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November 05, 2005
Postal shipping prices on the way up
Our friends at LughnassadhBooks.com remind us to remind you that postal rates may go up in early 2006.
Of course, this is big news for microbusinesses. There are an awful lot of them out there using the post office rather than services like FedEx and UPS, simply because it costs less for the low-volume remote seller -- at least, for now.
According to the November 1st announcement by the Postal Rate Commission, the new rates will be thirty-nine cents for a "first class, first ounce" letter and twenty-four cents for a postcard. For those of us who use U.S.P.S. shipping, media mail rates are likely to increase by 12.7% and Priority Mail shipping prices will increases on average by 5.4%.
There's one piece of good news here. Publishers of print periodicals still using the post office for delivery will see their average mailing costs reduced by 2.3% for their U.S. subscribers.
Given the shaky economic ground, it may not be possible for microbusinesses to simply absorb these additional costs. We'll have to wait to see how big an impact this changes has on remote microbusiness sellers.
Posted by The Journal Blogger at November 5, 2005 01:49 PM
