USPS International rate increase

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pens1fan

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Hey guys, not sure if many of you have heard or not, but I was looking around the USPS website. There are going to be new postal rates going into effect on Jan. 27th, 2013. From what I'm seeing International rates are going up 59%!!!! This is the second year in a row they have really jumped the prices. So that means that a normal 1oz bubble mailer will go from $3.00 to roughly $4.77 to send to Canada, with higher rates to the rest of the world. I really hope that this does not kill my trades and sales as I will have to think about when doing them.

As for our good friends in Canada, would you still be willing to pay more for shipping to Canada on say ebay if you won something from there or even bought something here on HI from a US seller??

Would love to get some feedback and hear what people might think.

Thanks
Walt
 
I would say yes, I also take into account the shipping into the price I'm willing to pay for the item anyways, so my actually bid won't be as high but the amount I'm paying will be the same. Perhaps it just leads to bidding on canadian auctions more often.
 
Do you have a link for where you have found this information?

I have heard this rumor elsewhere and have looked around their site a bunch myself and have not been able to find a thing regarding the increase. I knew they wouldn't be throwing a banner ad up to advertise the increase but I was hoping to find exactly how this is going to change my shipments.

Any help appreciated.
 
I would likely bid a bit less than what I was willing to pay for an item if shipping is now $5.00 to Canada instead of $3.00.

It will also likely impact the amount of lower end I buy from Ebay/websites. For example with $3.00 shipping, I might think about buying a PC card for $1 or $2. But if shipping is now $5, im seriously rethinking buying that $1-$2 card.
 
pens1fan said:
Here's a link to stamps.com

http://blog.stamps.com/2012/10/29/usps-announces-new-postage-rates-for-2013/

and after downloading the excel file there and looking at the FCPIS Retail, it will cost $6.55 to send 1-2 oz package to Canada, which is way more than 59% which I mentioned orig.
Click to expand...

I am assuming that if one prints postage through eBay/payapl one will get the commercial plus discount but even that is $6.03 for a 2oz package (maybe three or four standard cards in toploaders). Domestic looks like it will see a drop for a 3oz packagedown to $1.25 (not $1.64 IIRC) but I am not 100% sure I am reading this spreadsheet right, it may infact go to $1.69.

If this is all accurate - my days selling on eBay could be numbered. $6-7 shipping is a killer.
 
timber09 said:
I am assuming that if one prints postage through eBay/payapl one will get the commercial plus discount but even that is $6.03 for a 2oz package (maybe three or four standard cards in toploaders). Domestic looks like it will see a drop for a 3oz packagedown to $1.25 (not $1.64 IIRC) but I am not 100% sure I am reading this spreadsheet right, it may infact go to $1.69.

If this is all accurate - my days selling on eBay could be numbered. $6-7 shipping is a killer.
Click to expand...

There is no discount for international shipments.

Either way, this is absolutely insane. Looks like I am going to have to stop selling anything under $30 to make it worth my while. Oh, and guess what, eBay is going to steal another 50cents from that shipping fee too in FVF.
 
Burner said:
There is no discount for international shipments.
Click to expand...

There are three tiers of First Class Package International Service on this spreadsheet...
Retail - 2oz package $6.55
Commercial Base - $6.16
Commercial Plus - $6.03

As you stated though - the $0.50 isn't the difference between reasonable and unreasonable - either way we are hooped.

The real bad news is that many international folks get POd at $4 shipping - even though the postage itself is about $3.25, throw in all the supplies and $4 is about breakeven. Now we are talking about and additional $3 per package - good news for Canadian sellers, bad news for American.
 
Is there any confirmation that this has been approved?

The stamps.com link says "The U.S. Postal Service has proposed new 2013 shipping rates that are expected to start on Sunday, January 27, 2013 pending Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) approval." at the top.
 
The link to the spreadsheet states that it is coming directly from the USPS website, and the address on the link appears to back that claim but I really have no idea.

I can't seem to find anything about this on the USPS website.
 
timber09 said:
The link to the spreadsheet states that it is coming directly from the USPS website, and the address on the link appears to back that claim but I really have no idea.

I can't seem to find anything about this on the USPS website.
Click to expand...

Ya, that doesn't mean it's approved. Your link is also from October, so the fact that we're a week and a half away from January and there is still no announcement tells me that maybe this just hasn't gotten the green light yet. But who knows.
 
Already discussed here a month ago:

http://www.hobbyinsider.net/forum/showthread.php?t=338679

This is how the USPS hides huge increases - they tell Congree they are raising the price of a 1st Class Stamp $.01 and then jack all of the rates that Congress does not look at by huge % increases.

The new rate - whether it is $4.77 or $6 - does not matter. It will be an absolute deal breaker for US Sellers on Ebay to selling cards Internationally. Think this will have another negative effect on the Hobby?? You bet.
 
If I really want something and it's fairly high-end I'd probably absorb the extra shipping cost, but I can't see myself buying many more cards from the USA if I'll be charged $6+ for regular shipping.
 
Holy smokes...as the not so proud owner of an ebay store with cards that run almost exclusively between $1 - $5, this will pretty much end international biz for me. eBay takes a big percentage for themselves as a "final value fee on shipping" so you have to figure that in as well. What a mess.
 
This is seriously gonna have a huge negative effect on me if it goes through and I'm quite honestly super pissed about it.


I really want to be active with trading and selling on ebay, but if shipping is gonna be $5-6+ it's going to kill me. I can't justify spending $20 to ship less than a handful of trades, and I can't blame buyers on ebay not willing to pay $6 to ship a mid end card.

There should be some kind of petition set up to protest the exorbitant increase in postage. Even if it does nothing, it shows the outrage in principle. Charging $6+ or even $5 to ship a 2oz package over a border of a neighboring country is highway robbery.
 
I hope no one considers this as me being "naive" or anything...

But I've done quite alot of buying/selling from U.S. buyers over the years, and quite often I'll see a "$1.85" or "$2.15" or whatever (just example numbers) on the little U.S.P.S. label on the top corner. Sometimes a little higher I suppose, but overall seemed to be pretty equal to Canadian costs.

In Canada, I can send a regular bubble mailer for $2.10 to the U.S. through Canada Post usually, so it's crazy to think my fellow Americans have to pay 3 times that price! Especially considering so many products and services run MUCH cheaper in the U.S., hell even with our "dollars" being near par over the last 1-2 years, we still have to pay $4 or $5 more for a magazine or whatever here in Canada, haha.
 
Bozzy said:
I hope no one considers this as me being "naive" or anything...

But I've done quite alot of buying/selling from U.S. buyers over the years, and quite often I'll see a "$1.85" or "$2.15" or whatever (just example numbers) on the little U.S.P.S. label on the top corner. Sometimes a little higher I suppose, but overall seemed to be pretty equal to Canadian costs.
Click to expand...

You haven't seen anything at that price in a year - unless it was a PWE. The cheapest bubble mailer will cost you $3 and go up from there about $0.15 per ounce.
 
Bozzy said:
I hope no one considers this as me being "naive" or anything...

But I've done quite alot of buying/selling from U.S. buyers over the years, and quite often I'll see a "$1.85" or "$2.15" or whatever (just example numbers) on the little U.S.P.S. label on the top corner. Sometimes a little higher I suppose, but overall seemed to be pretty equal to Canadian costs.

In Canada, I can send a regular bubble mailer for $2.10 to the U.S. through Canada Post usually, so it's crazy to think my fellow Americans have to pay 3 times that price! Especially considering so many products and services run MUCH cheaper in the U.S., hell even with our "dollars" being near par over the last 1-2 years, we still have to pay $4 or $5 more for a magazine or whatever here in Canada, haha.
Click to expand...

Impossible. The cheapest to send a bubble mailer to Canada is $3.00US. It's possible people have sent you a card in a non-bubble mailer and paid for it as if it were a letter or documents.

A standard 6"x8" mailer with a UD Series 1 standard thickness card in a top loader is almost exactly 1oz to 1.2oz. A 1oz or less "package" starts at $3.00 and is 15c each additional ounce until (I believe) 13oz.

It used to cost about $1.85 to Canada before January 2012. Since then it's been $3 minimum.
 

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