Usps Flat Rate box rates going up again
 

Flat rate box rates going up once again.

12.60/21.95/31.40 small/med./lg



Just letting others know.

Yes it has gotten crazy! Along with all their other prices. Are we subsidizing all the free shipping costs for big companies?

And they'll still loose money.... Along with some of the mail

if you ship anything, really look into PIRATESHIP.com it is amazing how much your average person is getting screwed by ups fed ex and usps. do yourself a favor and set up an account. you can thank me later

https://www.pirateship.com/

I use Pirate ship, easy to use. Same prices as eBay w/o the eBay BS.

I personally have had enough of USPS in general. I have Tri power related thing coming. Both shipments are very late compared to the delivery dates when tracking them. One instance is an order shipped from MO. Last Friday it was in NJ. Now it's in Idaho and we pay for this kind of mess. Can't even imaging with X-mas shipping how many folks might not get their items on time.

Flat rate is a ripoff for most items... use Ground Advantage, has the same insurance coverage as priority and flat rate but is a lot less for small to medium and lighter weight, flat rate is good for things that fit the box but are very heavy that would normally increase cost for standard priority mail, they allow up to something like 70lbs for medium or large flat rate which can be a savings... but for the same size item that weighs less like 5,8,10lbs, its far cheaper to use ground advantage.

Places like pirate ship are great but usually have a membership or sign up fee... if you have paypal which most online sellers do, they have a similar dicounted 3rd party shipping service, used to be ship station i think now different name, but it gives the same or similar discounts as ebay or pirate ship for free and covers all the big shippers like UPS & Fedex.

I use USPS ground advantage all the time selling online and ebay and a decent volume for many years, rarely if ever have any problems with them or other shippers if the item is packed securely. Im sure problems can & do happen with any shipper, but 99% of the time I never have issues as a buyer or seller using USPS.

It's always nice to have choices, even if none of them are particularly good. I use them all and try to pick the one that's best for each situation. As much as I hate to admit it, I have been using Amazon Prime more and more, especially for big heavy stuff. The free shipping, although built into the cost somewhat, is still a big savings sometimes. A good example is tires. Tire Rack has jacked up their prices so much, they are rarely competitive with Amazon now. USPS is still the bargain on small stuff IMO. If you are not too concerned with slow delivery and sometimes the package being lost forever! Pick your poison.

I agree and thanks for the tip. If you look at Pirate ship they basically charge pre-Covid rates. The part that makes no sense is the Post Office and FedEx are struggling financially. How does one double their rates, triple their business and come up short financially.

The last time I shipped something out I almost went into cardiac arrest!

I use Pirateship and have never had an issue. We send out Xmas treats to people all over the country every year and the extra couple bucks savings here and there definitely adds up.

I have been using Pirate Ship for years. I have had them bill me because I made a mistake and I had them give me a slight refund.

only time i have been up charged is when my guestimated weight was a pound or two low. Now, i always fudge a pound or two heavy as it is cheaper in the long run, however, i rarely use usps. almost all of my stuff is cheaper going ups and i assume its because ups is more equiped to move 20+# packages.

Fed-EX is TERRIBLE about doing this if you have an account. So much so that I closed my business account with them. Sometimes they doubled the shipping charges without any notice until the credit card bill came in.

In the last year I have seen USPS shipping times more than double on average. Packages that used to take 3 days are now taking more than a week to get where they are going. And most of the time it isn't even cheaper anymore.

Unfortunately, sometimes the cheapest shipping for an item purchased is to go after it !!!

I can drive from Missouri to Florida, spend two nights in motels on the way, and still be money ahead (plus see some country) compared to what UPS wanted to ship two tripowers !

It isn't so much the shipping cost, as the cost of insurance. I guess too many porch pirates.

Jon

I use PayPal and like someone said their version was Shipstation but that is no longer available. Now it is just through the PayPal site itself and makes it easier to use and of course a good discount. QR codes make it easier as well so that printing of a label is not necessary

I quit listing stuff for sale on forums, a swap is the best, no looking for a box, wait for a check, the parts walks away w/ a happy customer.

Theres lots of swaps in the midwest or northern states in the middle of the winter... :rolleyes: or in the average medium sized towns. Swap meets are dying or close to it in most places or non existent in many others & they rarely have any good pontiac parts unless its a 1-2 time/year Pontiac event.

I sell stuff on forums when its priced fair and a lot on FB groups dedicated to Pontiacs or Firebirds... & ebay more than either, ship stuff all the time through the big 3 shippers, rarely have any problems that some report on here. Finding a box or packing a part is part of selling online and not a big deal... only 1 person on here pays with a check and its very fast & never bounces, everyone else in the modern age uses paypal or venmo etc.