Feeling the USPS price crunch?

[Jamie Unden]

Anyone else feeling the price hike crunch by the US post office? When I started selling plans I could ship anywhere in the world for about $10. As the prices went up I absorbed them by taking less of a profit. This latest hike sent the price of shipping a plan to Germany from about $13 to over $21. The price of the shipping is now greater than the selling price! Domestic prices haven't gone up much, but geez!

[David King]

I just noticed that the domestic priority mail envelopes went up from 5.05 to 5.75 last night.
Time to see what the overseas prices have done so that I don't get caught out.
So first class seems to be about the same at $2.38 for a one oz thick envelope via paypal's Ship it now BUT
International Priority has jumped to 38.90 and International priority express is no a whopping 57.71 for a 1 oz package. Fed Ex was charging me a mere $46.50 for an express overnight packet to Europe which is guaranteed.

[Matthew Lau]

Jamie,

I didn't know that you're selling plans again.
I'll have to place an order this year!

On a side note, what most businesses do (myself included) is to raise prices about 5-8% annually to account for inflation. When costs go up, most of us pass it on to the consumer/patient.

I'd recommend raising your prices, and just putting in a blurb that your costs have gone up.
If you compare yourself to Luthier's Merchantile, Stewmac, or GAL, your prices are very, very reasonable.

[David King]

For the time being Paypal's Ship-it-now link charges $6.10 for a priority envelope or small box vs the USPS on-line system that charges $6.75. That's quite a discrepancy.

[Clay Schaeffer]

It seems like more and more people are selling pdf plans that can be taken to a copy center and printed out. Although not as convenient as a paper copy through the mail, it may be an option you can offer to reduce the cost to the end user.

[Mark Swanson]

That works well, but the PDF files are easily copied and shared.