USPS International Rates going way UP for 2013

Sorry international moochers, it looks like the number of US moochers sending you books is going to continue to decrease in 2013.

Effective Jan 27, 2013 (Proposed):
Canada All Other Countries
Flat Rate Envelopes 19.95 23.95
Small Flat Rate Priced Boxes 19.95 23.95
Medium Flat Rate Boxes 40.95 59.95
Large Flat Rate Boxes 53.95 77.95

No discount for ordering postage online for PMI FRBs, so same prices either way.

Oh no. That is awful. I have standing arrangements with 2 people in Canada and one person in Israel where I send flat rate boxes to each up to 5 times a year. That is almost $1000 a year in postage just to three people. :( That will make it very difficult to send out any other books internationally. I guess the bulk of the rest of my mailings will have to be within the US. Sad days....

I am now getting books from other countries more than from the U.S., although I send to the U.S. quite a lot. I am not getting many books any more from anywhere really, so am not posting books much any more either. And the downward spiral continues....

That is a huge jump! Was there a reason given for such a large increase?

USPS is under tremendous pressure to lower expenses and increase revenue. They practically have a monopoly on shipping small packages overseas, so they might as well jack prices up because they can.

I know my old post office (we moved this summer), a small rural, single employee PO, is only going to be open a few hours per day now, and they lowered the classification of that employee. Lots of other small POs going through the same thing.

I wish that they would first cut Saturday delivery. Keep the office open, but no delivery. Ugh. I don't think I will be able to ship internationally if the price increase happens.

Here are the first class international retail prices. Commercial base prices are lower, maybe that means they'll start selling first class intl via Click n Ship?

Price Groups
Weight Not Over (Ounces) 1 2 3 - 5 6 - 9
1 6.55 6.55 6.55 6.55
2 6.55 6.55 6.55 6.55
3 7.35 8.85 9.45 9.15
4 7.35 8.85 9.45 9.15
5 8.55 11.55 12.75 12.15
6 8.55 11.55 12.75 12.15
7 8.55 11.55 12.75 12.15
8 8.55 11.55 12.75 12.15
12 9.15 13.50 14.90 14.30
16 10.55 15.05 16.75 16.25
20 11.95 16.60 18.60 18.20
24 13.35 18.15 20.45 20.15
28 14.75 19.70 22.30 22.10
32 16.15 21.25 24.15 24.05
36 17.55 22.80 26.00 26.00
40 18.95 24.35 27.85 27.95
44 20.35 25.90 29.70 29.90
48 21.75 27.45 31.55 31.85
52 23.15 29.00 33.40 33.80
56 24.55 30.55 35.25 35.75
60 25.95 32.10 37.10 37.70
64 27.35 33.65 38.95 39.65

It looks like M Bags are not going up as much as Priority Mail? I haven't used one yet because anytime I get that many books, a medium FRB is only a few dollars more, and much faster and has tracking. Now it looks like there will be a bigger price difference.

Price Group Weight Not Over 11 lbs Additional Per Lb.
1 36.85 3.35
2 34.10 3.10
3 66.00 6.00
4 53.90 4.90
5 43.45 3.95
6 63.25 5.75
7 54.45 4.95
8 52.25 4.75
9 51.15 4.65

Bumping this up.

Thank you for the reminder!

That is a substantial increase in first class international! I'm not sure I can afford that at 3 points per book when it's more than $12 to send the book. I may have to switch to multiple international mooches only.

I switched to asking for a 2 book minimum and drastically reduced the number of international mooches I get asked for. I was mailing more than half my mooches to other countries and it got expensive. The two book minimum lets me keep sending internationally.

Random USPS rant:

I sent a MFRB of books to Bosnia right before the price change. It's Priority Mail, so I expected it to get out of the US in the usual 2-3 days, and then who knows how long after that.

I checked on it today... it took 8 full days to get from Washington state to New York! It doesn't matter, my recipient is not in a hurry, but WTF USPS?

Whereas before today the beginning of my bio was a blurb about willing to ship any book to Canada or Mexico, and my account was set to Worldwide, the USPS has now financially compelled me to ship only to my country, and now my bio reads,
"March 1, 2013
With regret, this marks the day I spent $8.55 to send a 4 ounce book to Canada, and can no longer afford to send any book outside the USA. "

I'm a very sad moocher.

Although I sympathize with you guys about your recent postage increases, I have never sent anything outside Australasia for under $10, except for slim volumes of poetry that I could squeeze into envelopes (as opposed to bubble wrap and bags). And books in NZ are way more expensive too. The only reason I can justify sending outside NZ is to earn points to let me get books from a bigger pool.

But that's grumbling. On the possibly useful side, I've been wondering for a while if it might be worth (or would be permitted) to add a listing of "postage top-up", to help with those sorts of costs. Postage here is all based on weight, so even asking for a second mooch does nothing to help.

I just sent 3 flat rate boxes to Canada the other day. 2 medium and one large as well as 1 single book to Australia (which was 12.95) by itself. My grand total at the PO was almost 150 dollars. Good thing I only ship out books about 4 times a year.

Wow Belladonna, you might want to consider M-bags for those larger shipments. I think they are more cost effective relative to Priority Mail now that the rates have gone up so much, although I have never looked at M-Bag prices to Canada, only Europe.

I have never used M-bags. I will have to check them out!

I used to get many of the books I bought online shipped in M-Bags (USA to Canada). It was quite a bit cheaper than any other option. Sometimes, they didn't even bother putting it in a bag--they just attached an "M-Bag" sticked to the box and shipped it at the cheaper rate. (When I used to use them, it was $8.80 for the first 11 pounds, plus 80 cents per additional pound. I miss those days.)

They're good for any shipment of printed material up to 66 pounds, but now that I looked it up (no easy feat, given the USPS website), they've gone up quite a bit as well. The prices are explained on pages 44, 46, and 47 of this document: http://pe.usps.com/cpim/ftp/manuals/dmm300/Notice123.pdf

I'm not sure about the different between International Surface Air Lift M-Bags, Full Service M-Bags, and International Air Mail M-Bags, but it might be worth looking into.