Rts Are Any Australian Ebay Sellers Getting Standard Letters Back?

There's a whole series of chilling effects on international sales from various measures, which will vary according to where you are. Royal Mail is still not requiring use of particular packaging, but it has had to adjust its prices for goods to the US to reflect the US's last mile price changes. The US is now the most expensive country in the world for me to send a small parcel to - dearer than Australia and NZ. For the UK, we now have the new costs for sales to Europe arising from Brexit, with couriers, I think, also adding extra administration costs.. In addition, the government has removed an exemption for small purchases, which means that anything bought from abroad is liable to duty. I'm now reluctant to purchase from abroad as it's not clear what the final cost may be.

Postal systems, the UPU, and and how mail moves is part of our hobby. So I am surprised that so many stamp collectors are either unaware, confused or otherwise 'blaming others' over a UPU ruling that occurred in 2016-2017. It was huge philatelic news at the time and the impact was discussed at length in the main stream media, the philatelic press, and in social media like the ebay forum, here, and in other stamp forums.

This is not country a X, Y, or Z problem. And melbourne_yankee, the 'messenger' (me in this case) is not the problem. The 2016-2017 UPU ruling was politicians in various countries 'catching up' to the shift to online consumerism and their desire to maximize grabbing their piece of the tax pie. The tax-free ride is over, politicians are taxing all retail sales and not just the ones that fit in a box. Be glad that many countries waited out as long as the UPU ruling allowed before implementing them.


Hopefully at some point melbourne_yankee will finally accept that sending stamps under in a First Class envelope is going to be treated like merchandise and that this is why people should be aware of this UPU requirement. I posted a link to the UPU document in the thread linked above or anyone who wishes to be knowledgeable about UPU regulations can easily find the information online.

We try to help folks in out hobby to be aware and help them.

melbourne_yankee is sending messages to the staff that I am censoring crap. Just to be clear, anyone here is welcome to offer their opinions on topics such as the UPU regulations but we should not be making up our own incorrect 'facts'. The 2016-17 UPU ruling is a fact, compiling with it is a fact, and this thread proves that non-compliance can result in your mail being delayed or returned.

melbourne_yankee should become better informed on the 2016-2017 UPU regulation and move on.
Don

A lot of things end up out of sight and thus out of mind. Wait until the federal tax on ebay sales of more then $600 kicks in.

So basically tax when you buy an item on ebay in Oz if you buy from an overseas seller and it looks to be that way in UK and USA. Import online tax added if you buy from overseas. Now post office not just here all want to charge the highest rate they can get on low value small items. UK buyers new rule from Jan 1 forced ebay to add 20% VAT on all my listings I had countless complaints from UK clients. US post USPS wants to slow services and price hike every year for next ten years. Oz post delivers every second day now excluding weekends. So like next week we only get regular mail Tuesday & Thursday. This all stinks in my view they are killing online sales slowly. Stamps seem to be being faded out some times the post office doesn't have them. One post worker asked me why I need stamps, well dah. I have had to cross my street address of the back of mail outs to buyers to stop them posting the letters to me instead of my buyer. I mean are they that thick they don't know the side with the stamps on them is the side to mail? Despite crossing my address line out on the back they still know me as sent back the RTS. They want to charge me $24 to post a QV cover to USA. Forget it. This is just getting ridiculous and I see the death of international stamp ebay sales in the near future. Somethings going to stuff it up for all the stamp sellers in the end. Not to mention collectors. I will monitor how this RTSD goes over the coming weeks and see if I start getting more returned back. Its probably Oz customs. But its no good and I may have to stop selling any oversized postal envelopes altogether.

If I am understanding all of this correctly (maybe I'm not?), then I think there are two issues here. I feel like there can be a difference between the issue of taxation/customs/duty and the issue of actual postage cost to mail a small item...this should be a separated issue. Taxes, in whatever form, are a fact of business and consumerism and it is and was always inevitable that the global government as a whole would dig its tentacles into this pie. I am much less concerned about this as it is just business as usual.

What I *am* concerned about is the change from $1 to mail a stamp to someone versus moving this to a parcel rate of $10+ (estimates, but you get the idea). The vast majority of parcels go through various shipping and customs offices and are never opened. Sellers fill the customs forms and unless there is suspicion or a random audit, the applicable fees are charged and the item is delivered. Letter-mail rates should still apply and if I need to fill out a customs form and stick it on my flat envelope, so-be-it. Just please allow me to pay a reasonable shipping rate for this. If they want to open my envelope, just like a parcel, go for it. If I've lied and my envelope is detained, destroyed, sent back, etc, then that is my risk.

I really think these are very separate and distinguishable issues and they should be discussed as such. I hope that the UPU can come to recognize this as well as the individual postal systems. The postal system ultimately causing further deterioration of the stamp collecting world is a twisted irony I am not keen on.

Again, that's assuming I can interpret the flow of this thread correctly. Please correct me if I'm not getting this. I skimmed over the 52 page UPU document and it is not exactly light reading.

The UPU regulation limits First Class Letter mail to documents only. 'Goods' or 'merchandise' (broadly defined as anything other than documents) are not allowed to be sent at the First Class Letter rates. This is only for international mail, domestic First Class regulations stay under the control of each country. People can always try to slip something through but the risk is that the letter will be delayed or rejected. I know that at border crossings US Customs can also do seizures but I am not sure if that also applies to mailed material.

As CJ posted, folks can always contact their respective politicians and complain and/or vote in different representatives.

I assume that some of the UPU regulation is about duty/taxation. And just as you may be required to pay duty on goods when crossing a country border, the desire is to capture the same for goods being transported in the mails. A case can be made that brick and mortar businesses and mail order business should be similar in the duty/taxes they are required to pay.
Don

"First Class Letter" may be American nomenclature in this context. Royal Mail divides International Standard into three categories: letter; large letter; and small parcel/printed paper. It still has no requirement to use a particular type of packaging.
for "goods".

I think single small size letter with one like stamp or old pre-stamp letter or stamped cover inside should be okay just don't add extra cardboard. The problem comes when some buyer wants a handful of stamped covers at once it may get to thick. It maybe worth splitting such orders in two rather than sending a high parcel rate? I think the biggest issue is the cost of postage just keeps going up. At some point every stamp collector and seller should complain to their local member about these yearly increases, even the forced parcel rate on small packets. Its only going to get worse. I know for a fact USPS is increasing rates every year for the next ten years. They also want to slow services. Australia post CEO here was recently fired for speaking against the slowing of regular mail. This is GOVERNMENT controlled political BS attempting to get more money out of every person simply to send mail or buy online. It was better some years ago and cheaper.

"melbourne_yankee should become better informed on the 2016-2017 UPU regulation and move on."

I know all about the rules.

Do the thousands of sellers on ebay know about them?

I doubt it as there are sellers with thousands of feedbacks still offering international postage for around a couple of bucks.

Big time dealers here in Oz still doing the same.

So the problem is with them not me.......................

I am a little surprised that there has been little or no discussion on the USA's decision to implement "Electronic Advance Data" requirement for parcels to the USA.

This is a requirement of the STOP Act.

No doubt that the 'information' required will be stored and passed on to other government agencies in the USA......

The same information applies to shipments into the EU to include France, Germany, Spain etc..

For those unaware, the STOP Act stands for "Strengthen Opioid Misuse Prevention" Act and came about because of Fentanyl and other drugs being shipped into the United States and other countries using weaknesses and loopholes in the system.

So glad I moved sideways as an ebay seller. My sales now need me to pay 10% GST.

edit: like every other successful business in Australia.