USPS Price increase, WOW!!! 0

[kav]

what about handle with care or do not bend?

[Brother J]

what about handle with care or do not bend?

 

I generally put Do Not Bend on my packages, but had taken to putting a fragile sticker on them, as well, in the hope that they would not handle the packages too roughly. Apparently this charge was started last year, but this is the first time I've ever had anyone charged extra for it.

[kav]

Eventually they will charge extra for delivering to the address and not just dropping it on the street somewhere near the location.

[mysterio]

I don't know if it's been mentioned before (I did a search and did not find anything), but I just found out that the USPS is charging a $10 surcharge if you mark a package "Fragile". I have been marking my comics packages Fragile for a while now and have never had any problems until yesterday when I received a message from an eBay buyer that they were charged $10 postage due. I had no idea why that would have been the case, but the buyer went to the Post Office today and that's what they were told.

 

Sorry if this is common knowledge to others here, because it was shocking news to me.

 

This sounded stupid to me, but based on the bit of Google research I did it sounds legit. One more thing to be aware of.

[Firespitter]

I've had it with the US Postal Service. I had to ship a book out for my boss a week ago (Maryland to California). It's the size of a small GN, so I used one of my comic book shippers to send it.

The postal clerk asked if I wanted to send it parcel or priority. I asked "What about first class?" They said "That's not available." You have two choices; Parcel for $8.90 or Priority 3-day for $9.00"

 

I paid for the priority. But that was THE STRAW. I've had it. I'm done shipping anything through the postal service. I don't sell my comics anyhow so it's not like it's affecting my livelihood. But if I trade or RAK, they are going through FedEx. If I'm paying fed-ex prices, I might as well get Fed Ex level of service.

-Terry

 

[kav]

Make your customers pay more and more for less and less choices.

Sounds like a great business model.

[Chip Cataldo]

I've had it with the US Postal Service. I had to ship a book out for my boss a week ago (Maryland to California). It's the size of a small GN, so I used one of my comic book shippers to send it.

The postal clerk asked if I wanted to send it parcel or priority. I asked "What about first class?" They said "That's not available." You have two choices; Parcel for $8.90 or Priority 3-day for $9.00"

How much did it weigh? Would it have fit in the $6.99 Flat-Rate Envelope?

[Firespitter]

I've had it with the US Postal Service. I had to ship a book out for my boss a week ago (Maryland to California). It's the size of a small GN, so I used one of my comic book shippers to send it.

The postal clerk asked if I wanted to send it parcel or priority. I asked "What about first class?" They said "That's not available." You have two choices; Parcel for $8.90 or Priority 3-day for $9.00"

How much did it weigh? Would it have fit in the $6.99 Flat-Rate Envelope?

It weighed a hair over a pound. It was a GN in a comic box (1" thick?)

It would not fit with the comic book box. It was about the size of a slab. Just thicker.

But I didn't want to pull it out of the box and repackage it. I wanted to be done with the not-part-of-my-job-description-task-my-boss-likes-to-give-me. I wanted it boxed because if it got damaged in shipping, I'd have no way of replacing the book. And I'd have been on the hook for the value.

Other options are academic now.

-Terry

Edited February 6, 2016 by Firespitter

[JollyComics]

I tell you all guys. USPS is STILL a BIG LOOPHOLE and BIG MAJOR F-U! They don't deserve the increased prices.

[ygogolak]

Spring 2016 Rollback Pricing Files

Absent Congressional or Court action to make the existing exigent surcharge for Market Dominant Products and Services part of the rate base or to otherwise extend it, the Postal Service will be providing notice to the Postal Regulatory Commission of the adjusted prices that are contained in the pricing files set forth below. The Postal Service intends to provide such notice of the adjusted prices to the Commission 45 days before it is anticipated that the exigent surcharge revenue target will be reached.

 

FLATS

Weight Not Over (ounces)

1 0.94

2 1.15

3 1.36

4 1.57

5 1.78

6 1.99

7 2.20

8 2.41

9 2.62

10 2.83

11 3.04

12 3.25

13 3.46

 

http://pe.usps.com/

SOURCE: http://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/postage-prices-to-drop-for-first-time-in-nearly-a-century/ar-AAgCBVo?li=BBnb7Kz&OCID=DELLDHP

 

The price decrease is expected to occur on April 10, 2016...

 

Expected? That doesn’t sound terribly certain, right? That’s because the U.S. Postal Service is still hoping that might change. When postage recently went up a few cents in order to reverse a slide in revenues, it was supposed to be a temporary increase. The boost was intended to be reversed when the Postal Service collected $4.6 billion in surcharges. That benchmark is expected to happen on April 10, 2016.

[Jugger Grimrod]

I've had it with the US Postal Service. I had to ship a book out for my boss a week ago (Maryland to California). It's the size of a small GN, so I used one of my comic book shippers to send it.

The postal clerk asked if I wanted to send it parcel or priority. I asked "What about first class?" They said "That's not available." You have two choices; Parcel for $8.90 or Priority 3-day for $9.00"

How much did it weigh? Would it have fit in the $6.99 Flat-Rate Envelope?

It weighed a hair over a pound. It was a GN in a comic box (1" thick?)

It would not fit with the comic book box. It was about the size of a slab. Just thicker.

But I didn't want to pull it out of the box and repackage it. I wanted to be done with the not-part-of-my-job-description-task-my-boss-likes-to-give-me. I wanted it boxed because if it got damaged in shipping, I'd have no way of replacing the book. And I'd have been on the hook for the value.

Other options are academic now.

-Terry

 

Terry, you can't blame the postal service in your instance. The cut-off for First Class is 13 ounces, your package weighed over a pound so that is why First Class wasn't offered. If it was a book that did not contain advertising you could have shipped it Media Mail and would only have cost a few dollars however Media Mail is very slow and Media Mail parcels can be opened for inspection, First Class can't, but in your case First Class was not an option because your parcel exceeded the First Class weight limit. While I have my issues with the postal service at times, in this case, there is no reason to be upset with them.

 

Now though, as you may be aware, when you print a shipping label via eBay, the weight limit has been extended to parcels up to 16 ounces which is quite nice when people are shipping three or four comics, they can still fall under the 16 ounce limit but that is only if you are using eBay shipping labels

[ygogolak]

13 pages of complaining about prices going up. Not one response about it possibly going back down.

[Action252Kid]

13 pages of complaining about prices going up. Not one response about it possibly going back down.

 

My response is

 

It would be awesome if this also happened for international shipments, but I'm guessing it doesn't. That gap between 8 oz First Class and 9 oz First Class on international shipments is brutal. Would love to see that change back to the old pricing.

[Tony S]

13 pages of complaining about prices going up. Not one response about it possibly going back down.

 

That is because on this forum - with people that are shipping comic books - a decrease in first class postage is almost meaningless. Properly packaged you can't send more than a couple of comics at or under 13 ounces.

 

I don't actually care if a first class stamp to mail a letter is 49 or 47 cents. That is a 4% difference obviously, but it is also still just two pennies. Priority mail is up 10-15% for the products I use.

 

I don't "blame" the postal employees or even the USPS. The US Post Office is a quasi-government agency. Congress tells them how much they can charge and gives them all sorts of rules to follow - but then expects them to compete with private shipping firms that are not oversighted by Congress. Congress doesn't demand that FedEx keep a office open in every tiny town across America. They don't mandate that UPS deliver on Saturdays. They don't insist that FedEx offer to ship books and media at less than what it costs.

 

If the USPS were strictly a government agency - which IMHO they should be - then service and prices would be better off. Media mail and branches in small towns would be considered a government subsidized service, done because it's good for the country as whole. And if USPS were strictly a private business then they would be able to operate more efficiently by closing unprofitable branches, eliminating services that don't make money and charging more for services people will pay more for.

 

As it is, the USPS gets the worst of both worlds.

Edited March 13, 2016 by Tony S

[CKB]

Well they are certainly uncompetitive on the long haul packages. I just tried to send 14 pounds coast to coast. $43 USPS ("Parcel post" AND priority mail), $21 FedEx (cheapest home delivery service). Guess which way it went?

 

I'm not sure what changed but this gap has never been so big.

 

[ygogolak]

Looks like Priority Flat Rate Envelope went down to $5.60 from $5.75.

[the blob]

This is good and bad. You can go up to 15.9 ounces on first lass now for like $3.65 with the ebay/paypal discount. That's great for comic sellers because it lets you ship 3-4 books first class with 3-4 boards for a sandwhich inside a stiff envelope. Heck, when I have them I can get thin boxes/book mailers and I am in under a pound.

 

 

 

 

[ygogolak]

Anybody else get a little jump this weekend? Looks like Priority Legal is now $6.25 up from $6.05 last week and Medium Flat Rate is $12.40 up from $12.05.

[masterlogan2000]

34 minutes ago, ygogolak said:

Anybody else get a little jump this weekend? Looks like Priority Legal is now $6.25 up from $6.05 last week and Medium Flat Rate is $12.40 up from $12.05.

Priority Legal has been $6.25 for me since January 1st when I go through eBay (up from $5.75 in 2016).  It's even more if I go through usps.com.

I'm not sure how you were only paying $6.05, but maybe you just had a bigger discount on eBay?  Did you lose some sort of Top Rated/Power Seller ranking recently?

[ygogolak]

2 hours ago, masterlogan2000 said:

Priority Legal has been $6.25 for me since January 1st when I go through eBay (up from $5.75 in 2016).  It's even more if I go through usps.com.

I'm not sure how you were only paying $6.05, but maybe you just had a bigger discount on eBay?  Did you lose some sort of Top Rated/Power Seller ranking recently?

Hmm, wonder if that was it. I got that price from a new account I started. Didn't know you could get a bigger discount for a better account. The $6.05 rate was from my account with over 1k feedback score.