Overseas tracking blues

As my previous post mentioned, we have been trying to keep the international side of our hobby alive.  It has become incredibly frustrating, with USPS shipping costs having gone up x5 or x6 for small overseas parcels in the past decade.  We keep having to think about no longer shipping outside the USA.  

We only ship lots under two ounces overseas these days, but we just had an order where a customer bought 8 items, which came out to be a 4-ounce large envelope.  I filled in the usual customs form, but then the clerk got involved. He said he can't put a customs form on an envelope without upgrading it to a small package, so the only options for tracking were $17 (package), $24 (add registered) and $37 (global Priority).  It was a $50 order.  I really wanted to offer a tracking number, but it could not be done without taking a 30-65% loss on the shipment.  OMG.  I have shipped over 15,000 mailings over my 40 years in business.  We used to put customs on large flat envelopes all the time, and the customs form number would work on the USPS Tracking page.  

But as the USPS does media blitzes about every little 4-cent increase to first class mail, the actual costs of other services goes up 10%-20% regularly.  Little rule changes force the mail into more expensive categories.  We used to be able to ship a small padded mailer for under a buck, now it's a minimum of $3.50 due to changes in the definitions.  I don't know what I would do if I was still publishing small press magazines -- would a 48-page digest-sized zine cost $3+ to ship now?  Maybe they could still go as letters with non-machinable surcharges: 3 ounce letter $1.29 plus $0.46 surcharge.  If the clerk allows it and doesn't try to trick me into other services.  Half the time, the clerk doesn't even seem to know the rules.  They just pick what they're familiar with.

I suppose we could sign up for some postage printing service: buy a label printer, plus whatever fees are involved.  Sounds incredibly bland and annoying.  In a way, you get penalized for wanting actual stamps on your mail.

Even local shipping gets expensive with tracking.  I helped my girlfriend Anne setup an Etsy shop last year, selling small batches of stamps for crafting, plus some custom scrapbooking bits we made.  But their terms said that any order over $10 requires a tracking number ... which costs a minimum of $7.  So when someone bought one or two of our $3 to $4 lots, it was fine, but if they buy three $4 lots or two $5 lots, then poof, we're expected to pay $7 for tracking.  It was like flushing money down the toilet.

We shut down that Etsy shop after less than a year.  Every other order was a hassle and a loss of one kind or another.

I guess small businesses should expect to constantly be priced out of the market.  Another way to look at it is: it's not worth listing anything under $20 anymore.  There's also a limit to how much cost you can throw at the buyer before the business model starts to break down.