Reminder: USPS Rate Change Goes Into Effect Sunday, January 26, 2020
airplanenut
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For those of you who list items with a shipping charge (no judgment here--I charge for shipping), just a friendly reminder that the USPS's annual rate increase goes into effect on Sunday.
Most of you will probably find these tables adequate: https://stamps.com/usps/postage-rate-increase/
For those of you who need all the details (especially international shippers), the giant prices Excel file put out by the USPS lists every cost for everything you can think up: https://pe.usps.com/pricechange/index
Happy shipping!
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At least the standard first class 55C stamps are staying 55C... for now.
Thanks for the reminder @airplanenut.
Thank you. Had no idea they were going up.
I hadn't checked postage rates in some time. It really is the end of the road for cheap anything except something light and flat that can be sent by first class mail.
It probably won't affect you guys too much but $1.75 international is gonna murder me. That isn't a cost I'd ever be willing to absorb considering my taxes, rent, materials and processing/hosting fees all went up. First refund fees being kept by processors. Now postage? $10-$15 a day, or $5500/year. This really sucks. I already had to raise prices for the aforementioned reasons, now shipping I guess..
Thank you for the heads up.
Cool beans.
These Postal Rate increases are becoming ridiculous. They should do away with the dang pensions(they are making us pay along with crazy pay for what they do!) and make them pay SS just like most of the rest of us! Of course if the USPS wants to contribute to my retirement I'm all in!
What did I miss? International letters are $1.20.
I didn't see anything for $1.75 but maybe that is the amount of an increase somewhere?
I’m pretty sure they have already defaulted on the prefunding of those pensions in 2017. The problem is they can’t easily compete with UPS, FedEx, etc. Only by doing things to curtail those companies can the USPS really return to full profitability. And likely that ship has sailed.
TurtleCat Gold Dollars
The 1st Class International increase is significant at 10%.
Who else remembers when the small flat rate box was $4.95? Wasn't that just 5 or 6 years ago?
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I ship at the package rate... those rates are way higher than these.
thanks for the info
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The 1st Class International increase is significant at 10%.> @mach1ne said:
>
Actually 2009! Time flies!
10-15 years ago, a one ounce bubble envelope cost 45 cents to mail. New rate: $3.80 and up.
I guess the cheapest rate is still sending counterfeits out of China.
Chinese government subsidy. I still say that if you want to declare war on China, just start buying those $1.50 free shipping items.
The last contract with a pension was in 1983. None since then.
That particular increase was one of the worst for small sellers. It really put the nail in the coffin of selling small, cheap items.
Thanks for the info, Jeremy!
Here's a warning parable for coin collectors...
I remember when a first class letter was a nickel....
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
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So 7 times the cost of delivering a letter sized envelope under 1oz.
Seems a bit out of whack.
No. That increase is for a bubble envelope, not a letter envelope.
I meant that the simple 3 ounce package is 7 times the cost of a first class envelope. Do not think that that is consistent with the post offices cost differential.
Cheaper to send all the cheap coins to China in bulk and pay Hopsing to mail them to the customers in the US at half a buck a piece.
I remember 20 years ago before global warming when I had to walk 10 feet through the snow to get to school and burger flippers were earning $3.35 an hour. We paid PCGS to provide an independent grade on our coins and no need to pay cacs to confirm the PCGS decision.
Some call it inflation, others call it cacs-flation. I don't speak Russian and I never let the bone spurs slow me down. IMO $8.30 flat rate is the least of our problems. Semper Fi!
The whole worlds off its rocker, buy Gold™.
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Ok- I misunderstood. I see what you mean there.
One difference is that packages have tracking, letters don't. Is that 7x more valuable though?
If you are mailing cheap stuff the tracking really isn't needed. I haven't had a package go missing in over 20 years and many, many of them were sent with no insurance or tracking.
I agree. I use an envelope + safe-t-mailer for inexpensive stuff anymore. Tracking doesn't do you any good if a package is lost anyway.
Letters are also sorted on high-rate machines, while packages aren't.
Good enough, Jeremy, but each has to move the same proverbial 3000 miles and be hand delivered.
Seems that when i shipped my first coin in 2002 the rate for three ounces was the basic first class rate of 70 cents or so.
Ebay was a lot cheaper on shipping a few years ago, you could express there for a little over $12 and first class with shipping was like $1.70. At least it is only a couple percent this time. Also I have seen the automated machines at post offices try to not allow you to use first class for small packages.
the packages are also, in theory, non-machinable while letters are automatically sorted and directed. But, oddly, it's only 15 cents on a 1st class letter that is "non-machinable"
Do you mean they are forcing you to use Priority? 1st class package rate is not the same as letter rate and you can't send small packages via 1st class letter.
Back in 2002-ish, they allowed bubble envelopes to be shipped via the letter rate. Sometime between 2002 and 2010, they made anything over 1/4 ounce thick a "package"
Yet another reason to be a stamp dealer....
That's another gripe I have with the USPS. If I pay a very high rate so it is non-machinable it should not be run through one of those high speed sort machines. I have been told by an old time Postal Employee that if they think it will go through they will run it through. I've had to change to double bubbling slabs in a manila envelope(also in thin cardboard inside the manilla envelope) because they were running them through the sort machine even though they were 1/2 inch thick. Seems it takes an inch of thickness to avoid the high speed sort machines.
Just looked back on my shipping records for what I have handy and not filed away.
At 1 point I remember it costs $1.61 for a 1st class package.
In what looks like 2/14 it went from $1.69 to $1.93
around 5/15 it went to $2.04
in 1/16 it went to $2.60(I have some @ $2.54 + some @ $2.45 Don't remember the reason unless that was when they went to regional surcharges?)
in 1/17 all went to $2.61
In 1/18 went to $2.66
In 1/19 went to $2.66 with regional surcharges up to $3.09
These are eBay's discounted rates with the USPS rates a quite a bit higher.
Priority and Express mail rates went through the roof as well as a substantial increase in insurance costs. The biggie to me with insurance was when automatic signature confirmation went from $300 to $600.
Letters containing coins pay an extra charge above the letter ounce rate and are not supposed to be run through those machines. From the USPS Domestic Mail Manual:
1.2 Nonmachinable Criteria
A letter-size piece is nonmachinable if it has one or more of the following characteristics:
d. Contains items such as pens, pencils, keys, or coins that cause the thickness of the mailpiece to be uneven;
This isn't to say they don't run such envelopes through the machines anyway, just that their stated policy is not to.
Recently I tried to ship a first class parcel with one of their automated post office machines and it would't allow me to do what you can do online with paypal shipping. Up to one pound you should be able to ship first class.
Practically, you can't purchase and print a first class package label from USPS.com.
U can do it through PayPal (among other places)
I don't care. After two incidents with FedEx that was enough. When they left a 55" Smart TV a block and a half away in a vacant apartment that convinced me to stick with the USPS.
Have been very satisfied with USPS service. Have had some great carriers and when there is a problem, the local guys are quick to help out.