USPS Rate Increase starts Sunday January 21st

[mam98031]

Just a friendly reminder to all that the USPS rates change Sunday January 21st.  So you may consider starting to change your rates on Friday or no later than Saturday of this week.

You can download the various schedules from the link below or open the PDF file.

https://pe.usps.com/PriceChange

Good luck everyone.

[buyselljack2016]

$5.99 shipped is a tough row to hoe anyway you look at it.

I evaluated the projected rate increase, and have at this time decided to stick with my current shipping prices.

[reallynicestamps]

It is interesting that Americans give so much lip service to their troops, then refuse to ship to APO addresses,  underfund their medical care, and disparage that they eventually get a pension for their military service.

[rugerskick]

Canada Post is also already very expensive relative to usps and fedex/ups.

[dbfolks166mt]

and remember,..................................  "cubic" is coming to eBay

     I have not purchased shipping labels through eBay for a long time so I have been using "cubic" for quite some time through Pirate Ship which has about the same, sometimes better, discounted shipping rates than eBay. The last USPS price increase pretty much negated the cost savings with Priority Mail Cubic but Ground Advantage Cubic still can have some good cost savings. 

     In addition I purchase my labels on Pirate Ship using a cash back credit card which further reduces my cost a bit. Pirate Ship also has a Simple Export Rate for direct shipment of international sales which I utilize for non-eBay international shipments. I utilize EIS for eBay international shipments. 

     The constantly increasing shipping costs are becoming a bigger and bigger factor in selling on eBay and I suspect that is going to continue to be the case. 

[baydealz]

Thanks for the reminder, I let ebay calculate it and I assume (bad idea) that they will update in time.  I'm on hold now anyway as I review other channels.   

[baydealz]

It's a welfare program, how dare you come up with ideas about efficiency.  I was excited to see them at CES (Consumer Electronics Show in Vegas about six years ago), it showed that they are thinking.  Now it sounds as they are just going back to gov;t thinking of 'just raise the prices.'  I guess thinking optimization and efficiency is just too difficult for some folks.  I forgot about the EV ordeal - what a bill of goods the country was sold.    There's a reason they lost traction 100 years ago.  If you drive that little to be practical, ride a bike. 

[chapeau-noir]

EV is in its relative infancy. There was a lot of moaning about horseless carriages as well - R&D is usually a little rough.

I totally agree about riding a bike, though!

[reallynicestamps]

Fedex and UPS use Canada Post to deliver to isolated and even rural addresses, because it's cheaper than doing it themselves. They tend to be comparable in urban/suburban areas.

I agree about USPS being cheaper though. Our 30g national first class letter is 92cCdn/69c USD. and rises to $5.47 Cdn /$4.10 USD for  a 500 gram letter.

And a tracked domestic parcel weighing less than 200gr costs $17.8Cdn/$13.38USD.

Flat Rate Boxes start at $16.99Cdn/$12.75USD.

[12345jamesstamps]

Canada to USA tracking is already expensive....I can't imagine raising the rates in Canada.

USA to Canada has a reduced rate for shipping..compared to others countries from USA to these countries.

One would think Canada could return the favor to USA.

[reallynicestamps]

We do have lower rates for USA.

And actually eBay and Canada Post have been running a special for some months on Tracked PacketUSA that has a 53% discount from counter prices that will run until March. (EBay sellers also have about  5% discount on labels purchased on the site.)

https://www.canadapost-postescanada.ca/cpc/en/tools/find-a-rate.page

Just as many US sellers don't know that USPS has Canadian rates, many Canadian sellers don't know there are US rates.
It costs the same for me to ship to @inhawaii  as it does to ship to  Alaska, Puerto Rico, or NYC or did until very recently when CPO added more destination -based rates.

[chapeau-noir]

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@12345jamesstamps wrote:

Canada to USA tracking is already expensive....I can't imagine raising the rates in Canada.

USA to Canada has a reduced rate for shipping..compared to others countries from USA to these countries.

One would think Canada could return the favor to USA.

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Both Canada and the US are bound by UPU treaty arrangements. The "reduced" rate to Canada from the US is simply proximity rather than any favour.

[mam98031]

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@onefootflippers wrote:

Lot of sellers going to lose a lot of money on this one. 

This increase finally creeped rates up enough where sellers selling stuff at $5.99 shipped are going to actively lose money sending the items out.  Ran the numbers today on a 5.99 shipped Funko pop and the seller loses 11 cents just shipping it out unless they don't have to buy the 4x4x6 box.

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The only way sellers lose money is if they don't increase pricing to cover the increases.  And if they do that, the only one at fault for that is the seller.

I know, people will say buyers don't like the increase and won't pay it.  That really isn't true.  Sometimes in the beginning of an increase some object, but then things settle and and they do pay it as the buyer eventually see that the cost of shipping simply increased for everyone that uses USPS.

[mam98031]

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@reallynicestamps wrote:

It is interesting that Americans give so much lip service to their troops, then refuse to ship to APO addresses,  underfund their medical care, and disparage that they eventually get a pension for their military service.

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It is also important to remember that our Congress does NOT always vote for things that most Americans actually want or approve of.

[movieman630]

I don't know how people survive selling stuff for 5.99 anymore.  If we could all agree to keep prices on a HIGHER competitive level things could be beneficial for us all.  I just sold something that I would have normally made 20-30 cents profit on and after the hike in shipping to the west coast the USPS took that profit from me.  Now I have to raise all my prices again, but my competitor for the same item won't, and I can't figure out how they make it work.

[bashort]

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@chapeau-noir wrote:

EV is in its relative infancy. There was a lot of moaning about horseless carriages as well - R&D is usually a little rough.

I totally agree about riding a bike, though!

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One big difference, there was no mandate or tax incentives to switch from horses to cars, people wanted to switch., EV's have major, major problems that have not even began to be addressed. And there is currently a major pullback on people switching once the stark realities started to  become apparent.