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Thread: New USPS postal Intl. rates .. Guess I'll be cutting back

  1. #26
    Insect Overlord Progatron's Avatar
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    Unfortunately I have had to cut back on my U.S. orders as well (Lasers Edge, Synphonic, etc.) because $10 shipping for a CD is ludicrous IMO. I do a LOT of online CD shopping as it is, I just can't afford to be paying those rates every time. I suppose I'll occasionally still order something if it is impossible to find elsewhere and is a must-have, but my fun little browsing/shopping sprees are going to have to be Canada/UK based from now on. The UK's Royal Mail has been very impressive these last few months IMO - in some cases, packages have been arriving in under a week, which is far better than I can say for most USPS packages.

    It's a real shame, I truly want to continue to support the folks at LE, Synphonic, Kinesis etc... I'll do my best.
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  2. #27
    Quote Originally Posted by Progatron View Post
    Unfortunately I have had to cut back on my U.S. orders as well (Lasers Edge, Synphonic, etc.) because $10 shipping for a CD is ludicrous IMO. I do a LOT of online CD shopping as it is, I just can't afford to be paying those rates every time. I suppose I'll occasionally still order something if it is impossible to find elsewhere and is a must-have, but my fun little browsing/shopping sprees are going to have to be Canada/UK based from now on. The UK's Royal Mail has been very impressive these last few months IMO - in some cases, packages have been arriving in under a week, which is far better than I can say for most USPS packages.

    It's a real shame, I truly want to continue to support the folks at LE, Synphonic, Kinesis etc... I'll do my best.
    It is a shame...I pressume that the diference is that USPS is run as the business whereas Royal Mail or Canadian Post Office are governament organizations so even if the business would lose money they would be sponsored by the taxes...is that correct?

  3. #28
    No. The difference is that the GOP has forced the USPS to fund now pensions for postal workers who haven't even been born yet, 75 years into the future. (Without this, the USPS would actually be profitable.) This is a blatant attack on the USPS, an attempt to force it out of business so that for-profit organizations like UPS and FedEx can take over the "space."
    Cobra handling and cocaine use are a bad mix.

  4. #29
    éí 'aaníígÓÓ 'áhoot'é Don Arnold's Avatar
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    This rate hike is indeed a bummer. As mentioned above, if one if buying multiple cd's, the increase is less impactful, hardly noticeable for a dozen or more I suspect. However, where it will definitely curtail my buying are those one-off's from USA venders, be it an outlet auction site, or from a private seller. In recent months since discovering eBay (yeah, I'm late to the game ), I've enjoyed making a number of single cd purchases for a bargain price. Adding $4-$5 for shipping was not unreasonable, especially when I won the disc for $5 or under. But I've seen shipping for single cd's now from $8 to $14, which makes the purchase untenable.

    And, speaking of ebay and shipping, I've noticed what appears to be a new international shipping feature offered by ebay. I haven't investigated this (from a buyer's perspective), but the ship rate to Canada that has shown up, for example, on one seller's listing is $14.44, plus import charges of $3.34. I've never seen these import charges before. Can anyone offer some clarity on this?

  5. #30
    Member Camelogue's Avatar
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    While we are on all things postal, remember the Cheers episode that had Cliff as a Jeopardy contestant?

  6. #31
    Insect Overlord Progatron's Avatar
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    I notice that the shipping for marketplace sellers on amazon.ca remains at $3.49 worldwide, I wonder when that will change? Perhaps I should jump on a few from my 'want list' while the shipping is still reasonably priced.
    Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.

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  7. #32
    Member Camelogue's Avatar
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    What are the allowable shipping rates for a CD on e-bay now? Used to buy frequently there, but my infrequent trips to e-bay never seem to end up in seeing anything appealing anymore.

  8. #33
    ALL ACCESS Gruno's Avatar
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    A couple of days ago there was a news report about USPS executives (about 200, if I recall correctly) about to go on one of those week long vacation retreats disguised as meetings. It will cost the USPS about 2 million dollars in total. My exact figures may be off as I was doing something else at the time. I will try to find the news article or video.

  9. #34
    Insect Overlord Progatron's Avatar
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    BTW, every time I see Saturday delivery mentioned, I remember that you guys in the States have that. In Canada it's just Monday to Friday, so yeah it does suck on a holiday weekend when I'm hoping for my package to arrive on Friday and it doesn't. Blah.
    Interviewer of reprobate ne'er-do-well musicians of the long-haired rock n' roll persuasion at: www.velvetthunder.co.uk and former scribe at Classic Rock Society. Only vaguely aware of anything other than music.

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  10. #35
    Progga mogrooves's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Progatron View Post
    every time I see Saturday delivery mentioned, I remember that you guys in the States have that.
    Not for much longer....
    Hell, they ain't even old-timey ! - Homer Stokes

  11. #36
    Quote Originally Posted by Gruno View Post
    A couple of days ago there was a news report about USPS executives (about 200, if I recall correctly) about to go on one of those week long vacation retreats disguised as meetings. It will cost the USPS about 2 million dollars in total. My exact figures may be off as I was doing something else at the time. I will try to find the news article or video.
    400 employees. It's an industry conference.

    http://www.wsbtv.com/news/news/local...-confer/nWR6Y/

  12. #37
    Highly Evolved Orangutan JKL2000's Avatar
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    ^ Talk about going postal. The hookers must love that. "Come on baby, deliver that package. Faster, faster! I'm not home, leave it on the back porch..."

  13. #38
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    if the USPO needs revenue, why not make elected officials pay for their postage?

  14. #39
    Studmuffin Scott Bails's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by BravadoNJ View Post
    if the USPO needs revenue, why not make elected officials pay for their postage?
    Now you're just being silly.
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  15. #40
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    Quote Originally Posted by JKL2000 View Post
    BTW, if you ever want to have fun riling up a bunch of postal workers from the safety of your home, post something inflammatory on alt.snail-mail. I've actually only posted real postal-related questions and comments there, but they always stir up hatred and craziness from some postal workers. I use the newsgroup as an information source about postal issues, but it seems to be used more heavily (though it's not used THAT heavily) by postal workers who want to vent, and seem close to the point of going "postal." It doesn't take much to set them off.
    sorry, but that really really pathetic.

  16. #41
    Progstreaming-webmaster Sunhillow's Avatar
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    I'm sorry to see this thread runs political, but the initial topic is interesting.

    I for one will not order anything through Ebay or Discogs if one is situated in the States. Simply to expensive.

    Labels should investigate setting up shop in Europe too. I'm not an expert, but a Cuneiform-cd could be pressed in Europe too, couldn't it? It would safe shipping.

  17. #42
    éí 'aaníígÓÓ 'áhoot'é Don Arnold's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by Sunhillow View Post
    I'm sorry to see this thread runs political, but the initial topic is interesting.
    Ditto.

  18. #43
    Quote Originally Posted by Don Arnold View Post
    Ditto.
    Unfortunately, the USPS and Washington politics are inexplicably connected. It's hard to duscuss postal rates without discussing the cause of them.

  19. #44
    Member Plasmatopia's Avatar
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    I wonder if we could also get Social Security pre-funded for the next 75 years. Will the USPS pension fund be subject to raiding by congress as well?

  20. #45
    éí 'aaníígÓÓ 'áhoot'é Don Arnold's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by ronmac View Post
    Unfortunately, the USPS and Washington politics are inexplicably connected. It's hard to duscuss postal rates without discussing the cause of them.
    I understand this ronmac. But if the conversation leans more towards the impact of buying cd's, and possible options or stategies for minimizing shipping costs, then there may be some useful posts. If, on the other hand the thread leans towards the politics side, with such a polarization of viewpoints, and the tendancies of some to get a little riled up, then at least for me, the thread becomes a meaningless exchange of rehashed political opinions.

  21. #46
    Quote Originally Posted by Don Arnold View Post
    I understand this ronmac. But...
    understood.

  22. #47
    Quote Originally Posted by 80s were ok View Post
    I'm not a fan of rate hikes either but everytime they raise rates, there is a flurry of complaining, and then everything runs as normal anyway.
    It's not a normal rate increase. To go up is one thing. To almost double is another. This is horrible for my band-at least for direct sales of one or two CDs.

    Quote Originally Posted by Sunhillow View Post
    Labels should investigate setting up shop in Europe too. I'm not an expert, but a Cuneiform-cd could be pressed in Europe too, couldn't it? It would safe shipping.
    I don't think there's a need for labels or bands to manufacture in other countries because they sell wholesale in big enough batches to the European sellers (like Just For Kicks and others) not to be too affected by the shipping rates. And I think with the exchange rate of the dollar being so weak, they can eek out the profits they need without the price being ridiculously high for the European consumer.

  23. #48
    Progstreaming-webmaster Sunhillow's Avatar
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    Quote Originally Posted by 3RDegree_Robert View Post
    This is horrible for my band-at least for direct sales of one or two CDs.

    I don't think there's a need for labels or bands to manufacture in other countries because they sell wholesale in big enough batches to the European sellers (like Just For Kicks and others) not to be too affected by the shipping rates. And I think with the exchange rate of the dollar being so weak, they can eek out the profits they need without the price being ridiculously high for the European consumer.
    Just for Kicks, and also Beyond Rock and BTF.IT (the last one becoming more and more a general suplier of prog rather than only Italian mini-sleeves) surely will experience an increase in order. Yet they also must be infected, for they do have to pay the same (doubled) shipping rates, and they can't tell a customer: 'you must wait a bit, for your order is only the 4th out of 10 I need to break-even'.

  24. #49
    Progstreaming-webmaster Sunhillow's Avatar
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    This topic is very near to me heart, and it bothers me a lot. One of the main reasons for starting Progstreaming, is to offer a different method (other than e.g. downloading, or samples on Youtube/their site) for people to get to know an album, and hence make it more easy for people to decide if they want to buy it, or not. But thanks to your postal services, people will going to like it, and then they'll chicken out thanks to the absurd shipping rates. Which will eventually lead to more people taking refuge again in illegal downloading, and hence: a quickening of the long-announced 'death of the CD'.

    The best thing for independent artists to do is to offer the CD to European sellers, like the ones mentioned above. I will henceforth promote this more, both to the artists themselves, as to the public. When you live in the States, better other through TLE, Wayside and Greg. For Europe, go to BTF, Rob Hanemaayer of JfK. Oh, and Rock Serwis.

    US bands that wants to sell solely through their site or Bandcamp are to be pitied. Labels and distributors will become more important. What was all this talk a while ago about the growing globalization and free market? I've must have dreamed it.

  25. #50
    Has anyone actually heard of the reasoning behind the rate increases? I haven't, but also haven't looked very closely. I do know, for a fact, that there is an incredible amount of corruption at postal locations throughout the world with packages being opened and pilfered, people having to pay fees just to get their packages, and many simply disappearing. I would suspect that had a huge bearing on rates, in an attempt for the USPS to cover their risks and losses.

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