USPS shipping rates increased??

[sunnydaze45]

I don't remember seeing anything about the USPS shipping rates going up.  I went to print a label for a padded flat rate envelope and see it went from $8.30 to $8.54..  Was there any announcement about this??  Did I miss it??  TIA

[valueaddedresource]

---

@sunnydaze45 wrote:

or order no. 25-11003-97183

Tracking no.

USPS

Completed

-$8.54

-

-$8.54negative $8.54

YES!! they did charge me the $8.54...

---

Thanks @sunnydaze45 at least that helps us narrow down that this is not just a "display issue".

devon@ebay  kyle@ebay elizabeth@ebay shippingteam@ebay  can you let us know what is going on please?

[fern*wood]

Has anyone seen a reply from any of the reps that used to help on the boards?  I haven't seen any since before Christmas.

[valueaddedresource]

---

@fern*wood wrote:

Has anyone seen a reply from any of the reps that used to help on the boards?  I haven't seen any since before Christmas.

---

@fern*wood  if you're talking about Devon, Kyle and Elizabeth, I'm sure they had some time off for the holidays, but their community profiles show they've been replying to threads in the last week.

So yeah, they're still around, but I have noticed in general in the last year or so it seems official eBay participation in this community has dwindled, with tags going unresponded to more often and more "drive by posting" by generic "team" IDs, like the threads on the new feedback experience where "seller_news_team" dropped some info and didn't stick around to answer questions.

We don't usually see much activity from the blues on the weekends, so I wasn't expecting an answer to these tags right away, but hopefully they'll see it first thing Monday.

[valueaddedresource]

---

@wastingtime101 wrote:

---

@valueaddedresource wrote:

This is especially egregious given recent reports of eBay cold calling sellers to try to pressure them in to passing discounted shipping rates on to buyers. 

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Ebay-called-me-yesterday/m-p/34192728/highlight/true#M2331103

Any seller who is currently passing those discounted rates on to buyers for Priority mail is going to lose money when they go to print labels for their weekend orders to ship on Monday and find the price has gone up.

---

Agreed. While the rates are still below commercial which is good, eBay did not notify sellers which is bad. Any type of financial increase should come with advance notice so sellers can make necessary adjustments, and eBay's recent attempts to shove sellers into offering carrier-specific discounts makes this worse.

Side note: just got an email from PirateShip saying "USPS is about to get cheaper" haha

It's a standard email saying which rates are going down and which are going up on Jan 21, but the email subject line was funny considering this eBay increase. eBay Priority rates are still lower than Pirate for Flat Rate packages. Pirate is still $8.80 for the padded flat rate until the Jan 21 price changes are implemented.

---

@wastingtime101  ok I feel like a dummy...just realized the shipment I was using to test would have been a zone 8 so may not have been expected to see adjustments to Ground Advantage any way.

We now have another thread with people saying they are seeing a decrease in GA rates.

https://community.ebay.com/t5/Selling/Ground-Advantage-rates-just-decreased/m-p/34211404#M2336189

That would put these changes even more in line with the changes Pirate Ship and others made back in November, so I'm still leaning heavily toward this being eBay making similar adjustments now before the bigger changes on the 21st.

[wastingtime101]

I haven't used eBay for Ground Adv labels this year @valueaddedresource . eBay doesn't publish price charts and I did not make my own for 2023 (like I did in prior years) so I cannot compare Ground Adv rates I'm seeing today to rates I would have seen yesterday by reviewing old labels.

Since the Fall I've been guinea pigging a shipping label & inventory mgmt site owned by Amazon for most domestic USPS, eBay for a portion of USPS Priority, and Pirate for international and for UPS, with occasional Stamps.com when other services were down.

I can provide info I'm seeing today in case it helps.

7x7x6 box

2 lb weight

ship to zone 3

ship date Mon Jan 8th

eBay Rates:

Priority: $6.98

Ground Adv: $6.14

Pirate Rates:

Priority Cubic: $6.93

Ground Adv Cubic: $6.00

USPS Comm Rates:

Priority: $8.45

Ground Adv: $7.15

[valueaddedresource · Accepted solution]

Update - today the Priority Rates are back to what they were before.

devon@ebay kyle@ebay elizabeth@ebay  - will eBay be automatically refunding the difference for anyone who purchased labels at the higher rates over the weekend?

[valueaddedresource]

---

@wastingtime101 wrote:

I haven't used eBay for Ground Adv labels this year @valueaddedresource . eBay doesn't publish price charts and I did not make my own for 2023 (like I did in prior years) so I cannot compare Ground Adv rates I'm seeing today to rates I would have seen yesterday by reviewing old labels.

Since the Fall I've been guinea pigging a shipping label & inventory mgmt site owned by Amazon for most domestic USPS, eBay for a portion of USPS Priority, and Pirate for international and for UPS, with occasional Stamps.com when other services were down.

I can provide info I'm seeing today in case it helps.

7x7x6 box

2 lb weight

ship to zone 3

ship date Mon Jan 8th

eBay Rates:

Priority: $6.98

Ground Adv: $6.14

Pirate Rates:

Priority Cubic: $6.93

Ground Adv Cubic: $6.00

USPS Comm Rates:

Priority: $8.45

Ground Adv: $7.15

---

@wastingtime101  now that Priority appears to be fixed, I've tested with 3 different zone 3 addresses using 2 lb, 7x7x6 box and eBay is showing Ground Advantage at $7.15.

So whatever they did over the weekend apparently increased most Priority rates while decreasing some Ground Advantage in closer zones (which is pretty much what the November update for others did) and now both GA and Priority on eBay have been reset back to what they were before.

[wastingtime101]

---

@valueaddedresource wrote:

---

@wastingtime101 wrote:

7x7x6 box

2 lb weight

ship to zone 3

ship date Mon Jan 8th

eBay Rates:

Priority: $6.98

Ground Adv: $6.14

---

@wastingtime101  now that Priority appears to be fixed, I've tested with 3 different zone 3 addresses using 2 lb, 7x7x6 box and eBay is showing Ground Advantage at $7.15.

---

And Priority is back up to $7.20 for that package @valueaddedresource .

[booji_girl]

This happened to me yesterday but only in bulk shipping. I switched to doing the labels order by order and the old prices were still showing up.

[wastingtime101]

---

@booji_girl wrote:

This happened to me yesterday but only in bulk shipping. I switched to doing the labels order by order and the old prices were still showing up.

---

Interesting. I saw the different rates with both bulk and single labels.

Above screenshots are single labels not bulk.

[valueaddedresource]

---

@booji_girl wrote:

This happened to me yesterday but only in bulk shipping. I switched to doing the labels order by order and the old prices were still showing up.

---

Interesting @booji_girl around what time and in what time zone were you doing that yesterday?

I was still seeing the "new" prices showing for single labels through around 4 PM Eastern yesterday and didn't check again until this morning, at which point it was back to the old prices. I wonder if you caught it when they were updating it?

[techvaluesatoz]

I've not done an exhaustive search in this specific Community Messages area, under Buying & Selling, Shipping, but I have been hearing at my local POs and reading in multiple internet news sources of the USPS shipping cost increases coming this month, January 2024. These would almost necessarily affect the rates you'll pay through ebay Labels for USPS services. I would expect their competitors to consider the previously announced USPS increases to implement increases they may also want to make. 

I also just received an email from Pirate Ship describing both increases and decreases in various USPS rates. With my quick read, it looks like it's going to be more expensive to offer free shipping (via USPS Ground Advantage) on lightweight, lower cost items, and also to ship print and recorded media via Media Mail; while Ground Advantage and Priority Mail will be more competitive on some Flat Rate and heavier shipments up to about 20 lb and travelling longer distances. 

On some days I travel to USPS, UPS, and to FedEx shipping locations, depending on several factors, cost being only one consideration.

[nobody*s_perfect]

---

@techvaluesatoz wrote: ... I have been hearing at my local POs and reading in multiple internet news sources of the USPS shipping cost increases coming this month, January 2024. ....

---

Here's a link to the new USPS rates which will go into effect on January 21.  The Commercial prices in Notice 123 used to conveniently match those charged by eBay, but lately eBay has been charging less for some Priority Mail weight/ zone combinations.  I suspect that the rates hiccups this weekend are related to implementation of the new USPS rates and related discounts available to online postage providers including not only eBay but also Pirateship et al.

https://pe.usps.com/resources/PriceChange/January%202024%20Price%20Change%20112223%20-%20Notice123.p...

[booji_girl]

It was around 5 pm Hawaii Time (+2 hrs PST, +4 hrs CT, +5 hrs ET).

Also, since I'm in Hawaii + only sell to US buyers, all of my packages are zone 8 except the few a year that are shipped within Hawaii.

wastingtime101 Just as valueaddedresource said, I immediately assumed I had caught a weird, hopefully momentary glitch. Just 10 minutes ago the eBay shipping calculator seemed to be acted similar, but I'm hoping that's also brief.

[valueaddedresource]

---

@booji_girl wrote:

It was around 5 pm Hawaii Time (+2 hrs PST, +4 hrs CT, +5 hrs ET).

Also, since I'm in Hawaii + only sell to US buyers, all of my packages are zone 8 except the few a year that are shipped within Hawaii.

wastingtime101 Just as valueaddedresource said, I immediately assumed I had caught a weird, hopefully momentary glitch. Just 10 minutes ago the eBay shipping calculator seemed to be acted similar, but I'm hoping that's also brief.

---

And I just checked it again and we're back to the "changed" rates again. 🤦‍

I give up and I'm sticking the  "educated guess" that this is an intentional change made to bring eBay rates in line with the changes Pirate Ship and others made back in November and that we'll see additional changes in ~2 weeks for the actual "new" USPS rates coming on January 21.

devon@ebay  kyle@ebay  elizabeth@ebay  anything you'd care to add?