Postage Costs

Is it just me or has the cost of postage (USPS) gotten high?

I recently sold a soap-As combo. The mailing cost was over $8!

That's pretty high IMHO. I think going forward, I'll just stop selling soaps, etc or just PIF them and ask the recipient to pay the postage.

Thanks for reading my rant.

I hear you, Max. I sold an LPL soap in a large metal container back in early Spring. Man lemme tell you, first class mail from NY to LA was pretty steep!

The price of postage, like everything else, has risen.  However, USPS is still very inexpensive compared with UPS or Fedex, for small stuff anyway.  I checked recently for mailing a brush - UPS was over $17 for the slowest service, USPS ran $7 & change (those were for $150 worth of insurance on top of delivery, an 8 ounce package 8x6x4").  And of all the transactions I've been involved in, USPS has never completely lost anything, or broken anything either way.  The others, not so good, in fact UPS delivered a package here today that was crushed & left leaking contents on the porch .. he had to have smelled it in the truck

Something less than 13 ounces can go for maybe $4, uninsured via USPS.  Soaps and aftershaves get heavy, but you can use Priority mailboxes to cut it down, usually.  

But yeah, mailing by any means has gone up

It's not your imagination Max. Costs have gone up but USPS has a postage calculator on their website. I use it to help figure out the least expensive way to ship. As previously written small light items ship best by USPS, it's generally the least expensive and the fastest.

My guess is the USPS costs have increased for the occasional or small shippers and decreased for the big boys (Amazon, Chewy, possibly Maggards size operations).  USPS still a low cost option for many items.  

Sticker shock is buying a $25 soap, using once, selling for $15 ($9 soap and $6 shipping).

Other sticker shock is the price change by weight on Intl First Class shipments.  A 4oz soap shipping weight is <8oz and costs ~$14.00   A 5oz soap shipping weight is 8.1oz and costs ~$24.00.

I am not in the the US, but here in Canada price have gone up serioulsy too over the last few years. Everything that is bigger then a letter start roughly at 12 US dollar.

Last year, I bought three little peeler from Japan that I wanted to ship to three different person. The cost to ship one to a friend via ground was the same then what it cost me the have the three shipped to me via airplane!

That says a lot.

So I decided to wait to see my friends in person to give them what I bought.

(08-29-2019, 07:54 AM)ImJustMe Wrote: I am not in the the US, but here in Canada price have gone up serioulsy too oner the last few years. Every that is bigger then a letter start roughly at 12 US dollar.

Last year, I bought three little peeler from Japan that I wanted to ship to three different person. The cost the ship one to a friend via ground was the same then what it cost me the have the three shipped to me via airplane!

That says a lot.

Si I decided to wait to see my friends in person to give them what I bought.

That sounds right to me for a small package. Earlier this year I mailed a brush to the USA and it cost me over CAN$17. What really shocked me though is the cost of mailing a slightly over-sized birthday card to Toronto, which is just 30 miles away: CAN$3.

The cost to ship a Regional B rate box only makes sense if you are shipping bricks in your region. It used to always be cheaper than a Large Flat Rate box but, not anymore.

Flat rate padded envelopes wrebthe way to go if you are shipping anything more than a single tub of soap. You can stuff them as full as you can ( even boxes inside), as long as the envelope isn’t modified in any way it ships. I shippednone off yesterday, and it was $8.00. They even mail them to you free if you request them online.

I recall selling 2 Martin DeCandre soaps and getting a shipping cost shock. Max has it right - make buyer pay shipping cost!