mam98031 • Volunteer Community Member • Buyer/Seller since 1999
@Anonymous wrote:USPS rates have increased every January for quite a while. We usually find out what the new rates will be by the end of October.
Yes, I believe it is in Sept/Oct that they have to submit the paperwork to the commission and then later in Oct or early November we find out what the damage will be. At least that is how I remember it.
Here is the link to the proposed Increases.
https://pe.usps.com/resources/PriceChange/January%202019%20-%20Notice123.pdf
We won't know until about November if the PRC accepts or adjusts these increases.
Here's some more discussion about the new rates:
Most Priority Mail rates are going up of course but some are actually decreasing including the Medium FRB (just 5 cents but hey that beats an increase). See red underlines here:
But the big news is that First Class package is going to Zoned rates. The new prices are in 4-ounce brackets, so the zoned price would be the same for a package weighing 9 - 12 ounces, but then a big jump to 13 ounces etc. Some zone/weight prices will be the same, many are going up 30-50 cents; the biggest jump is $1.43 in the price for sending 13 ounces to Zones 8 & 9.
Great info, but we all should keep in mind that NONE of these rates have yet been APPROVED by the PRC. That doesn't happen until late this month or early next month. These rates could change. These are PROPOSED changes. Of course it is best to prepare for the worse and hope for the best. It is likely that most if not all will be approved, but we just don't know for sure yet.
It is also important to know that Ebay does have the fexibility to negotiate rates with USPS on Priority and Express Mail. FCP would be as stated on the Commercial Rate schedule as USPS does not allow negotiation on these rates.
@nobody*s_perfect wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:Great info, but we all should keep in mind that NONE of these rates have yet been APPROVED by the PRC. .... It is also important to know that Ebay does have the fexibility to negotiate rates with USPS on Priority ...
In all the years that I have been following these changes, I have only seen one instance of a domestic proposed rate not going through. That was a change in the price structure for the Regional C box, which stayed at the 17-pound rate rather than the proposed 11-pound rate, a year or two before it was dropped completely.
Can you give me any example of eBay actually providing sellers with a negotiated rate for domestic Priority Mail that is lower than the published rates (Commercial Base and Commerical Plus)?
All I said was that this is a proposal that has not yet been approved. If you choose to read more into than I said, fine. But what I said was and is accurate. While history may not show that much changes between the proposal and what gets approved, that doesn't mean it will remain the same way this time around.
There are currently TWO unfilled positions on the PRC. One will get filled later in November and the other position to my knowledge has not yet been appointed. In the current political climate many things could happen between now and January. Maybe the PRC will not vote on this until they have a full board. Maybe they won't vote on it until late November or December when they have 4 out of 5 people on the board. Or maybe they will vote with only 3 people on the board later in October or early November. I have not a clue what the board will do.
Certainly you may have more information on what they are planning to do with an incomplete board.
@twnpopcards wrote:
@nobody*s_perfect wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:Great info, but we all should keep in mind that NONE of these rates have yet been APPROVED by the PRC. .... It is also important to know that Ebay does have the fexibility to negotiate rates with USPS on Priority ...
In all the years that I have been following these changes, I have only seen one instance of a domestic proposed rate not going through. That was a change in the price structure for the Regional C box, which stayed at the 17-pound rate rather than the proposed 11-pound rate, a year or two before it was dropped completely.
Can you give me any example of eBay actually providing sellers with a negotiated rate for domestic Priority Mail that is lower than the published rates (Commercial Base and Commerical Plus)?
Ebay may negotiate these lower rates but they do not pass them on to the Sellers but keep them as additional profits for Ebay. This became very apparent a few years ago when the USPS was forced to lower the online pricing for shipping 1-4 ounces by 6 cents due to a pricing error that caused the retail rate to be cheaper than the online rate. All the other postage resellers lowered their prices by that 6 cents except Ebay who basically took the approach that it was only 6 cents and no big deal, until they started losing so much business to Stamps.com and the other companies as that 6 cent over time adds up and for Ebay was a very nice cushion. Finally 2 months later they matched that pricing with the familiar "You Spoke and We Listened" comment, which in reality was Sellers spoke with their wallets and they finally got the message. That seems to be happening with Ebay ever since, as their revenues have flatlined at 3-5% growth while online shopping over all has skyrocketed. There is no way that Ebay is going to give anything better than the commercial plus rates (which are being eliminated by USPS) or the commercial base rates as they need that additional negotiated revenue to offset their lack of sales growth.
That is completely misleading. That 6 cent problem was temporary and was fixed within a couple weeks or so. The rates that EBay was charging were the rates that USPS was charging at the time. You are absolutely correct that other sites did drop their pricing BEFORE USPS decided to make the rate change. Those sites did that at their own risk. It wasn't sanctioned by USPS and they may or may not have had to pay out of their pockets for that rate difference until the time that USPS adjusted their rates. Ebay chose a different path. They charged the rate that USPS was charging at the time and changed it when USPS changed the rate. It did leave a lot of questions for sellers in regards to Ebay that were never answered to my knowledge.
As to commercial rates, USPS does NOT allow negotiations on FCP commercial rates. That is why on every single site on the internet that provides on line shipping labels, they ALL have the same rate for FCP. Amazon, Etsy, Pitney Bowes, etc. The online rates are the same.
USPS allows negotiations on PM and Express Mail.
@twnpopcards wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:
@twnpopcards wrote:
@nobody*s_perfect wrote:
@mam98031 wrote:Great info, but we all should keep in mind that NONE of these rates have yet been APPROVED by the PRC. .... It is also important to know that Ebay does have the fexibility to negotiate rates with USPS on Priority ...
In all the years that I have been following these changes, I have only seen one instance of a domestic proposed rate not going through. That was a change in the price structure for the Regional C box, which stayed at the 17-pound rate rather than the proposed 11-pound rate, a year or two before it was dropped completely.
Can you give me any example of eBay actually providing sellers with a negotiated rate for domestic Priority Mail that is lower than the published rates (Commercial Base and Commerical Plus)?
Ebay may negotiate these lower rates but they do not pass them on to the Sellers but keep them as additional profits for Ebay. This became very apparent a few years ago when the USPS was forced to lower the online pricing for shipping 1-4 ounces by 6 cents due to a pricing error that caused the retail rate to be cheaper than the online rate. All the other postage resellers lowered their prices by that 6 cents except Ebay who basically took the approach that it was only 6 cents and no big deal, until they started losing so much business to Stamps.com and the other companies as that 6 cent over time adds up and for Ebay was a very nice cushion. Finally 2 months later they matched that pricing with the familiar "You Spoke and We Listened" comment, which in reality was Sellers spoke with their wallets and they finally got the message. That seems to be happening with Ebay ever since, as their revenues have flatlined at 3-5% growth while online shopping over all has skyrocketed. There is no way that Ebay is going to give anything better than the commercial plus rates (which are being eliminated by USPS) or the commercial base rates as they need that additional negotiated revenue to offset their lack of sales growth.
That is completely misleading. That 6 cent problem was temporary and was fixed within a couple weeks or so. The rates that EBay was charging were the rates that USPS was charging at the time. You are absolutely correct that other sites did drop their pricing BEFORE USPS decided to make the rate change. Those sites did that at their own risk. It wasn't sanctioned by USPS and they may or may not have had to pay out of their pockets for that rate difference until the time that USPS adjusted their rates. Ebay chose a different path. They charged the rate that USPS was charging at the time and changed it when USPS changed the rate. It did leave a lot of questions for sellers in regards to Ebay that were never answered to my knowledge.
As to commercial rates, USPS does NOT allow negotiations on FCP commercial rates. That is why on every single site on the internet that provides on line shipping labels, they ALL have the same rate for FCP. Amazon, Etsy, Pitney Bowes, etc. The online rates are the same.
USPS allows negotiations on PM and Express Mail.
Sorry but that 6 cent issue was not fixed for 2 months as I made the change to Stamps.com when Ebay refused to do so. 2 months later they made the announcement that they were dropping the rates down by the $.06 cents. They also did not refund anybody that had wound up overpaying for those 2 months. I guarantee you those other sites were not giving us discounts that they were not receiving from USPS because they are also in business to make a profit as they are also a public company, just as EBay is. They just go about it in a different manner than Ebay.
Lets just say what you are saying is true. While your memory of this specific situation is different than mine, it doesn change anything else I said above.
