new cost for bubble envies

did anyone else know it now costs 1.13 to send a sasbe that is 6x9?? it went from 52 cents to 1.13 that is crazy!! before it cost us $1.04 round trip now it is $2.26 is it just me or is that an aweful big jump? the po said the cheapest ways to ship now is flatrate and the smallest possible box to send and that bubble envies are the most expensive to ship now. if stamps only went up 2 cents what is the deal here? have any of you started to ship different now and not use bubble or are you still useing the same methods? if you changed how are you shipping them now or what are you doing different?
thanks,
silkie

That is expensive.I think I will purchase my seeds from now on from a seed company.It will be worth paying the postage the seed company charges in the long run.

The post office charged me 1.18 to ship a small bubble envelope last week for seeds.I sent 5 packs of seeds in a trade.This is ridiculous.

i had the same thought. it's going to kill alot of our seed swaps and tradeing. noone will want to do any unless they have to now. i have to go to the usps site and check new rates. i only knew of the flatrates and the stamps to 41 cents. so i have to find out what else has changed. i figured others had to but not that much. my word if the bubbles are that bad i'm afraid to even see how bad the others went up too.

they told dh 1.13 it was a sasbe with a little note and return address in it. he was finding out so he knew how many stamps to put in and on it.

I always enjoyed!trading seeds.This is ridiculous the cost of sending one small bubble envelope with 5 packs of seeds.Go figure!it will be alot cheaper to purchase seeds from seed company and buy what you will want.I asked the post office worker if this was correct and he said it is correct, the cost He charged me.
They are charging for rates.This includes even the small bubble envelopes.Like everything else goes up in prices.This is absurd.

You guys aren't the only ones ticked. Even the postal workers are very angered over the changes. There are so many changes and they are so confusing, no one can kep them straight.

The issue with bubble envelopes is that they cannot go thru a machine. They all have to be hand handled...this is where the costs have come in. The USPS has changed everything based on the manpower / hand work that has to be done, size it takes up, etc..it isn't just about weight or large sizes anymore.

I just got a small bubble today...sent to me..the smallest bubble I have ever seen...do not know where it was bought from..but anyway..it sent for 63 cents..? measured it...4 x 6...inches...made it fine..I always keep some tiny bubble..or form sheet..tape the seeds packets..to it. On both sides .put..3 x 5 card on each side..so there is not so much of a bump..and tape it to the middle of the inside of the envelope.. so the machine..does not grab it..where the zip code is printed..on the bottom of the envelope. Keeps the seeds from getting smashed.. .I have to use..plastic..tiny zip locks..for the seeds..but..it keeps the price down..I guess if you have large seeds this might not work..Just my two cents...lol...smiles..Diana

They are also measuring the thickness of the envelope as well as the dimensions. If an envelope is over a certain thickness the postage goes up.

our worker told me before it went up it was 52 for a bubble after it was over a 1/4" thick then it was 63 cause of hand cancel. now what it is, is way off of that. only thing i can figure is they told us a few weeks ago due to the increase in so much mail and haveing to drive extra and use more gas, hireing more people and the cost of gas up that was the real issue of them raiseing it. i don't know how true it is but it's the reason my post office gave us.

if just the ones i normally use went up can you imagine what the swap ones will cost now!! they are 8.5x11. i'm scared to see what they are up too to. this is awefull for everyone all around.

she said the smaller size would be cheaper so i'm betting 63 is right for that size. i have about 50 of my size ones,lol. i don't got no smaller ones. wonder if cutting in half will work, rotfl.

i'm going to check prices for usps and fedx jimmy crickets it might be cheaper to use them now for packages,lol. when you pad a regular letter envie and send it what has it been costing now?
silkie

Thanks for posting this....dummy me didn't think much about it, I thought it might go up ten cents or something. We're all going to have to think on this and get creative somehow. I think we'll be mailing more regular envelopes.

Just jumping in here......

Why is it necessary to use bubble envelopes if one is sending a few seeds to someone? I am not a huge seed trader, but have sent several in those itsy--bitsy plastic zip baggies with seeds in them in a regular envelope with just a folded tissue for cushioning for one, regular first-class stamp. Is it still 39 cents?????

I understand, that if you are sending whole packets and larger seeds, you may need a bubble envelope, but NOT if it is just some small seeds.

I don't even take mine to the PO. I have a letter scale and weigh my letters if I cannot "tell" how much it weighs by feel. This little scale weighs up to 4 oz. Got it at a flea market. Really useful. It is almost in the "antique" category.

Gita

39 cents is now 41 so i thought when they said it was going up a little it ment not much like you said 10 cents or so but they said there was gonna be changes made and they wouldn't tell the workers what. they would find out when everyone else did what the new rates would be. i didn't think about it much for any of the envies till we tried mailing them today and everything was doubled. i assumed it was a change major in like a new service added or boxes as i knew only flatrate boxes would be affected at the time but it seams as though everything has been hit by it.

i use bubbles as alot of things like canna seeds, lillies, iris and such get smashed during ship due to being fragile so i use it to protect them or if i have like alot to send to keep them from crushing together so much. it was cheaper for us to send swaps with seed packets, gifts and such but i think now mabe little boxes might be better, heck i don't even know anymore.

when i use a regular envie i send that way or use bubble wrap around them, sometimes i send them in little ty beanie tag covers,lol but now i'm confused at what we are to use cause with the prices alot of things we are better off just buying at a store or ordering from companies for those ship prices. if we can't find a better cheaper way to do it then honestly it isn't worth it unless it's just for the fun of it or cause we seriously want something ya know.

if someone wants to send a sasbe or postage for something now how do we even know what to tell them? i have a 50lb scale i bought on ebay and usually i use paypal ship and print my own labels to send but i haven't used it yet since the new prices i figured check at the po first see how bad it was. i'd hate to see so many of us loose out on tradeing and helping newbies out, it's really sad when ya think about the loss some of us will be takeing ya know. there has to be a better way we can come up with to still be able to enjoy and share our gorgous gardens.
silkie

Well, part of trading seeds, I assume, is to see if you occasionally get the stuff you can't easily acquire from stores or are too expensive via seed catalogues. :-)

$2.00 to get a whole bunch of seeds is still pretty inexpensive compared to .99 cents a package for WalMart seeds or $1.99 a package for seeds at a nursery.

I have used bubble envelopes to send seed mainly if any of the seed is large and could be crushed when running through a machine. Tiny seed or flat seed (like portulaca or tomato) might be fine but sweet peas or even pelleted petunia seeds often will arrived pulverized (I've had it happen). Change sucks but like every other postal price increase, I'll just get used to it until the next one:)
I participate in a book trading site and another plant co-op site too so this has been a hot topic for a couple of months now. With the cost of gas rising and everything else, maybe it was naive of me to think the price increases would be less than what it ended up being.

My take on this is for a buck and some change, it is still worth it to me. By the time I go to the different seed catalogs and pay for their seeds, which can be anywhere from $.50 to $8.00 for a few seeds, then pay their shipping and handling fees, that $1 something is a whole lot better than catalog rates. It still burns me that all of it is going up and the paychecks stay the same. Most of the time when I trade it is for something I really want and I figure I am saving alot of money by this method.

I was going to buy some shell vine seeds from a catalog store the other day (Wallyworld doesn't have them) they were $9.25 for 5 seeds and then it was another $7.95 for S&H. I think I would rather trade using a bubble enve instead. I can handle that price.

I also think that the types of seed I will be trading are not as easily located and would cost a lot more,but I will trade many more varieites of seed at once to make it worthwhile. I'm also assuming that shipping costs will go up with the seed companies.

If you think just the price of bubblers is unreal, start mailing some packages. Seems like the price has doubled on them too.

Using the bubbler s not so bad if you can trade for several packets of seed at the same time.

The sad thing is the fact that I and probablably several others wil not be able to give away as many seeds as we do for free postage. Somehow 60 cents didn't bust me even when some times it was 10 or 1 envelopes goign out at once to different folsk but now at over a buck a piece, it just to much to offer a whole lot of frees.

Don't like the change, can't do anythign about it, but what I don't like is folsk selling ya five little seeds and charging 4.50 for postage. Then you don't even get a new envelope. You get one that been reused from someplace and somebody else all cut and taped together in pieces. For trade s that fine. We gotta save where we can, but when you buy from a company and get that. Well, it frosts my cookies and will never deal with them again.

Amen, Starlight.

Per the PO Website:

Large Envelopes

* Maximum weight: 13 ounces
* Maximum length: 15"
* Maximum height: 12"
* Maximum thickness: 3/4"

If your large envelope exceeds these dimensions, it will be classified and priced as a package (parcel). Large envelopes must also be flexible, rectangular, and uniformly thick. A large envelope that exceeds 13 ounces is classified and priced as Priority Mail®.


$0.80 for the first ounce
$0.17 for each additional ounc

I don't normally mail plants, so I have no comparisons,but I mailed one this a.m. priority to Delaware from California (1-gallon pot, total 16 " in height, didn't weigh it) and it was $15.85 if this any help in determining current costs. I don't know what it would have cost previously.
Sherry

We use fedex for everything over 4 lb that is not flate rate compatible. Fedex is MUCH cheaper and includes delivery tracking and insurance....

You might want to start looking o the fedex site to get cost comparisons to USPS. We switched about 3 years ago and usually save over $100 a week on shipping.

This has really hit us at work too. I work for a company that publishes magazines. The PO no longer has a surface rate to Canada or overseas - only airmail. One of our magazines would cost over $10.00 to mail to England.

I spent not a little time on the USPS site the other day, trying to figure out how much postage to put on a small BE for some seeds I'd promised somebody. I measured my BE at 1/4 inch thickness, even with the seeds inside, so I didn't think I was up to "large envelope" rates... but no more stuffing 20 seed packets into a BE; the only way I can keep the thickness down to what I hope is 1/4 inch is to put in a single layer of seed packets. As best as I could figure it, my less than 1 oz small BE (I cut a 6x9 BE in half) measuring no more than 1/4 inch thick should have cost 41 cents plus 17 cents extra for the nonmachinable charge, so I stuck on 58 cents' worth of postage (59, actually, just because of the stamps I happened to have on hand) and crossed my fingers. We'll see if it arrives in good order.

One change is that it used to be that only envelopes under 1 oz were subject to the (formerly 13 cent) nonmachinable surcharge... once you hit 2 oz or more, the rates were the same whether or not it could be machine-cancelled. From the way the rate tables read now, it sounds like the nonmachinable surcharge applies to all envelopes and small packages of 13 oz. or less being sent via First Class.

I am going to have to drive down and have a chat with our new (and far friendlier) counter guy at the local post office.

Well my advise..is to check with more then..one PO>>> Seems like they are not getting it right...grrrrrrr....for sure...I am going to do that..then I will stick with the lesser..one...for sure....

smiles..Diana...

I work for a magazine publisher and these changes are awful for us. Just so you know, there used to be an economy air option for sending things outside the US. The PO no longer has this option - it's all air. To send one magazine to Europe will cost over $10.00.

I'm sorry, I already posting this info. The biggest change for our company is we can no longer replace a copy of our magazine if it doesn't get to our out of the US subscribers.

The company that makes our postage meter has made an addition to the machine to measure the mail for the new prices. The cost of this additional part of the machine costs more than the machine itself.

This message was edited May 27, 2007 8:33 AM

That's surely going to have an effect on your subscriptions and the rates you have to charge.

At our PO they used to have a price menu board up on the wall behind the clerks. Nothing really on it right now. I guess it's confusing to try to list the pricing with the new system.

yes critter the bubble made it fine. thanks so much!! i love everything ya sent!! let me know what ya'd like back in trade, ya've always been such a sweetheart and generous i don't think i've got to send you any goodies yet, so let me know ok.

it must be the post office here is what i'm thinking i have got some in like critters for 59 or some 61. i cut the bubbles in half and they are still i think 80-83 or something like that to send out but the ones in are cheaper. i have sent boxes #4 i think they are normally would have been 4.50 now are 6.85 to send. i'm gonna try the next closest po in the next town see how they ship there. from my understanding not everyone understands the rates so each po is kinda different till they get it figured out. so it has been hard on the workers and the customers.

that reminds me how much is gas a gallon where ya all are from? it is to hit 4 something a gallon here by summer right now it is 3.09. before mothers day it was 2.74. 11 years ago i remember it being 99 cents and we always were out crusen in our cars then the next year it was 1.19 and people had a cow over the price. i don't think we will ever see those days again sad to say.
silkie

*whew* I'm glad they made it -- when I saw this thread, I was sweating over whether I'd put enough postage on! Don't worry about a swap; it'll work out down the line or you'll pass it on, either way works for me. :-)

I think the tricky thing is this business with the thickness of the envelope... it's not even clear to me from the rate tables how the difference between a regular envelope (1/4 inch max) and a large envelope (3/4 inch max) affects the postage. What a pain! And I really feel for those whose businesses are affected...

Hope the price of junk mail went up also. Make it will cut down on the amount we get!

Oh YEAH! There's the silver lining:)

About ordering from seed companies...SInce postage has gone up don't you figure that they will change their shipping rates too?

More than likely and free catalogs may not be free anymore. I know I use online shopping but I still like my catalogs sometimes and they are great for reference.

It is worse here in Canada,
They now want over 4.00 for a 6x9 bubble mailed to the U.S. instead of 85 cents. So we got nailed worse than you guys.

Trailingon, I am a Canadian who moved to Massachusetts for a tenure track job at a local college. We moved in 2002. what the blazes is happening to Canada? It sounds like everything has been going to pot since we left . . . $4.00 for a small bubble envelope is outrageous.

$4! Yikes!

Hopefully we'll be able to get a solid answer on postage charges here in the US before seed trading starts up again in earnest next year.

Just a thought for some of you seed traders. It seems that the shipping of the the pre-addressed envelope is part of the problem. That is, a bubble envelope in a bubble envelope. Wouldn't it be cheaper to send the sender the cost of postage and the envelope and an addressed label. The sender could keep a small supply of bubble envelopes on hand and recover their costs from each receiver. Sometimes you just have to adjust as times change,,,

I, and I know some others do the same, only send one bubble envelope. I place stamps and address labels (filled out with my name & addy, and that of the person I'm sending to) inside the envelope and mail it to the person offering seeds. When they receive it, they open it, place the address labels and stamps on the outside, the seeds inside, seal it back up, and send it back. That way we're only paying to ship one envelope each way.

I think the problem is more that the BE on its own is 1/4 inch thick, so adding much in the way of seeds makes it a "large" envelope... and there seems no clear cut way of determining postage for those, as far as I've been able to find.

yes critter that is the problem. i figure if it is over 1/4" why waste the postage for 2-3 pks of seeds so i put in about 10 or more, make it worth it.

i still trade don't get me wrong just i try to do more with one person. rather than like 30 trades at a time like i was doing now it is about 5, rotfl. so we stuff the bubbles. we pick how many pks we want to send then pick from each others lists what we like and fill the # left with surprise ones so it makes it more fun to get the # of pks we are sending. that way we are cutting down postage by not sending so many bubbles out.

for sasbe i use just one bubble and have them reuse it as said. i have only seen like 2 swap be 's come in with one inside another everything else i get for them or sasbe has been just one. i always save my bubbles and reuse till i think they have had enough,lol. i have about 50 left from trades i'm still reuseing just slower now is all.

i could never stop tradeing or doing sasbe and what not it is so nice to get new things or stuff i can't get here. i just would like to find a new way to do it is all. with a family of 7 with the rates cheaper i could trade with many people and share now i just can't afford to do it with so many. i don't want to have to give up something i love to do. without all the great friends i have here my gardens would not be what they are today. i'd asume the prices would change with the new rates from the companies so far i have seen very few with changes but i'm sure over time they will go up also.
silkie