2019 USPS Rate Summary for Priority Mail and First Class Mail

[mangorunner]

Here is my 2019 USPS Priority Mail and First Class Mail summary.  I created this for my own use and it is an incredibly helpful tool for me.  I'm sharing it here with anyone else who wants it.

Break-even amounts are calculated by dividing the Seller's cost by 0.871.  It ignores PayPal's $0.30 fee.

Ebay continues to charge buyers less than seller's cost for the flat-rate shipping amounts shown in the top box.  I have updated my flat rates to the purple amounts (break-even amounts).   You may wish to do the same. 

Enjoy!

Imgur link

[mangorunner]

Is the site considered safe?

[lindyslucky]

I am Looking at my small, fairly low price, mostly under a pound listings, many offered "free" shipping.

With zoning on first class packages, and the increase in postage, there is no way we can offer free shipping.

Even with buyer paying shipping, the increase in ebay fees is going to be hard to absorb if a buyer buys from west coast. (We are in center of country) 

It appears now that most of my small items will cost more to ship than item itself. (Rather than just a few).

As it is, many items, vintage, one of a kind are going to become not sellable on ebay.

This has been a small, but steady money making niche.

Thinking this postage increase will pretty much sink most of our smaller sales.

Also thinking, maybe ebay needs to reconsider their % take on postage.

That alone could be the make or break point.

Im just thinking buyers are not going to buy with this, especially since ebay has pushed free shipping so hard. 

And the .99 epacket still out there is competition that cannot be met.

[mangorunner]

Here is how to update your rate:

[mangorunner]

I always get a kick out of how eBay refers to it as "cost " on a Seller's page. 

[mvls1]

Although we are Top rated plus sellers, I wanted to take this opportunity to thank you for the time and effort that you put in to do this. I am sure there are many sellers who will be able to use this information in preparing their listings.

May all your selling be profitable! Thank you again.

[threshold.sales.group]

This morning seeing the real world impact of the USPS price increases is frightening. They are brutal. 

[myjunqueyourtreasure]

Yep just when we'd settled into being able to send up to 15.99 oz FCP they then kick us in the teeth while simultaneously pulling the rug out from under us.

[loisdeals4u]

Just wanted to say how much your due diligence in preparing this table is much appreciated.  I will be referring to it  often and think of you as  I do.  All the best.

[mangorunner]

WOW!  I just found out that as of January 27th 2019, USPS merged the "Commercial Base" and "Commercial Plus Pricing" categories, creating one "Commercial Pricing" discount level.  Commercial Base and Commercial Plus are now one-and-the-same and is simply called Commercial Pricing.  So my tables can be used by all Sellers.  There is no longer any difference in shipping cost for casual eBay sellers and eBay TSR (top-rated sellers). 

To verify, I checked the USPS 2019 rate Excel spreadsheet.  Although the spreadsheet does still have separate tabs for PM Comm Base and PM Comm Plus, the rates appear to be identical.

I also did some comparisons at Pirate Ship.  It appears that their pricing is identical to eBay for USPS PM flat rates, USPS First Class and USPS-branded PM boxes.  I did not compare for DIM weight (dimensional weight)/cubical pricing, so there may still be differences there.

[mangorunner]

Same-same.  Prices are identical.  (From January 2019 Price Change on USPS website.)

[nobody*s_perfect]

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@mangorunner wrote:

WOW!  I just found out that as of January 27th 2019, USPS merged the "Commercial Base" and "Commercial Plus Pricing" categories, creating one "Commercial Pricing" discount level.  ...  There is no longer any difference in shipping cost for casual eBay sellers and eBay TSR (top-rated sellers). ....

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Yes, under the new USPS rates, the prices for Commercial Base and Commercial Plus are identical.  

BUT eBay has decided that Top Rated Sellers should continue to get the same 3% discount on Priority Mail that they have been getting.  So they will see prices that are 3% less than the published rates.

See post #4:  https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/USPS-Commercial-Plus-Rates-2019-eBay-Labels/m-p/29394313

[mangorunner]

Oh, thank you very much for that update.  So that advantage to being a TSR still remains - as it should.  Good deal.

[mangorunner]

Since the 2019 rate increase, I've been stung twice with the 3-lb-Zone-6 under-charge.  Ugh!  Seems so odd that particular combo would be a full $0.95 less than the seller's cost.  Really irritating and no way around it without going to the extreme of setting up your own shipping tables.  No way of predicting a sale to a Zone 6 Buyer.

Here are all of the shortfalls, highlighted in red.  (The Regional Rates are really moot because eBay doesn't offer those shipping options when listing an item - - although they are available options when actually printing the shipping label.)

I wish I understood how the shipping tables were developed and why that shortfall exists out there for the 3-lb-Zone-6 box.  For that matter, I wish I understood why there are shortfalls for all of the flat rate options. 

Interestingly, when I posted this last year with 2018 tables, no one seemed to get it.  No one understood what I was trying to demonstrate.  That was ok, I understood it and adjusted my flat-rate prices so that I wasn't losing in the shipping department.  But it was surprising that I couldn't get through to anyone how outraged I was that eBay was undercharging to the point that if you gave your item away for free, and shipping was your only cost involved, you (the Seller) would LOSE money.  eBay isn't even charging enough for the Seller to BREAK EVEN on shipping for everything with a red box around it.  It still appalls me.  I'm glad that some folks get it this year.   I'm really surprised that Sellers aren't up in arms about this but I guess  - and I don't mean this in a condescending way - but I guess break-even analysis is difficult to understand.

[nobody*s_perfect]

eBay doesn't approach the prices this way.  The buyer pays the regular USPS retail price and the seller is charged whatever USPS has decided to charge as the Commercial rate for Priority Mail (minus a further 3% discount for Top Rated Sellers).  We can be pretty sure that when USPS is setting up these charts they are not considering eBay seller fees at all.  

Most sellers don't care about the small differences, they just put the difference towards their operating costs without figuring out whether the fees for each listing are covered; it just all averages out.

Your chart has a lot of red boxes for 1-pound packages, but for packages up to 1 pound most sellers would be using First Class rather than Priority, and for First Class there's a huge margin between the retail and online rates.

[mangorunner]

Thanks for the reply.  You make a lot of good points.

I know that eBay and USPS don't approach it this way but I think it is nevertheless important for Sellers to give it a passing glance and more importantly, to know and understand their costs.  No matter how the amounts are derived, it's crazy that there is a Seller shortfall for some USPS services.  eBay knows it, some sellers know it, and a lot of sellers have no clue.  It is unconscionable, just my opinion, that a casual, small-time seller loses money on shipping.  The set-up - the basic eBay vanilla shipping table set-up - should be such that all sellers breakeven on shipping.  That is my opinion.

I do care about small differences that might add up.  It might be small potatoes; it might be big potatoes.  For me, losing money matters on every sale because I don't sell enough for costs to come out in the wash. 

For a seller that sells a high volume and uses exclusively Flat Rate Padded Envelopes, it could be significant. 

You're right about shipping cost for packages under one pound.  First Class is usually cheaper.  However, if the item is under one pound but high-value, I opt for Priority Mail because no insurance for First Class.