Proposed 2019 Prices

WASHINGTON — The United States Postal Service filed notice with the Postal Regulatory Commission (PRC) today of price changes to take

== effect Jan. 27, 2019. ==

The proposed prices, approved by the Governors of the Postal Service, would raise Mailing Services product prices approximately 2.5 percent. Shipping Services price increases vary by product. For example, Priority Mail Express will increase 3.9 percent and Priority Mail will increase 5.9 percent. Although Mailing Services price increases are based on the Consumer Price Index (CPI), Shipping Services prices are primarily adjusted according to market conditions. The Governors believe these new rates will keep the Postal Service competitive while providing the agency with needed revenue.

If favorably reviewed by the PRC, the new prices will include a 5-cent increase in the price of a First-Class Mail Forever stamp, from 50 cents to 55 cents. The single-piece additional ounce price will be reduced to 15 cents, so a 2-ounce stamped letter, such as a typical wedding invitation, will cost less to mail, decreasing from 71 cents to 70 cents.

The proposed Mailing Services price changes include:

Product current proposed
Letters (1 oz.) 50c +++ 55c
Letters additional ounces 21c --- 15c
Letters (metered 1 oz.) 47c + 50c
Outbound International Letters (1 oz.) 1.15 1.15
Domestic Postcards 35c 35c
( 2 oz 71 to 70, 3oz 92 to 85 Currently Forever stamps )

The proposed domestic Priority Mail Retail Flat Rate price changes are:

Product Current Proposed
Small Flat Rate Box $7.20 $7.90
Medium Flat Rate Box 13.65 14.35
Large Flat Rate Box 18.90 19.95
APO/FPO Large Flat Rate Box 17.40 18.45
Regular Flat Rate Envelope 6.70 ---- 7.35
Legal Flat Rate Envelope 7.00 7.65
Padded Flat Rate Envelope 7.25 8.00

== First-Class Package Service, ==
a lightweight expedited offering used primarily by businesses for fulfillment purposes,
== will move to zone-based pricing ==
to better align with the cost of service and improve value based on distance.

*** Moved by Staff to a more appropriate forum. ***

Great news! I can remember when a regular letter was 5 cents to mail - now it goes up by that amount!


Peter

So international rates are staying the same? What about non-machineable surcharge? Is that staying at 21 cents or also going down to 15 cents?

Most of my shipments are 2 to 3oz. so hopefully not much of a change, but maybe a small decrease.

At 55c for a first class letter, I would think that might force more holdouts, who still pay bills by mail, to switch to either billpay via bank, or one of the many electronic methods.

There will be some who switch over, but there's still lots of people who pay their bills via money orders or don't even use/have a computer/smart phone. Usually in the first week of the month the post office has lots of people who paying bills via money orders.

https://pe.usps.com/resources/Price...otice123.pdf

I just looked at the whole pdf from the USPS about the rate changes. The nonmachinable charge is dropping to 15 cents for domestic letters only - see page 6. That's a bit of good news. That means 2oz. and 3oz. shipments will actually be lower. The nonmachinable surcharge will stay at 21 cents for international letters - see page 49 or 74. So basically, international letter rates haven't changed which is good, but there will be two different nonmachinable surcharges to make things a bit more confusing. Will there be two different stamps to cover it? Who knows? International registered mail will be $16.00.

However for those who mail anything at domestic parcel/packet rates make sure you check out page 7. Those rates are now zoned and vary in price. No longer will there be flat rates per oz. It will be more expensive to mail to Hawaii and Alaska as well as from coast to coast. There's 9 zones so have fun with that.

The "zoning" of first class packages is a real disaster for eBay stamp sellers (who want to use stamps on their packages). It'll be too labor intensive to calculate the postage for things on an individual basis, and it may be difficult to accurately assess postage fees on eBay.

Is it really that hard? You can go to www.stamps.com, select Calculate a Price, determine the price and then apply the stamps. It should add 1-2 minutes per shipment. I guess if you're sending 20 parcels a day that becomes annoying.

I already spend an hour a day most days packing and shipping eBay lots. Having to calculate postage on an item by item basis is not appealing. (and if eBay doesn't immediately have an ACCURATE calculator for postage, the only alternatives are to set a flat rate that doesn't cover everything and eat the difference, or to set a flat rate that is too high for some buyers).

Of course, setting shipping at actual postage is a losing proposition for sellers anyway, since you have to pay commission on shipping charges too. Is it any wonder virtually all eBay stamp sellers are using the printed labels or discounted postage these days?

Agreed, it is common sense.

Obviously eBay has always 'maneuvered' sellers with policies which favor their profitability. Just as obviously the USPS would much rather people purchase new, metered postage than use stamps. (Certainly they would rather that discount postage not be used and also prefer efficient bar-coded labels over stamp items.)

I find that Amazon online sellers (in general) are outperforming eBay sellers in customer service. Many offer much faster shipping via FedEx (especially anything that comes from Amazon fulfillment) and returns are painless and easy for buyers. Buyers of consumer items turn to online shopping for its convenience and Amazon sellers (by hook or crook) have figured that fast shipping and easy return are a critical part of success.

I realize that eBay stamp sellers are not the same as Amazon consumer product sellers but this is not the point. The point is that eBay is trying to compete with Amazon. eBay will do whatever they have to 'maneuver' sellers into customer service like Amazon sellers offer. As much as we might not like it, selling stamps (or other inexpensive) items is not what eBay wants to do and they will continue to make it more costly to do this.

And the same for the USPS, they are working to evolve into being profitable on parcels since First Class mail volume is shrinking. Sending a mailman to your door every day to only drop off discounted 3rd class mail is not profitable. Nor is it profitable to allow people to send merchandise using a 50 cent First Class postage stamp.

The USPS and eBay both strive for the lowest cost per transaction as they can get and this does not favor small stamp sales.
Don

Wow! A 5 cent increase in first class.
And the postal service will still be broke.

WOW: We are all going to make 10% on all those forever stamps in our collections. Best investment I have in stamps in a long time.

Is the 5c increase on first class mail a sign of future rapid rate hikes to where we might see 5c or more increases in the first class rate each year and more aggressive increases in the Priority Mail rate?

I wonder if the USPS will see a drastic increase in stamp sales before January 27th of people loading up on stamps for the year.

While it might seem expensive compared to the old days, it's actually just about equal in relative terms to a 3 cent stamp in 1938. It was somewhat cheaper in the 60's though.

If you want to compare the value of a $0.03 Commodity in 1938 there are four choices. In 2017 the relative:
real price of that commodity is $0.52
real value in consumption of that commodity is $1.22
labor value of that commodity is $1.13 (using the unskilled wage) or $1.52 (using production worker compensation)
income value of that commodity is $2.67
economic share of that commodity is $6.69

If you want to compare the value of a $0.04 Commodity in 1964 there are four choices. In 2017 the relative:
real price of that commodity is $0.32
real value in consumption of that commodity is $0.37
labor value of that commodity is $0.35 (using the unskilled wage) or $0.45 (using production worker compensation)
income value of that commodity is $0.67
economic share of that commodity is $1.14