USPS Price Changes effective July 14, 2024 (Media Mail, ESE, Stamps)

[wastingtime101]

USPS price changes, effective July 14, 2024 if approved. Submitted to the PRC yesterday (PRC link, USPS link).

Reminder: Per the linked files, these are just the "market dominant" price changes (first class, etc). This does not include any potential changes to "competitive product" prices. Competitive product changes for package services like Ground Adv and Priority won't be announced by USPS until a few weeks prior to July 14th. 

Back in December USPS brought up potential changes including creating a Zone 10 for AK/HI/territories and changes to Priority Flat Rates. I'm interested to see where all of that lands.

For market dominant services, the main changes affecting eBay sellers will be:

• Increase in Media Mail, nearly 10%
• Increase in Metered Mail - eBay Standard Envelope
• Increase in First Class Mail - Letters & Flats (non-tracked services, postage stamps)
• Insurance decreasing 10% in response to volume declines, consumer sensitivity, and competitor pricing
• Special & Ancillary Services (e.g., Signature Confirmation) will see an increase of about 7.76%

Also of note:

• Certified Mail, Money Orders, and Return Receipts will receive price increases of about 10-12%

[dhbookds]

thanks for posting.................ugh on the media mail..........certainly not encouraging on letter rate.

[wastingtime101]

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@dhbookds wrote:

ugh on the media mail

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With the last few price changes, Media Mail and Ground Adv have become competitors, with Ground Adv being lower in many instances.

Plus Ground Adv is insured and does not charge for returned packages. MM is uninsured and you have to pay shipping again to claim a returned package. If this keeps up, MM will be discontinued because nobody will be using it anymore.

[1786davycrockett]

A 50 cents increase in Media Mail is very discouraging -- I spent a few days in December 2023 re-adjusting my previous listings, just to account for the January 2024 increase.

Not gonna do anything until this is a certainty.

And, if the proposed Media rate is more than USPS Ground Advantage, I'll just change everything to USPS GA -- at least there's free insurance up to $100.00.

Too bad the Postmaster General is not up for election in 2024. . ..

[1786davycrockett]

I just checked -- if Ground Advantage remains at the same price, in some cases that will be a cheaper option than Media, depending upon the buyer's address.

For instance -- I'm in Minnesota.  A Massachusetts buyer pays me $4.47 for an 8 ounce Ground Advantage package, as opposed to the proposed $4.63 Media package -- a savings of 16 cents -- plus better service, and $100.00 free insurance.

Sounds like a no-brainer to me.

[wastingtime101]

The good news is if you charge buyers for MM and GA comes in lower, it's considered a service upgrade so go ahead and use GA.

The biggest differences you'll see is when you go over a pound. That's when GA has rates significantly lower than MM - especially if the box is heavy and you get a GA cubic rate @1786davycrockett .