Oh my word - the postage!

Eeek I guess many of you may have noticed what has just happened to the postage rates here in the US. All rates went up, but most significantly international shipping. So sad, why would they do this when gas prices have just gone down a bit.

I feel bad for people who like to collect as certainly this must add up. A small priority flat rate box international rate went from $16.95 to $23.95!!! Gah. I nearly choked on my tea when I saw that.

I might sell out of the rest of the Rosetta this year, but even so I'm working on a second deck too and hope to find some better way to offer to ship. The flat rate is convenient and reliable, but damn, a $7 increase to ship a small package seems like a lot to me.

Anyone out there have any suggestions for shipping internationally? It needs to be totally reliable and reasonably quick, as even with the priority which is extremely reliable and usually reasonable in transit time I have noticed people understandably get quite anxious if they have to wait for something to arrive and it takes more than a couple of weeks. Which sometimes happens, but they always arrive at least.

There is a lot of time I guess for me to figure something out before finishing the next deck as I have a long way to go still. Or maybe other people are not as *cough* cheap as I am and don't think $7 is a big deal? Seems like it hasn't stopped people from ordering, at least not that I can tell yet. Any thoughts about sticking with this shipping method?

What are UPS and FedEx's rates like?

Also, others are being hit by this too. There are some suggestions in this article: http://www.npr.org/blogs/therecord/...sing-postal-rates-squeeze-small-record-labels

Not sure if you can use some ideas in here as a workaround, but it's worth a shot.

I wish someone would come up with an answer to this problem. The shipping rates from the US to the UK double the price of decks (and sometimes the shipping rates are even more than the deck itself). This prevents those of us who like to collect (and support deck creators) from having sufficient means to purchase decks - especially with a poor GBP to USD exchange rate....

I managed to buy a copy of the Rosetta Tarot - but didn't get the book at the same time (and am unlikely now to do so). I also got Tarot of the Absurd...but shipping rates prevent me from obtaining Tarot of the Unknown, All Hallows Tarot and several others. The hike in postage will make things even more difficult. I have to hope that some decks will find a UK distributor - but I know that independent deck creators will not be able to do this.

Tarot of the Unknown does have a UK outlet...but the deck is priced higher than it's USD price tag and it still ships from the US...postage brings it to £37 which is almost one-for-one on its US price. I find spending more than £20 on a tarot deck difficult to justify with straitened resources...

Sigh....

EVERYTHING is going up. Entemmens baked goods have gone sky high - a box of danish I saw yesterday is over $7. And cereal....Special K with the strawberries - I picked up the box at the grocers the other day, and noticed the box was smaller - not in height, mind you, or in width - it's just THINNER in thickness...so I checked the ounce weight, and it is almost a full ounce less AND the price went up!!! I put it back on the shelf and grabbed Corn Flakes.

Prices are going up on most things - some just a few cents, some considerably high jumps in one go.

It's been 11 years since I moved to the UK from the US. I was talking to my mom on the phone the other day and she mentioned that a bag of potato chips is $4.29. I nearly fell out of my chair. Fresh produce is particularly high, according to her. It's just really bad all over, I guess. With postage as high as it is, could it be that the deck buying frenzy days may be drawing to a close?

I cancelled a large order on Amazon last week - the deck prices were $60 - with shipping it was close to $140.
Sad - very sad

We moved from California to Sydney eight years ago and I agree with the fact that all prices have gone sky high.

Shipping here has also gone up, with the unofficial statement being the fact that since letter delivery has dramatically dropped with the rise in internet and email usage so the costs are placed on parcels.

That does not explain the fact that gasoline is approximately $6 a gallon (1.50/ltr) and that utilities have doubled.

Garrettlonewolfe said:

We moved from California to Sydney eight years ago and I agree with the fact that all prices have gone sky high.

Shipping here has also gone up, with the unofficial statement being the fact that since letter delivery has dramatically dropped with the rise in internet and email usage so the costs are placed on parcels.

That does not explain the fact that gasoline is approximately $6 a gallon (1.50/ltr) and that utilities have doubled.

Click to expand...

EVERY corporation has their annual goal to improve revenue by 5% or whatever - meaning they jack prices even during a downed economy when people can't pay it.

I haven't bought a TastyKake fruit pie in I don't know how long - but they used to be around $1. I grabbed a lemon one today at the WaWa when I was picking up milk - now they are $1.69. Gas pricing I barely notice anymore - when Bush was still president, it was one of the main things everyone complained about. Now, he has been out of office for how long - gas continues to rise, but no one says a word about it. I guess people have just gotten used to it.

I won't pay the high rates for postage unless I absolutely have to...I just sent a deck to New Zealand as a thankyou for someone there sending me the AnnaK as a gift - and it was $17. I don't think she paid much less than that to ship me the Anna K - but it was worth it, because of the trade - it was still less than what I would have paid for a new deck, plus I see it as recycling in a way, rather than buying new --- but if the costs keep going up, it won't even be worth it to trade decks - might eventually be cheaper to just buy the deck outright.

Babalon Jones said:

Eeek I guess many of you may have noticed what has just happened to the postage rates here in the US. All rates went up, but most significantly international shipping. So sad, why would they do this when gas prices have just gone down a bit.

I feel bad for people who like to collect as certainly this must add up. A small priority flat rate box international rate went from $16.95 to $23.95!!! Gah. I nearly choked on my tea when I saw that.

Click to expand...

For Domestic Priority Mail, Karen0205 had an interesting suggestion. She also mentioned FedEX for international.

I'm checking out lighter packaging as i love shipping to NZ and Australia (and that seems to be the killer if you are in the US.) Still, there's a limit to how light you can do it.

BTW, Karen0205 also mentioned FedEX was taking over USPS International shipping to explain the rate hike.