Oh my word - the postage!

What frustrates me is there is very little thinking outside the box by the postal services. (scuse the pun there)

Less stuff going through the mail system?? Easy, we hike up the prices for what IS going through the system, mainly parcels and particularly international stuff.

This stopped me sending stuff from NZ a long time ago, so decks I would have traded I now keep. It also means many of us will buy from China more than perhaps we already do, due to the fact they do not have high postal costs. This does cause me to have some moral chattering going on in my head, as I know I am adding to the issue already highlighted.

Here in NZ the postal service may go to delivering mail on only 3 days a week. It will affect jobs for those already working within the service but they see this as one way of possibly keeping costs down over the longer term.

I do understand the dynamics of this industry have changed, with more parcels being sent than letters in many cases, but to just keep hiking the cost of sending such parcels is not the only way forward, surely?

Davina

shadowdancer said:

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Here in NZ the postal service may go to delivering mail on only 3 days a week. It will affect jobs for those already working within the service but they see this as one way of possibly keeping costs down over the longer term.

I do understand the dynamics of this industry have changed, with more parcels being sent than letters in many cases, but to just keep hiking the cost of sending such parcels is not the only way forward, surely?

Click to expand...

I agree that there's too much thinking inside the box or postal parcel as it were, but this alternative that you mention---cutting service days per week which many post offices in the U.S. already did last year by eliminating Saturday service--will, indeed, be extremely harmful to the economy in terms of loss of jobs/hours of postal workers and negative effects on small businesses that do most of their business online or by mail order. Customers will not buy from a small business that can't afford the pricier private carriers and is obliged to use the postal service that only delivers 3 days a week when they could order from a megalith like Amazon and receive their item within a few days.

And by the way, to Bhavana's point--for those who are eligible for Amazon Prime or Free Super Saver shipping, it's already cheaper in many cases to buy decks new than to trade.

I tend to look on Alida and other European sites these days. I find it difficult to afford decks where the shipping is very high; I'd rather buy from Europe where it's not quite so bad. I must admit that I buy very, very few decks these days and this is just one more thing that adds to the "don't buy" side of the equation.

And, as Babalon Jones mentioned in her opening post, what is this going to do to this newly begun source of self-published decks, which has provided us all with some remarkable works. amazon offers free postage, but they have volume. The artist selling his or her self-printed deck is forced to ask the buyer to pay the going postal rate, with, no doubt, an accompanying lessening of sales. That idea hasn't made me very happy as some really amazing decks, like Babalon Jones' own Rosetta, might have never seen the light of day.

Alta, you have made a very valid observation. I always believed that the print on demand option would be a game changer, one that allowed for a whole new crop of decks to be published. Ones that would not have seen the light of day had the release of tarot decks still been limited and decided principally by major publishers. This would mean a lot of mediocre decks no doubt but also some hidden gems along the way, either way tarot collectors would have far more choice. However there is an increasing difference in price between self published individually shipped decks and those that are mass produced. The latter being available in bookstores (no shipping) or ordered from the big on line sellers that handle large volumes and can pass on discounted prices along with reduced or free shipping.
I believed at one point that the days where the tarot market was dominated or dictated by the major publishers was coming to an end, and would be replaced slowly but surely by self publishing. But this price difference may slow that trend..... The combined cost of production with these increasingly higher prices for shipping, will most certainly reduce the potential of sales, and in some cases to the point where once again its not viable to publish. Deck designers will have to be more active in promoting and getting feedback, in order to judge the risks prior to actually producing their decks.
Unpredictable times ahead.... even for tarot readers

We may see an increase in decks offered as tarot apps as a result of rising postage rates - perhaps also a greater acceptance of tarot apps. If I were a deck creator I would definitely look into releasing an app as an alternative to a printed deck.

Tarot apps are becoming more common and can represent to a reader a viable alternative to a physical deck or a compliment the the physical deck. Both from a price perspective as well as the convenience of mobility and usage. From a deck creators perspective they can also represent some additional income. But from my personal experience the income generated from apps is just an little "extra cream on top" if things go reasonably well. But I seriously doubt that the income generated if a deck was released only as an app would justify the work involved, not just in the creation of the images themselves but also the programming skills and costs required. I really don't think the tales of fortunes being made from phone apps such as Angry Birds and other top selling games apply to the niche market of tarot.

Being stuck in the bottom corner of the world (NZ) means we ALWAYS pay through the nose for our decks. To buy off the shelf here for a std deck is about $45-60. A special deck or a deck/book set is around $80-100.

So buying a $40 deck and the postage on top of that, to me, is neither here nor there. I will buy what I like regardless. I am used to crazy postage so I just incorporate it into my budget.

Well, once they completely dropped the surface rate (via ship) everying went to being charged by the ounce like letters. Nothing bulk anymore.

About the only way you can send it cheap is to send to a serviceman/woman overseas using the armed forces mail - it's all standard US postage pricing.

Make friends with a soldier, piggyback your order on their address if you can.

Postage is definitely a difficult situation and Canada Post is just as bad or worse. It cost me more to send a deck of cards within my own country than it did to send a deck to the US more than twice the distance away! I never really considered Fed Ex for international shipping and will definitely take a look at it along with some of the other ideas listed here. I'm just glad I'm not the only one feeling in awe of the costs.