fee, applicable to certain competitive products, will be assessed on

parcels that are greater than one cubic foot or with a length greater than 22 inches, if the customer did not provide dimensions or provided inaccurate dimensions in the electronic manifest file."

This sounds to me like they felt they needed a disincentive for shippers who were willing to take a risk that their unpaid dimensional weight wouldn't be detected and back-charged.

[chapeau-noir]

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@nobody*s_perfect wrote:

It originally was part of the January changes, then USPS decided to give customers more time to gear up for it.

Also  "A new $1.50 fee, applicable to certain competitive products, will be assessed on

parcels that are greater than one cubic foot or with a length greater than 22 inches, if the customer did not provide dimensions or provided inaccurate dimensions in the electronic manifest file."

This sounds to me like they felt they needed a disincentive for shippers who were willing to take a risk that their unpaid dimensional weight wouldn't be detected and back-charged.

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My local post office is ruthlessly efficient.  I learnt years ago NOT to play with that extra inch - the item just gets landed right back onto my front stoop.

[tsme35]

They extended to April 3rd to give sellers time to find other shipping options, for me it meant cleaning out inventory. Basically USPS is getting out of the large package business. No way will I spend $25-$35 shipping a fishing rod with the record they've had for breaking them and not covering the shipping in the insurance claim.

[forward-motion]

No, there is no LUCK involved. It is simple economics. When the bottom goes up so does the top. If you think the seller is the one who pays the fees and not the buyer. You are doing it wrong. @tsme35 

[jayjaspersgarage]

"

How many USPS price hikes do you guys get in a year ?

It seems like reading here they are continually upping prices - did they not just increase rates before the holiday period? "

I could look up the postal rate increases since 1900 in Australia but I won't.  I traveled from Sydney to Melbourne in 2005 and loved it so much.  Landed on Anzac day and took 90 minutes driving around road blocks to reach the hotel.  Parade route was all set up by 7:00 a.m. when we got the rental van.

Anyhow, currently the U.S. postal rates generally get one permanent increase per year.  The annual 'holiday' surprise is a temporary fad to help pay for overtime during the holiday shipping rush but it only last a month or so and then the rates drop back until January when the annual increase takes place.  I think of it as a roller coaster ride with non of the fun.

The best way to deal with it is to raise my shipping rates in late October so they are in place for the following year.  This covers the holiday funhouse adjustment as well as preparing for the next year in one move.

[jayjaspersgarage]

"

The flat rate bubble increase is a killer.

If this does not stick a fork in Free Shipping, I do not know what does.  OUCH!"

Probably not a game changer since most small sellers on all platforms pay the same increased rates.  The hard part is knowing that the truly large corporations get to purchase with ECS, economies of scale, which gives them a huge COGS advantage we will never get.  The larger businesses also get better discounts on shipping rate based on volume.  

What I would like to see is a little bit larger small flat rate box size.  Perhaps an inch in each dimension.