Changes To Click And Ship For Business

the postal service is disallowing the use postage stamps on click and ship labels after April 26th. Up until now I have been paying the additional 39 cents ($2.32) for 3 ounce packages versus the $1.93 charge for using the prepaid label.

This is an outrage to me since I have been using the click and ship system to rid myself of excess postage. Now the only choice is to pay when the label is printed and there is no option for using postage stamps.


Collectors love packages with stamps on them, it promotes the hobby, dealers get rid of excess stock and it is a great opportunity to use up excess postage.

The postal service should allow the use of stamps on their click and ship packages and I hope dealers will complain about this new policy.

Post offices here in Oz to are trying to force all businesses to use only labels which is no good. They want to make the postage stamp obsolete. Not only businesses but try and send any parcel and they want to use labels every time. Stamps are being faded out which is no good at all. They are forcing printed labels on everyone.

Where are the hobby's big voices on this issue? Has APS taken a stand? ASDA? Did Linn's write an editorial? Even though it's outside their charter, could groups like CSAC weigh in? So far, everyone is silent as >2 weeks have gone by and the clock continues to tick. As a member/subscriber, I expect those "big voices" to be representing both stamp collectors & dealers and screaming about this.

...and I still find it laughable that the USPS is leading the charge to eliminate the use of postage stamps on mailings. Think about that for a second, especially in light of their ongoing complaints about poor business conditions/lower mailings, financial difficulties, etc.

If they really want me to pay for all labels with a credit card, I will, but it will be to generate FedEx labels. I find FedEx Home/Ground delivery to be generally quicker, more reliable, better tracked, and less expensive than Priority. I use Priority because I typically have thousands of dollars of discount postage here and that's a great way to move it...

Take away the option of Click-N-Ship labels with stamps affixed, and most of my USPS Priority & Express business will disappear overnight. Not only that, but what I'm willing to pay for discount/scrap postage will drop substantially (that ought to really help USPS business too - I can just see collectors running to the PO to buy every new issue, knowing the secondary market is now only 30%-40% of face...)

Fabulous job, USPS. Fabulous job, APS, ASDA, Linn's, etc.

OK fine with no stamps, but..... If they are going to do that then they should be willing to buy back all the stamps issued in the last few years. I had a feeling the "forever" stamp nonsense would turn out to be a scam. I thought the way they would turn the forever stamps useless would be by changing the currency from dollars to ameros. They would then say that the stamps are no good because they are in the wrong currency. Little did I know that they would just stop accepting them for valid postage use. This needs to be corrected and FAST! The deadline for using stamps with click and ship is only 3 weeks away.

If you buy bulk older mint stamps from stamp dealers they can't stop you from using the stamps. Maybe as a protest all sellers should start doing that and stop supporting the post office labels, I buy stamps myself and use them on my mail outs, post office cannot curretly refuse them. ebay keeps offering me ebay labels but I refuse to use it.

True, USPS cannot stop you from using older mint stamps. But by not permitting the use of Click-N-Ship labels means you'll pay a premium for using stamps.

Where possible buy & use stamps for mail outs, if everyone keeps using click n ship or ebay labels the stamps are more likely to be made redundant altogether one day. The Premium on using stamps maybe worth it to save the stamp collecting world. I don't put it past post offices to stop issuing stamps altogether one day. Even for xmas cards they may replace the stamps with an adhesive label one day.

Hve you contacted APS or ASDA with your concerns? I do know a dealer member who did contact the ASDA today with their concerns.

Part of the problem is ebay requiring tracked shipping on all domestic mailings. My first response was to eliminate less expensive items from the ebay store. In the Stamps category, the 20% top rated seller discount doesn't have as much impact since final value fee percentages were reduced last year. The problem is that I ship light weight items like postage stamps or color slides. The change means that all of the 2 and 3 ounce First Class parcel mailings will have to use labels with printed postage, the bulk of my use.

I can still use postage on Priority or Priority Express mailings because the cost of the USPS tracking label + retail postage is still less than the cost of PC postage, especially if the buy price for postage drops as it will to the 30 to 40 percent range. Prices on larger sheet lots on ebay are already suffering. I have one lot ending today (see the Hot US Auctions link on this site). I expect the hammer price to be much lower than a it would have been a year or two ago. I will be clearing out more postage in may, some interesting like regular issue plate blocks, but my expectations are not high.

An another site, Foster Miller suggested obtaining pads of tracking labels from the USPS. I don't know if the $1.10 fee would apply or not. in any case, having to manually capture tracking number information will be a real hassle.

It appears that the change was back door rate increase. Letters complaining to the Postal Rate Commission are also needed.

Another undocumented cost will be setting up an alternative to Click-N-Ship for business. The on-line version of USPS Click-N-Ship will print labels with PC postage assuming an account is set up with the USPS. Although "free" this software will have problems related to recovering the cost of spoiled or unused preprinted labels and will be unlikely to have ebay integration offered with the desktop version of Click-N-Ship for Business. Solutions from vendors like Endicia will add another $15.95 per month to postage costs, effectively negating savings from having access to the Commercial Base Rate.

When the dust settles, dealers will not end up losing money over this but collectors may end up eating higher postage charges or receiving a lot less when selling postage in collections. I would expect that being able to find legitimately used higher denomination stamps will become increasingly difficult.

Clark

Also, Clark, the USPS online site doesn't have the option to select First Class parcel, so that's not even an option.