How to use Australia Post post for items more than 20mm thickness

[prime.gadgets]

I have seen many Australian sellers listed items which have thickness more than 20mm for prices around $5. How do they do this?

As I know, if the item thickness pass 20mm goes into parcel post which cost $8.95? How do they trick the system?

I also want to point out two buying experience I had.

1) Once I bought over 20mm thick Envelope pack via $5.35 Australia post large prepaid envelope. But for the item, I paid only $4.9 !! The seller seems to do a lot of sales, so cannot be just selling for loss trying to impress the buyers. The sale is not possible unless they print their own fake prepaid envelops...

2) Bought an item which weight around than 150g (over 125g limit) with $2 stamp. Thickness was also a little bit over 20mm. Does Australia Post allow this kind of deviations on $2 stamp post?

Kind advises from experienced members are highly appreciated as I'm still new to this business 

[kopenhagen5]

1. Yes, the Chinese have been stealing printing envelopes for a while.

2. If it's only slightly over it often gets through, and so it should. My post office will let things go if it's close to limits.

[davewil1964]

I can send a standard, up to 20mm thick, book for $2.30 using prepaid envelopes. They are good for 500g and buying them in 50s gets that price. Admittedly very few books that thick mass over 250g, so the saving isn't huge.

That 5% discount is all Australia Post gives for bulk purchases these days. Even prepaid satchels, which they used to give a 10%  discount for if you bought 100.

For parcels, volume discounts apply through MyPost Business if you have the volume.

You might sneak the odd one through, but if you get pinged you will be charged the difference between what you paid and what you should have paid, plus $1.50 admin fee. If you don't have a return address your buyer will get hit with the charges. You don't need too many unhappy buyers before it impacts on your selling.

In the long run you have to decide whether or not your items are competitive paying the correct rates.

[purplemon18]

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@davewil1964 wrote:

I can send a standard, up to 20mm thick, book for $2.30 using prepaid envelopes. They are good for 500g and buying them in 50s gets that price. Admittedly very few books that thick mass over 250g, so the saving isn't huge.

That 5% discount is all Australia Post gives for bulk purchases these days. Even prepaid satchels, which they used to give a 10%  discount for if you bought 100.

For parcels, volume discounts apply through MyPost Business if you have the volume.

You might sneak the odd one through, but if you get pinged you will be charged the difference between what you paid and what you should have paid, plus $1.50 admin fee. If you don't have a return address your buyer will get hit with the charges. You don't need too many unhappy buyers before it impacts on your selling.

In the long run you have to decide whether or not your items are competitive paying the correct rates.

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Even with a return address, I have had Auspost charge a customer on more than one occasion. I assume they do it so that they get the money rather than it going to head office in the form of a bill payment.

[budawangs]

My local Post Office just told me that postage rates will be changing (again) from Jan 1st.

I didn't ask how or where.

And this just after the introduction of the size more than weight change.

[lyndal1838]

Australia Post has had two changes of rates every year for as long as I can remember.

Rather than change everything in one hit they let us down gently and give us time to get used to one lot of changes before hitting us with another lot.

[purplemon18]

The increase is 10c per $1, so :

$1.10-regular letter

$2.20-large letter 125g

$3.30-large letter 250g

$5.50-large letter 500g

Starts 2/1/2020 because the first is a public holiday. Honestly, they could not have waited until feburary? I don't want to be dealing with this now.

So far there are no $1.10 or 10c stamps available to purchase and the change is happening in only 2 weeks. With Auspost's incredibly slow delivery times (go figure) for their online store, I would like to order them now.

Ok, ok, I'll stop whining.

[wide-world-of-stamps]

10c stamps are always available at our local post office, and we usually buy $5 worth at a time.

We use them as we have lots of older mint 45c stamps, so we use 2 of them plus a 10c stamp on our $1 letters.

[purplemon18]

Yeah, the problem though is that I go through 200-300 stamps a week. I don't want clean out all the local post offices to get my stamps. I would rather leave those for regular low volume people.

[davewil1964]

Why not pay over the counter for postage?

Or use prepaids?