General Forum

 I knew they raised the price of a stamp but was unaware they also jacked up the flat rate boxes.   A small is now $7.15 and a medium is $13.60.  If this keeps up it will be impossible to ship cards.   Is the post office trying to get out of the package business?

Thanks for the heads up. I had not realized that either. 

Cost of shipping, whether it be post offices or delivery companies such as UPS or FedEx is putting a damper on any online purchasing / trading. No matter what, you have to factor in all costs when buying something; adding the cost of shipping sometimes makes it not worth the money. Who knows, it may revive the local flea markets and small town card shops that died when ebay became so popular.

All true, but I gotta say I can drop thirty cards in a bubble pack and have them delivered anywhere in the United States for under $3. Try asking a friend to pick up a package at your house and deliver it cross country for $2.62. 

Heck, I just mailed a single card to Canada for $1.10. Door to door service. I know it's fun to pick on the postal service, but I've always thought it was a pretty good deal. 

V3

yes.. i found out the hard way myself.. sooo- another good thing to get a good grip on is the weight of what you're sending (amount of cards)- in some cases, i found by packing cards in a small count box then in a smaller non-flat rate box it comes out cheaper than a flat-rate box.. For a small flat-rate, sometimes i use the larger bubbler or small non flat rate box (again depedning on wieght) and for more cards, if i can't get enough to over stuff a med box safely, i'll find a smaller box and have it weighed first and check out the cost. if it cost less, then ill use that. either way, its a pain.

All true. With the modern cost of gasoline a 20 minute round trip to a local card store, (if there is one within 20 minutes) can cost around $2.62 or more. All things in perspective it really is not a bad deal.

It is not so much the cost that drives me crazy as there really is no reasonable alternative. The difficult thing at times is the idea that I am paying more to have the items shipped than what the cards are really worth. That is not the fault of the postal service though. That really is the cost of the hobby and what I choose to collect. 

How did you get such a good deal shipping to Canada? Man, I mailed off 6-7 cards the other day to Canada and it cost me almost $10!

I'm sure you don't want a Canadian perspective then either. Shipping is the death of about 60% of anything I want. There is a ton of stuff I love out there and the prices are good ............ until I get to the shipping. I guess that is why we get stuck shopping at the local Wal-Mart ............ UGH.

Well, it was only one card and I think was just the cost of a letter. My wife happened to be going to the post office and I trusted her with the mission. I don't actually have confirmation that it arrived yet....

And, of course, I just played the "must justify shipping cost" game. Didn't get the bigger item I had bid on. But had bid on a smaller item, too, to get the combined shipping. When I didn't win the bigger item, the shipping made the cards I did win cost way too much, so I frantically tried to find something else the seller had that I wanted so I could combine shipping and lower the cost per card. (He only combined for items bought the same day.) I found something, but it was pretty silly.

If only the local card shop was 20 minutes more local and had everything I want....

v3

I do ALOT of trading here and Im with v3 on this one.....I also look at it this way......If I go to a show, Im usually looking at .50 a card minimum. For arguement sake we will say thats 6 cards = $3.00.......I ship alot more then 6 cards trading at  the post office $2.60 ?.....Im my world trading and shipping is still a good deal.