Yesterday I discovered that the recent rise in postal rates may have killed our international market. The rates on foreign packages more than doubled. This means that instead of $10 for 1-3 books it now costs $21 for 1-3 books. I suspect our international sales will plummet. This makes me stressed about keeping the ends meeting.
EDIT 6/7/07: I was wrong about the international rates. They only went up a little bit. The mailers we use are now $12 instead of $10. Whew!
Yesterday it was 40 degrees and rainy all day. It felt like March and I wanted to hide from the weather. Each time I looked out the windows I thought about Kiki who is on a youth group camping trip this week. She’s up in the mountains where it is probably snowing. I kept fretting, wondering if we’d packed her enough warm clothes. I really hope that she manages to have fun rather than spending the whole trip miserable.
Yesterday I completely forgot Link’s check up. I remembered it at about 9pm. I rescheduled it for today, but it isn’t like me to completely miss an important appointment. I almost missed cub scouts too, but I scrambled and made that. I still haven’t acclimatized to this summer schedule.
Yesterday I spent a large portion of the day managing our clearance sale orders. But for all the time I spent, we get to keep $250-300 of the money that came in. Howard pointed out that this was probably not the best use of my time which made me grumpy. It made me grumpy because he was right.
So yesterday was a scattered, frequently grumpy, housework avoidance day. It ended well, but I’m hoping today is better.
Have you talked to someone at the PO about rates and the best way to ship? How much do the books each weigh? It looks like you can put up to 4 pounds in a Priority International flat rate envelope, and those only cost $11. First class international looks like it’s about $10-$12 for one pound.
We domestic Schlockers are gonna have to pick up the slack … 🙂
never fear
I’ll buy the next book even if it costs $30 to ship. There may be other options. How much to Fedex charge for their small packets? I use Fedex to ship stuff to the States, but my knowlege is more about how much they charge for something around 12-20Kg and sometimes so large that it’s freight not a package. However, they seem competitve for the level of service.
I think lots of people are having to increase prices due to the postal service increase. Gamefly, the place I rent my games from, raised their prices by $1 across the board.
Glad to see your edit about the international rates! That would have been bad.
“scattered, frequently grumpy, housework avoidance” – all my days are like that. 🙂
postal rates
just as a thought of encouragement – the postal increase has not affected our International Sales at all. – We have had a few domestic complaints (because the cost to ship 2 ounces in a padded mailer literally doubled.)
Here is an oddity for you – if i ship 3 ounces to you in Utah – it is 1.49 (that includes the 18 cents for electronic delivery confirmation) – if I ship the same package to Canada – anywhere in Canada it is only $1.00 – – – it is actually cheaper to ship packages to Canada than in the US…..
Maybe you want to set up a Special Canadian Rate…..I think it has helped for us…. – – – Jennie, http://www.justanothersunset.com
PS – waiting to see if the post office will catch on that its cheaper to ship to Canada and have another postal “increase…….”