MASSIVE USPS INTERNATIONAL POSTAGE INCREASE ON JANUARY 21st

It's been like that here for a couple years. I guess the policy isn't uniform across the states.
 
C55 said:
It's been like that here for a couple years. I guess the policy isn't uniform across the states.
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You are correct it’s not uniform. I was able to use common sense to convince my local USPS employees counter jockeys that one card in a bubble mailer is not a package, but a flat. It fits all the requirements to be a flat and they agreed to ship it like it.

Well 2.29 is now becoming 4.50. Which IMO is massive. Not 1.75 to 9.03 like in 2013, but still significant none the less.
 
It looks like we have been nailed on this side of the border as well. Apparently as of yesterday Canada Post has eliminated the Light Packet Option for $2.95 that we have all been using and what is left is a Small Packet Option for $6.95.
 
piper1 said:
It looks like we have been nailed on this side of the border as well. Apparently as of yesterday Canada Post has eliminated the Light Packet Option for $2.95 that we have all been using and what is left is a Small Packet Option for $6.95.
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Oversized letter to USA up to 100g is still 2,95$ on their website, but the clerck at the local post office started checking what is inside the enveloppes and telling me that it's not paper. I'll be trying the red boxes with stamps, and if that doesn't work, I'll have to stop lower-end trading to US, and ask crazy money for shipping to US when selling.
 
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odjickfan said:
Oversized letter to USA up to 100g is still 2,95$ on their website, but the clerck at the local post office started checking what is inside the enveloppes and telling me that it's not paper. I'll be trying the red boxes with stamps, and if that doesn't work, I'll have to stop lower-end trading to US, and ask crazy money for shipping to US when selling.
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That is all I do...

I bought a scale, just use stamps, and drop in the mailbox.

If something does happen and they stop offering the $2.95 up to 100g I will just ship low-mid end to COMC I guess.
 
odjickfan said:
Oversized letter to USA up to 100g is still 2,95$ on their website, but the clerck at the local post office started checking what is inside the enveloppes and telling me that it's not paper. I'll be trying the red boxes with stamps, and if that doesn't work, I'll have to stop lower-end trading to US, and ask crazy money for shipping to US when selling.
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Yup, I am getting hit with the $6+ shipping now for anything that is not "paper only". So even the fact that it is a bubble mailer it has plastic in it and now has to go as a small parcel or something like that.

Oh well, just another nail in the cross boarder shipping coffin.
 
Was just at the post office and asked the manager about this. He said as long as you don't tell them it has plastic in it there is nothing they can do. Tell them it's paper and you are good. All bubble mailers are hand sorted at the sort facility so he said it doesn't matter. The problem arises when there is plastic or any other material other than paper in a regular envelope and it goes through the machines.
I send 150-250 bubble mailers a week and have never had an issue.
 
sjw241 said:
Was just at the post office and asked the manager about this. He said as long as you don't tell them it has plastic in it there is nothing they can do. Tell them it's paper and you are good. All bubble mailers are hand sorted at the sort facility so he said it doesn't matter. The problem arises when there is plastic or any other material other than paper in a regular envelope and it goes through the machines.
I send 150-250 bubble mailers a week and have never had an issue.
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Do you know where are the sorting facilities?
 
OK. The rate increase went into effect today. In trying to print out shipping labels on both ebay and Stamps.com, I am very frustrated. Looks like the "cheapest" way to send a bubble to Canada is around $10. It was showing an ebay discount bringing the cost down to $8.50ish. The ebay system is not working though as it wasn't letting me print... So, I went to stamps.com. They still show the Flat option, but if you try to print, a warning pops up saying this was for documents only, etc... The cheapest way for a package through stamps.com is around $9.50.

This is the tipping point for me. I don't see folks in Canada paying $10 shipping for a $5 card... I will most likely be done ripping Hockey after this season. It's been a good run... At least I have baseball where 90%+ of my buyers are in the USA and I can ship a bubble for $3 or so...
 
This is very unfortunate for the hobby, but Canadian sellers selling online in Canada are rubbing their hands together. The solid currency exchange on sales to start with and now a good chunk of the online competition from the US will be gone. This is not good news for sellers out of the US trying to sell to Canada, but it may also turn out to be a bone thrown to the brick and mortars north of the border who may gain some business and Canadian market share from this in the form of collectors coming into the store to buy vs online from the US.
 
Boom Boom said:
This is very unfortunate for the hobby, but Canadian sellers selling online in Canada are rubbing their hands together. The solid currency exchange on sales to start with and now a good chunk of the online competition from the US will be gone. This is not good news for sellers out of the US trying to sell to Canada, but it may also turn out to be a bone thrown to the brick and mortars north of the border who may gain some business and Canadian market share from this in the form of collectors coming into the store to buy vs online from the US.
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I was about to say something similar, but mine was aimed at dealers who offer singles (mainly thinking about baseball since there is little to no value in hockey cards). This would be a good opportunity to buy bulk from US sellers and bring it up here for sale.

I also see a lot of business coming COMC's way.
 
MGiuseffi1969 said:
OK. The rate increase went into effect today. In trying to print out shipping labels on both ebay and Stamps.com, I am very frustrated. Looks like the "cheapest" way to send a bubble to Canada is around $10. It was showing an ebay discount bringing the cost down to $8.50ish. The ebay system is not working though as it wasn't letting me print... So, I went to stamps.com. They still show the Flat option, but if you try to print, a warning pops up saying this was for documents only, etc... The cheapest way for a package through stamps.com is around $9.50.

This is the tipping point for me. I don't see folks in Canada paying $10 shipping for a $5 card... I will most likely be done ripping Hockey after this season. It's been a good run... At least I have baseball where 90%+ of my buyers are in the USA and I can ship a bubble for $3 or so...
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Same exact experience here - I honored all my existing paid orders via the $9.50 stamps.com rate this morning and then disabled international shipping. Looks like the legit options to send cheaper through paypal and stamps.com are history. RIP me as a lower end hockey seller
 
I wish UPS or Fedex ground would offer a small packet rate or something at a reasonable price.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 
Apparently, on ebay you can't even ship anything other than a "document" using First Class (ie. paper only). So if you have to ship a bunch of cards, or a box of cards then it has to go Priority Mail even if it's less than 1lb/16oz. First Class is ONLY for documents now. I hear eBay is working on this saying it's just a glitch but from what I understand this is the USPS' new position on First Class Mail... I hope I'm wrong.
 
Hockey cards are documents. I've continued shipping using the First Class Large Envelope declared as "Documents: Hockey Photos" without any issue. $2.50 to $5.00 depending on the weight.
So far this is much to do about nothing. First Class Large Envelope was ALWAYS supposed to be for documents only, they are just now starting to enforce it.
 
Maggot said:
Hockey cards are documents. I've continued shipping using the First Class Large Envelope declared as "Documents: Hockey Photos" without any issue. $2.50 to $5.00 depending on the weight.
So far this is much to do about nothing. First Class Large Envelope was ALWAYS supposed to be for documents only, they are just now starting to enforce it.
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Except that they’re not documents if you received a payment for it. A document is defined by the laws that govern the usps as something with zero value. There is a record of every sale you do easiky accessible if someone wants to look for it. If you are trading cards and want to go that route I guess that could be another story, bit I know there’s no way I’m going there for ebay sales.
 

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