Size Does Matter

[filkertom]

Well, this is gonna be interesting: Postal rates get higher and more complicated today. Since I use the USPS for CD orders, and I use those cardboard mailers, I have no idea what my rates are going to be yet. As soon as I have more of a clue, I'll update TSO. I sincerely hope I don't have to change prices; right now postage and the mailing supplies just about balance out the costs, and I'm willing to eat a few cents per order to keep it simple. We'll see.

Do the new rates affect you or your business?

Comments

[atalantapendrag.livejournal.com]

Between BPAL swaps and BookMooch books, I do send a lot of stuff out... I might have to take the hardcovers out of my BookMooch inventory because of the increased shipping costs :(

[sdelmonte]

Since this comes late in the fiscal year for my office, this will affect us in some way, but in my department we have been under budget so it won't hurt that much.

I will note that this hike was relatively underpublicized, as I dind't know it was happening NOW till last week. Usually I hear these things sooner. The USPS, the media, and (oddly) our vendors were all quiet.

[nightface.livejournal.com]

Since they just cancelled surface M-Bags, the cheapest rate for sending books just went from $0.95/pound to $2.85/pound, which pretty much makes shipping used books overseas cheaply economically unfeasible.
So yes, rather painfully.

[filkferengi]

Don't forget the happy joy wherein they eliminated global priority altogether [just a few years after eliminating the international book rate].

;(

[pabsungenis.livejournal.com]

Depends how you ship. If you use Media Mail or Parcel Post, prices went up considerably. If you use First Class Mail (over one ounce and under one pound, at least) prices for you drop a bit.

[hms42]

Not sure yet... I have to mail a few tapes (ebay sales) and see what it costs me.

Harold

[melaniedavidson.livejournal.com]

Yeah, it sucks. I guess it's a good thing the demand for the books in my bookmooch pile has dropped off.

I really think the thirteen cookies cnn.com attempted to set is excessive.

...It looks like I'll be better off sending most books first class instead of media mail, now. Although it's still significantly more expensive than $1.59, percentagewise.

[the-magician.livejournal.com]

Pretty much the same happened here in the UK a few months ago ...

Envelopes over A5 are more expensive, as are ones more than 5mm thick (I think that's right) which is a fifth of an inch.

Basically it comes to about four (possibly) five sheets of standard paper, folded in half, make it on the old "small letter" rate, folding that lot in three and you might be getting close to the thickness limit.

And yes, it's terribly complicated and confusing ...

[bronzite.livejournal.com]

The new shipping rate for parcels is $1.13 for the first ounce, and $0.17 for each addition ounce, up to 13 ounces (which I can't imagine a CD + Mailer combo weighing, unless your liner notes are made of lead). So for a 3.9 oz package, you're looking at $1.64 (rounding up weights). It should be pretty straightforward to calculate your new shipping cost once you know the total weight of your CD's.

[bronzite.livejournal.com]

Oops, I should've referenced my statement. The new first-class pricing is available at the USPS website (http://www.usps.com/prices/prices_shape.htm).

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but you'd be surprised how quickly it does add up. Three CDs and the mailer are about 13.5 ounces. Above a certain point, you can't use First Class, and it very quickly becomes worth it to use Priority Mail.

[bronzite.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. Certainly, with multiple items in a shipment, its pretty easy to break the First Class caps. Good luck with working out your new pricing.

Media Mail

[bronzite.livejournal.com]

Oh, one other relevant note. First Class is cheaper up through 6 oz ($1.98), above which Media Mail starts winning out. For a 5.9 oz package, for instance, First Class is $1.98, while Media Mail is $2.13. At 6.1, First Class goes to $2.15, while Media Mail remains at $2.13 until you pass 1 lb. (Source (http://pe.usps.com/RateCase2007/DMM300_HTML/ratesandfees2.htm))

Remember: For Six or less, First Class is best.

[aylinn.livejournal.com]

It's going to hit us. I'm not sure how bad yet. we mostly use USPS for overseas stuff & ship via UPS for america.

we'll see.

[joecoustic.livejournal.com]

At the moment it only affects me personally since I'm not really sending things out in any other capacity.

My problem is that I don't quite understand the "forever" stamp idea.

This is the one that you can buy at .41 and it will be good forever for as much as it covered when you bought it, even after postal rates go up. So why does this benefit them. I can see why it benefits me, though I'm not going out to buy thousands so I can use one when postage costs over a dollar years from now (though it is a little tempting). I suppose they're keeping the regular .41 cent stamps since people will still buy them for attractiveness and variety and then add money to them when the rates change again, but I still feel like I'm missing something....

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

They get a fast cash influx now. And they're counting on the fact that people likely aren't going to buy a whole bunch of stamps "for later".

[kengr]

I suspect that they are expecting people to "overbuy" and then misplace some of them.

[dr-zrfq.livejournal.com]

I've been buying the Breast Cancer stamps (http://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductDisplay?catalogId=10152&storeId=10001&categoryId=11834&productId=30051&langId=-1) recently, as my mom is a survivor (and I lost a friend about 2 weeks ago to it). Their price just went up as well, but the ones I bought at the lower price are still good for the new first-class rate.

[emiofbrie.livejournal.com]

I usually use Priority Mail to mail CDs, so I have an idea of the new shipping costs, and adjusted my website accordingly

Shipping cost to the customer for my CDs went up from $4.25 to $5.00

The International services went through a MAJOR overhaul!

[raven-ap-morgan.livejournal.com]

Being paranoid, I don't trust USPS regarding CD shipments. Then again, I also don't send consumer CDs personally - I use CDs to send raw tracks and mixes. So my shipper of choice is usually UPS (there's a UPS Store a block away from me), where I may pay a bit more, but I get tracking numbers.

Of course, if I really get in a hurry to transfer those things, I'll skip physical media entirely and use FTP... (shrug)

Raven

[maiac.livejournal.com]

Word in the blogosphere is that Big Corporations had a hand in writing the new postal regulations -- so magazines with a huge subscription list, like Time, get cheaper rates, but smaller publications get higher rates and many of them will be driven out of business by the increased costs. It's just so sleazy.

[lizreay.livejournal.com]

I do a LOT of my shopping online, so yeah, this is going to bite. My medication to this point has come in bag-like mailers; I don't know what drugstore.com is going to be forced to switch to. I just know it probably means I'll be paying a lot more than the $1.99 they were able to offer before now.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Oh, jeez, I didn't even think of Amazon customers, which is practically all of us.

[danceswithlife]

Hm. For Amazon users it may be time to become a Prime customer. For a flat fee you get all packages sent 2nd day air with no other postage costs. I've been using it for the last few years, and it's paid off for me--however, it doesn't apply to used items ordered through Amazon. See http://www.amazon.com/gp/subs/primeclub/signup/main.html/ref=prm_su_lmd/104-2905804-9883911

Amazon was OK for me

[moquif.livejournal.com]

I put an order in on the night of the 15th (after the new rates when into effect) and went with the free shipping option. The order was split in 2. The first half was sent via UPS on the 16th and arrived on the 18th. Keep in mind the initial delivery dates were between the 23rd and 29th.

While it was shipped by UPS and not USPS, I did go with the free shipping option and it arrived quickly. Not as quickly as 2nd day air, but quickly enough. Personally I don't order anything online that I need immediately. If it arrives in a week to 10 days I'm happy.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Yes, it does. It took Russ 3 days of hard work to redo the price structure for the T-shirts, but he got it done in time. Stickers are going to be a problem for other reasons -- we can't use the good waterproof, tear-resistant polyvinyl mailing envelopes any more.

Beyond that, this change is going to break a lot of online shopping carts. Expect anything you buy online to have potential glitches for the next 3 months or more -- and it's going to be especially hard on smaller businesses who don't have the funds to get a professional upgrade.

[filkertom.livejournal.com]

Yeah, well, difficulties with shipping calculation are why I roll the shipping & handling into the overall price. MUCH easier.

[starcat-jewel.livejournal.com]

Easier if all your items are the same size and weight. A T-shirt that fits you weighs significantly more than one which fits Debbie O., for example; and then there are the orders for multiple shirts not all the same size...

[vettecat.livejournal.com]

Oh, yeah. Lots of people sending out invitations... for the past couple weeks, we've been trying to make sure our brides knew that even though they could still get the "old" stamps on their invitations, they needed to put the "new" stamps on the response envelopes, since those would be coming back after the switch. Had a lot of startled clients. I'm just glad we knew to warn them.

one bright side

[moquif.livejournal.com]

I'm very sorry for everyone adversely affected by the rate increase, but I think there may be a bright side. Since thickness is now a factor, we can take some of that junk mail in prepaid envelopes and stuff it full of newspaper and cardboard so it puffs out. The junk mailers have to pay for more postage so just maybe they'll take people off their "do not mail" lists instead of just ignoring them.