Postal rates are going up again!!

[penny_pinching_jewelry]

Hi everyone, our great postal system wants to raise prices again on us on January 19th.  Just a heads up!!

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) will raise shipping prices in early 2025 while keeping the cost of first-class stamps unchanged.

The proposed price hikes , which would take effect Jan. 19, include a 3.2 percent increase for Priority Mail and Priority Mail Express services. USPS Ground Advantage rates would rise by 3.9 percent, while Parcel Select services would see the steepest increase at 9.2 percent.

[stephenmorgan]

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@simba6 wrote:

Good thing China can still produce forever stamps for less.

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That is a good point except that when the new administration imposes their new tariffs on imports, the counterfeit stamps will cost more than the USPS charges for legitimate stamps.

[bonanza125]

Expect an increase each year until the postal service folds. The cost of doing business has increase and the postal service is actually losing billions. 

[selsa84]

Nope, they'll simply relay them to non tariffed countries and ship from there. It didn't affect it in his last administration and it certainly won't his time around. 

[buyer-topia]

On a slightly related side note; 😊

Over the last several years I've seen such a drastic drop in buyers choosing USPS Priority shipping that I took a mountain of the Priority packaging I'd ordered back to the P.O. and asked if I could leave it there. I'm taking more back today. 
I don't blame the P.O. for the increases, I blame inflation. Maybe I'm still living in 1972.

[bluebedelia4]

Yieks!

And the sad part is that when USPS switched to that USPS Ground Advantage,  it really did bring in so much more business to USPS, since Sellers preferred it so much more than other Services (depending of course, on all factors such as size of box, Zone,weight). Anyhow, so many Sellers started using USPS Ground Advantage (when it was created) almost exclusively, and in LARGE numbers too!.... Therefore, makes me wonder why USPS is doing this. IMHO, it's not to their "advantage" since it just forces Sellers to look at other options (ie: non USPS options).

So now, here we are again, as Sellers, having to figure out a way to ship our Widgets to our customers in the cheapest way possible (lest we, Sellers, lose money on shipping, almost every single time). Such a shame.

Small business owners just cannot get a break these days!

PS= Remember when USPS implemented that CUBIC FORMAT? ...And when that CUBIC was put in place, it altered the shipping situation tremendously for us,small business owners. And that was bad enough! So now, they are raising the prices again... Dang!===Makes me sad! Small Business owners are being hammered!

[tobaccocardyahoo]

FEDEX will be out of business years before USPS is. If you are willing to sacrifice quality of service for price, you are a potential FEDEX Ground/Home shipper.

USPS is doing all it needs to to compete with UPS in package delivery. It is hard because much of USPS' long haul delivery is handled by UPS (they replaced FEDEX which has shrunk their airplane fleet and long haul trucks).

There are definitely some USPS delays. Some due to labor issues, employees whose jobs have changed are not all reacting positively. Some are due to the fact that long haul by UPS means more transit by train, and greater delay and fewer routing choices.

I rate LeJoy's performance as A-. I rate UPS as A-. I rate FEDEX Ground as C-.

I strongly recommend all sellers learn how not to overpromise. Sellers who sell items on Ebay for urgent buyer requirements often disappoint. Better to underpromise and exceed expectation.

Ebay sellers are not going to match the bulk of Amazon fulfilled order delivery times to most of the country. All of the carriers are reducing their delivery expectations for rural America. USPS is getting more of the volume to unsafe parts of the country.

[deserdog]

I have only lost 4 or 5 packages since 1999, none in the past few years.

[deserdog]

And when that CUBIC was put in place, it altered the shipping situation tremendously for us,small business owners. And that was bad enough

This helped sellers, since when cubic prices apply they are cheaper than regular priority or ground advantage.