open letter to Australia Post and eBay members

[lupercal]

For a while I'm going to append this to the bottom of the description, in some of my auctions where it's applicable

I'm going to attach this to the bottom of the description, in some of my applicable auctions, for a while.

Open letter to Australia Post, and Ebay members

As of Jan 1st Australia Post - presumably as part of their 'letters are dying' (but parcels are booming) mantra - have raised the postage prices on all 'large letter' items by up to 40%. This means magazines, small books, DVDs, CDs - anything of sufficiently modest dimensions and weight to go below 'parcel' rate.

It means, for example, that the minimum postage on an item like the one in this auction  (250-499 g) , within Australia is now $5. Add packaging, eBay and PayPal fees, and it means if someone sells something at the large letter rate for 250-499 grams, at $10 with free postage, it now costs them about $7. 50

It's a bigger deal if someone were trying to sell a CD, for example. Lots of sellers, have, like me, previously listed things for about $5. We'd now clear about .50c on that deal. Factor in time and effort, and we may as well give such cheaper items to the Salvos now.

I could a) raise my opening bid a little, b) charge a partial contribution to postage (which eBay will take over 10% of,  and which will put off buyers) or c) on very low price items, just not bother to list at all.

As a buyer I'm expecting to see the results of thousands of other small sellers going through the same options.

This annoys me nearly as much as a buyer, since I do nearly as much business on eBay in that capacity, and for once I can't blame eBay.

OzPost either doesn't realise that so much 'parcel' traffic actually goes as 'large  letters', or they ARE aware, and are trying to squeeze people up to parcel rate (unchanged for now at $7.45 for items under 500 grams)

BTW this will affect higher volume sellers as well, who are obliged to one sell at free postage, to qualify for certain eBay criteria.

This isn't intended as a kvetching session; just to explain why you're probably going to start seeing fewer very low price items with free postage.

I don't see how anyone wins out of this, but that's progress.

Lupercal

eBay member since March 1999

[heihachi_73]

Letters, as in printed paper material, may be dying (e.g. regular letters - one stamp only), but small low-cost items posted as large letters couldn't be more popular right now. Australia Post really needs to rethink their ways and offer people either a small parcel rate (under 500g), or a discounted "media mail" option for books and digital media such as DVDs, computer software and video games. Video tapes are also prohibitively expensive to send via Parcel Post or any other competitor's parcel rates. I recently sent a 1993 Clint Eastwood triple pack/box set from Melbourne to Brisbane and it cost nearly $20. Had they been DVDs in a single case, it would have been $2.10 (and still $3 as of today). What's the point of even trying to list old/vintage videos for $1 each and $7.45 postage? Add $1.65 for the BX6 mailing box in the post office and you're up to $9.10. To send a video.

That said, I really do expect to see Parcel Post jump to $10 and beyond for the basic rate. It might not be today, but it's a given that someone will be "smart" enough to figure it out sooner rather than later.

Some items which do not apply for large letter rates but would apply for media mail if given a choice:

Video tapes (even without cases)
Double CDs (2CD/4CD cases)
PlayStation 1 games in bubble mailer/bubble wrap (standard PAL version thick cases, also 2CD cases e.g. Final Fantasy 7)
Nintendo DS cases (specifically, the thick European cases; regular DS/3DS cases are fine)
Vintage game boxes
Game cartridges (that said, NES and Master System/Mega Drive games barely fit in the letter gauge without using any padding or a bubble mailer)
Special/thick DVD cases (e.g. 6-disc box sets, some PC games)
Box sets/multi-packs (individual DVD cases in a box)
Records (they are easily thin enough, but no-one in their right mind would send one through the mail, and 12" LPs are probably too large anyway)
Audio cassettes (technically they fit without any form of padding, but you're just asking to have them smashed to bits in transit and copping a MBG case due to damaged items)
And of course, books, as well as magazines, newspapers, posters etc. (sending a rolled-up poster in a cylinder is currently $7.45 despite being a single sheet of very large paper)

[transport-posters]

I understand your frustration!

Regardsing posters, I've asked AP about three times to return a sub-500g parcel rate for two years and I always get the same response from their customer service saying it's not possible.  I've also asked them to introduce a special "lightweight" rate for poster tubes (my tubes with a poster only weigh about 130g max, and I have to pay the 500g rate to send them) but they aren't interested.

[heihachi_73]

I think one of the smallest things I've ever sent via Parcel Post weighed about 40 grams (and the PB1 bubble mailer was 10g by itself). It was a tiny Sega LCD game which was 26mm thick (counting the mailer) thus not allowed as a large letter. In fact, itm/161910054348 (the last one left) will be relisted again if I qualify for 100 freebies this month.

[egglesdtp]

Very commendable, but my concern is the large number of buyers who aren't sellers, and probably have no idea that the cost of postage for large letters has risen so much. I can foresee that sales of items, sent as large letters and now costing so much more to post, will plummet.

[lane-ends]

Still remember the $2.45 price for a 250gm parcel...thats when we could sell small collectable trinkets. @ 99cent starts and make profit on most of them.

[phorum_junkie*]

As many buyers don't read past the title the chances of them wading through anything that isn't directly relating to the item for sale are zero to none.

[saarzi]

While I understand your frustration, for me, posts like this do nothing but reflect on the seller, and their inability or incompetence (harsh word, cant think of anything else right now). All its really saying is "I dont know how to adjust my business plan to incorporate changes in cost of sales, without losses".  As a buyer it puts me off because I dont want to have issues with a seller who doesnt know what theyre doing.

1. "Business" sellers - people who use Ebay to supplement income, or as their total income, or part of a business:

When these type of people complain about the price of postage, I have zero sympathy. I'm one of these people, btw, so I am going through the exact same thing. If someone who is in business to make money and cannot figure out a way to overcome a very small (dollar, not percentage) increase in postage, then they shouldn't be here. I worry for them. I worry they are already not making money because they demonstrate they have little knowledge of how to run a business, and zero initiative. There are so many ways to overcome it, its ridiculous. The postage increase has actually benefitted me. I make more money per sale now, than before the increase, BOTH item types - those I increase the price of, and those I didnt, and thats low cost items (I sell items UNDER $2!) included - I adjusted my business plan and a few aspects of my business yesterday. You can too, its not some exclusive club, you just need do your research, take the initiative and make changes to how you work.  REGULAR price increases on almost everything, continuously, is a normal part of business. This isnt the first price increase, and it wont be the last. (various costs in my business increase every 3-6 months! I still make the same, or more, profit, because I adjust!).

Don't look as a postage hike as an individual cost - look it as a part of your overall costs. Reduce costs in other areas to compensate, and youll probably find you can actually make MORE money.

If youre not willing to put in the effort to find and make those changes, then thats fine, but its nothing to do with Auspost. Its YOU.

2. Hobby sellers:

Change the items you sell. Change the way you sell and conduct your hobby. Get a new hobby. Its not complicated.

Honestly guys... man up.  Surely we're not all this clueless.

[lyndal1838]

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@saarzi wrote:

Honestly guys... man up.  Surely we're not all this clueless.

---

No saarzi, not everyone is clueless but judging by what we see on the boards every day there is a good percentage that are.

[lupercal]

When I started selling in 1999 there was no Australian EBay, no PayPal; nearly all my customers were Americans who sent me banknotes through the mail. And of course you could neg deadbeat bidders. But pointless memories aside, in those days there used to be a special 'printed matter' rate which applied to ALL media, from books to floppy discs, DVDs or anything which could be construed to be a means of storing information. I would just write 'printed matter' on parcels, and they wouldn't need a customs declaration. I seem to remember there was also a special designation for articles for the blind, and possibly the two systems were somewhat inter-related, but I'm not sure. In any case there was a sense of OzPost still being primarily a public service, rather than a semi privatised business trying to squeeze every cent out of the public.

I only started selling again in the last 6 months, having gotten out of it back inabout 2005, but by then things had changed. Even in the early 00's some postal employees would let you still get away with the 'printed matter' statement, others would be **bleep** about it, and others just seemed confused.

Nowadays my local PO isn't even staffed by OzPost employees any more. It's basically like a McDonald's franchise.the staff tend to err on the conservative side because OzPost can charge them directly if they underestimate postage. At least that's what I was told. I was also told, for example, that if a 'large letter' doesn't fit through the gauge/slot  properly, I can be fined personally by OzPost. Some things are familiar though: whereas different staff used to accept or reject the 'printed matter' rule, nowadays I know who to approach and who to avoid over the perennial 'does it fit easily through the slot' issue, re large letters. Nobody has a precise definition of what 'easily' means. Some are happy if it passes through at all; others seem to think it shouldn't even touch the sides. And it doesn't help that the standard OzPost padded bags are generally too thick to fit through. I buy mine at BigW.

Forgive the rambling nature of the above.  

Anyway I know what you mean about things like double CDs (especially the thicker, older style ones), or thicker Amray case DVDs. It's pretty ludicrous that I could put two single CDs in a bag, next to each other, for $2.10, but a thicker 2CD set costs $7.45, when it's essentially the same thing, and may even weigh LESS. But the days are gone, of OzPost being commonsensical about anything where there is money to be made. The number of 2CD sets I have backed up because I know there's no point listing them at $7.45 postage...

Ah, well, if we wait long enough, letter rate will BE $7.45 and it won't matter.

loop