Thread: US Postage to go up by up to 45% to Aus

Timely advice - thanks for the tip.

USPS has always been fairly 'spensive, I try to buy gear from dealers who use UPS.

not good to hear ,

I thought it went up to outrageous prices years ago.

Thanks for the heads up, order going in for some guitar parts right now.

Thats also going to hurt some Suppliers here

I made a comment about how dear it is to use US postage to our local Posty Lady and she reckons that the USPS is nearly broke. She reckoned that they haven't updated the business and so is losing to others. She gestured toward the nick nacks she has in her tiny post office for sale and said they should have done this type of thing years ago to generate more money. So does it mean our postal service is better run than the yanks? Impulse sales! That's the thing I mean....calculators, diaries, rheems of paper, cards etc etc

Anyone doing a group buy before then????

WOW they are getting expensive.

Almost as expensive as us sending to the US.

Not so good for us either and we're next door.

Pete

A few things to remember about the USPS 'company'....until 1970 it was pretty much owned and operated as a 'tax-supported agency' of the US guberment. Prices could stay low for the consumer because most of the cost was going to be picked up by the 'guy working for a living'.

After 1970, the 'Postal Reorganization Act' was adopted and the 'company' is considered 'semi-independent federal agency' that is to be considered as revenue neutral(no profit/no loss). Guess they didn't plan on Al Gore creating the internet back then(that's poor humor, we all now Al Gore created greenhouse gas and carbon credits).


So, the long and short of the whole messed up matter is.....if the US guberment is involved, it will fail to be competitive. Especially when the funding dries up from the 'working guy'.




With the increases getting ready to be put in place, I am not sure if I will continue to offer overseas shipping or not? By increasing the cost of shipping, I feel even with the big discounts on things I offer, it may not be enough....










Scott (still thinking about it) B

Originally Posted by SDB777

....With the increases getting ready to be put in place, I am not sure if I will continue to offer overseas shipping or not? By increasing the cost of shipping, I feel even with the big discounts on things I offer, it may not be enough....

But we are the ones paying the extra, so why wouldn't you still offer it? Sure many may no longer use it, but if you don't offer it, no-one can and won't you lose business?

Just catching you while you are thinking about it

Cheers

Why not use a service such as

Shipito

or Bongous

American companies ship the package to the service then you can consolidate the items. You can take advantage of sales from companies that offer free shipping within the US from the supplier to the service . Services let you choose the carrier you want. With shipito TNT express seems to be cheapest.

However there is one catch... you will spend money.

Originally Posted by dai sensei

But we are the ones paying the extra, so why wouldn't you still offer it? Sure many may no longer use it, but if you don't offer it, no-one can and won't you lose business?

Just catching you while you are thinking about it

Cheers

Fair enough question......

Most of the packages I ship outside of the USA are small flat rate type boxes. The USPS system doesn't allow tracking, customer signature of receipt or insurance on these size packages outside of the United States. Or rather you can purchase all that stuff, and then they tell you when you try to make a claim for something that gets 'misplaced'....that those services are only for inside the USA(DAMHIKT). I have replaced two shipments that left the US to both sides of the planet, out of my pocket. Which means, I came out way behind on the sale....in fact, I ended up loosing $29USD on one order alone!(That's a lot of resin)! With an increase in shipping charges, and no way to recoup expenses for stuff that gets 'misplaced', I wouldn't be able to keep afloat here.

At this time, the only way I could even consider still shipping outside of the USA(after the change in price), would be to find a vendor that would order enough product to fill up a medium flat rate(about 112 blanks) or a large flat rate(about 175 blanks), and then it could be insured for 'misplacement'. I'm sure I'd have to make some kind of arrangement with the vendor not to undersell, or whatever it would be called....after all, they would need to have a profit too.



But like I said, I'm still thinking about it.....







Scott (decisions are always hard at some point) B