First Class Mail Prices Up

[Zero123]

I was just printing labels from Stamps and took a 15 minute break, when I went to print my next label after 12AM the prices were now .26 cents more!

26 cents is a lot of money per label, I thought they were only going up a few cents? It was from $1.67 to 1.93
This is first class tracked, under 3 ounces.

This was unexpected..

[glacier922]

Pathetic by USPS really

[jeffweico]

You've gotta love it! Only a business under the control of Congress (politicians) that is facing a serious decline in volume would see increasing the prices as a wise thing to do!

Any private sector business would have made as many internal changes - including closing some lesser used offices, layoffs where necessary, getting rid of Saturday delivery - as possible before asking for a price increase.

Don't worry, the politicians promise, this is just a TEMPORARY increase (anyone wanna bet that this "temporary" increase will quietly become permanent???).

OK, realistically, the way we communicate is changing and that is beyond the control of the postal service. Letter volume should continue to decline, package volume will increase somewhat, etc. The postal service needs to respond to these marketplace changes if they want to remain viable. That might include a price increase on some types of mail in the future, but for now they should be slimming and trimming.

Unfortunately Congress won't let them. A relative handful of people complain they do not want to lose their tiny post office, or their Saturday delivery. The Letter Carriers union lobbies for "no layoffs". Many, many people have their hands in the pot. So Congress won't approve of cuts, which only ensures more pain in the future.

OK, enough ranting... Yes, the increases hurt, but you MIGHT be able to mitigate them, depending on what you mail. In many cases, using eBay to print postage or a service like Endicia or Stamps.com should make you eligible for discounts, including "Commercial Base Pricing". That could save you some money. That assumes, of course, that you are not already using those services. Either way though, their rates are still lower than UPS.

[yotano211]

wow a 12% increase in price. USPS knows they are way cheaper than Fedex or UPS so they know they can increases prices way beyond inflation.

[pigpighu]

really?I print on paypal and its still $1.69.

[unkown5454]

For volume shippers, this blows.

[vogeltron]

Priority Mail is up too. Yet another squeeze on profits.

[rsot]

Bracing for a ridiculous increase up here in Canada in March.

Current domestic regular letter costs 63 cents....price is going up to ...85 cents!!! horrific jump - all other mail going up as well

And they want to remove home delivery of mail up here...yes, no improvement

[GreenBean]

Not like the mail services of ANY country are improving with costs being increased.

[rsot]

[GhostWhoWalks]

OMG I just noticed just now like 2 minutes ago the shipping prices! WOW grrrrrrr

[GhostWhoWalks]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

You've gotta love it! Only a business under the control of Congress (politicians) that is facing a serious decline in volume would see increasing the prices as a wise thing to do!

Any private sector business would have made as many internal changes - including closing some lesser used offices, layoffs where necessary, getting rid of Saturday delivery - as possible before asking for a price increase.

Don't worry, the politicians promise, this is just a TEMPORARY increase (anyone wanna bet that this "temporary" increase will quietly become permanent???).

OK, realistically, the way we communicate is changing and that is beyond the control of the postal service. Letter volume should continue to decline, package volume will increase somewhat, etc. The postal service needs to respond to these marketplace changes if they want to remain viable. That might include a price increase on some types of mail in the future, but for now they should be slimming and trimming.

Unfortunately Congress won't let them. A relative handful of people complain they do not want to lose their tiny post office, or their Saturday delivery. The Letter Carriers union lobbies for "no layoffs". Many, many people have their hands in the pot. So Congress won't approve of cuts, which only ensures more pain in the future.

OK, enough ranting... Yes, the increases hurt, but you MIGHT be able to mitigate them, depending on what you mail. In many cases, using eBay to print postage or a service like Endicia or Stamps.com should make you eligible for discounts, including "Commercial Base Pricing". That could save you some money. That assumes, of course, that you are not already using those services. Either way though, their rates are still lower than UPS.

Every year it goes up. They are late this year. That's all.

Just wait for ebay to up their fees really soon also!

[Pasicel]

Yeah, noticed it yesterday.

Awesome......

[yotano211]

Originally Posted by GhostWhoWalks

Every year it goes up. They are late this year. That's all.

Just wait for ebay to up their fees really soon also!

They will adjust the % increase on most sectors and lower only some others. Then they will say they have lowered their fees on this and that and never mention the increase on others. Typical ebay behavior.

[Gamefreak]

Oh great, sadly no other company offers anything near competitive for speed and cost so I'm stuck with them. Well pass the cost onto the customers with a slight increase in prices.

[joew8989]

No other company is allowed to compete with USPS for small package delivery. That's why none do.

[SaiJin]

I thought that the USPS increase is only 3 cents.
Today all my mails got an increase of almost 25 cents no matter if I print through ebay / paypal MOS

[MM78]

Also, They have to raise the price of shipping for the US Seller so they can let the Chinese sellers pay less for their shipping with those epackets.

[yotano211]

Originally Posted by joew8989

No other company is allowed to compete with USPS for small package delivery. That's why none do.

That is wrong sir, there is Fedex and UPS that ship small packages. But they typically cost a little more. Some years ago, DHL operated in the US but they left the US and decided to expand overseas.

[jeffweico]

DHL still delivers packages from overseas here in the US...

[jeffweico]

Originally Posted by MM78

Also, They have to raise the price of shipping for the US Seller so they can let the Chinese sellers pay less for their shipping with those epackets.

It is my understanding that the postage rates paid by Chinese companies are subsidized by the Chinese government. I wonder if we can get the US Government to give us an "eBay Seller Subsidy" like they do with the farm subsidies given to farmers...

[yotano211]

Originally Posted by jeffweico

DHL still delivers packages from overseas here in the US...

Well yea they do but not officially, they operate through 3rd party contracts. I kinda forgot to include that part. But the vehicles still say DHL on the side.