Cost-cutting at the USPS, delayed mail delivery. To me, that's not good for our coins. https://abc7.com/business/mail-could-be-delayed-as-new-postal-boss-pushes-cost-cutting/6319839/
These are the days of "instant gratification". I want it now. I grew up in a time of patience. The SASE (Self Addressed Stamped Envelope) days. We were quite satisfied to wait a few days for an order to come in. Most of us have been collecting for many years and if a coin we want will get here in a week or a day what difference does it make? If you've been collecting for 30 years, then it took you 30 years and 3 weeks to get that coin. I think the USPS needs to fine tune their costs and we need to have the patience to participate.
Only the post office could lose a ton of money when online ordering has skyrocketed. Maybe one day they will figure out they could make a ton of money on insurance if they had reasonable rates or dropped the price a lot. They don't lose that many packages but they do miss out on a ton of money from people seeing the price and saying nope
Yes. I don't sell on line anymore. I can't sell a coin for $2 and charge $1.50 for postage. I can't do it with free shipping either. I can't sell a proof set and ship it in a padded envelope unless I charge several $ more for shipping. I have so much accumulated over the past 70 plus years just sitting in boxes.
I agree with the prohibitive cost of shipping for small dollar items. I've gotten to the point where I will only sell lots that are large enough costwise to ship flat rate Priority Mail.
I sell and buy online. From a buyer's standpoint, I realize the shipping issue and am willing to pay the additional expense for the shipping if it is a coin I want. If it is a lot of silver, for example, I calculate the shipping into the cost and decide whether I want to pay that. Just part of doing business. As a seller, I get a lot of folks that don't want to pay the additional expense for the coins I have to sell which sucks so I have to add it to the price and offer free shipping (a mental thing). Either case sucks because I'm sure some of you out there have things I want (really bad in some cases) but won't sell because of that issue. Hurting us all the way around.