CardShark gives and the USPS takes away. After our recent shipping reductions we are sadly faced with another postal increase. Although they claim a 2.1% increase on average, the prices that relate to small parcels (which is what collectable cards are considered) have seen an increase of 10.9% or .24 across all weights.
We have also seen increases in international Priority mail by as much as 25%.
We have increased our shipping by approx .24 for all First Class mail and also adjusted Priority mail prices domestically and internationally to fit with any changes.
Insurance has gone up a modest .05 - .10 and that has been adjusted as well.
Looking for a silver lining? Our recent shipping reductions and quantity re-categorization efforts still leave a net reduction in our overall shipping prices.
We apologize for this shipping increase but we need to pass on this cost to buyers to adequately compensate sellers for their shipping costs.
Here's the new pricing info announcement from the USPS:
https://www.usps.com/new-prices.htm
Here's a summary of some of the new shipping prices:
http://www.cardshark.com/Info/Shipping-Prices.aspx
http://www.cardshark.com/Info/International-Shipping-Guidelines.aspx
Here's a great site that has tracked the USPS increases over the last several years.
http://www.nerdylorrin.net/jerry/postages/index.html
All of us at CardShark
Thursday, January 26, 2012
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
New Lower Shipping Prices
Nine months ago, CardShark faced the biggest postal rate hike we've ever seen, and at that time we raised our shipping rates accordingly. Since then, our loyal buyers have given us feedback that our shipping charges were too high. With the help of some diligent buyers, we have reviewed the real shipping costs paid by sellers on many orders of various sizes. We agree that shipping charges were adjusted to be a bit too high, and we have decided to lower them.
Our new, lower shipping charges include the creation of a 4 to 24-card category ($2.99 shipping), and a decrease of around .50 across the board on orders of 25 cards or more and Priority Mail. Review all revised shipping prices here: http://www.cardshark.com/Info/Shipping-Prices.aspx
Thanks and enjoy your Holidays!
All of us at CardShark
Our new, lower shipping charges include the creation of a 4 to 24-card category ($2.99 shipping), and a decrease of around .50 across the board on orders of 25 cards or more and Priority Mail. Review all revised shipping prices here: http://www.cardshark.com/Info/Shipping-Prices.aspx
Thanks and enjoy your Holidays!
All of us at CardShark
Wednesday, September 14, 2011
Small Priority Mail shipping reduction
We have reduced our shipping costs for priority mail and large orders that are cheaper to ship as priority mail small flat rate to $6.99. Orders over 400 cards have also been reduced to $12.69
Sellers will receive the same shipping allowances.
This reduction is based on feedback on actual shipping prices for very large orders.
Thanks,
CardShark Member Services
Sellers will receive the same shipping allowances.
This reduction is based on feedback on actual shipping prices for very large orders.
Thanks,
CardShark Member Services
Reduced minimum amount needed to receive a payment
Recently we made some changes to our seller payment system. One of the changes was to require a $20 minimum before payments were issued to sellers. One of the reasons for this was to avoid having sellers who have chosen to receive weekly payments pay a fee on a very small payment amount.
In practice we realize this makes our smaller sellers have to wait too long to get paid and also most weekly payment sellers have larger amounts due.
Because of this we have removed all minimum amount restrictions on paying sellers.
This means that if you are due even .01 you will receive a PayPal payment.
Non weekly payment sellers are still paid only once a month for free and money will accrue until the next month.
Thanks,
CardShark Member Services
In practice we realize this makes our smaller sellers have to wait too long to get paid and also most weekly payment sellers have larger amounts due.
Because of this we have removed all minimum amount restrictions on paying sellers.
This means that if you are due even .01 you will receive a PayPal payment.
Non weekly payment sellers are still paid only once a month for free and money will accrue until the next month.
Thanks,
CardShark Member Services
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Important Seller Changes and Policy Updates
Important Upcoming Changes:
We have several new policies that will affect all sellers.
Payment frequency
1) You will be paid once a month (for free) instead of every Friday.
2) You may opt to be paid weekly still but there will be a $1 fee deducted from your payment (see reasoning below).
Activity
4) If you have not logged into your account in 3 months, your inventory will automatically be set to "On Vacation" mode for all games.
5) If you have not logged into your account in 6 months, any active cards for sale will be deleted. Your history, SharkShares and Account will always remain active.
6) Any accumulated seller level promotions (Great White, Hammer Head, LandShark) will be lost after 6 months of inactivity and will need to be re-applied for.
7) If you are unreachable by email your account may be placed On Vacation.
Email warnings will go out before and during all of these events. All of the activity changes should have no affect on regular sellers.
------
Reasonings
PayPal has recently increased their fees for us to pay you by 400%. As you know, CardShark pays all of the e-commerce fees related to your sales. In the past we have been able to also cover fees to send you weekly payments, but due to this large increase we can no longer absorb this cost.
If you wish to receive monthly payments, we will still absorb any fees, but if you prefer to continue to receive weekly payments, there will be a $1 fee deducted from your payment.
You must enable weekly payments via the Seller Preferences screen:
http://www.cardshark.com/Account/EditSellerPreferences.aspx
On this page you also now have the option to disable support for Delivery Confirmation if you do not wish to offer it.
Q: When in the month will I get paid? - Every Friday we will check if you have the weekly payments option selection. If yes, you will be paid all outstanding amounts and $1 will be deducted, if not, we will check if you have received a payment yet in this calendar month. If Not, you will receive a payment for all amounts pending.
When the next month rolls around, the same check is performed. Most likely people will see payments roll in on the first Friday of the month due to this setup, but it also has the added bonus of being able to get your money faster if you don't make regular sales. It also has the bonus of allowing you to get at your money at any time by simply checking the Weekly box and paying the $1. If you really need the money, just check the box and a payment will be made that Friday; You can always un-check it afterwards to go back to monthly free disbursements.
We have also set the minimum payment amount to be $20. This means that your account will accrue money due until $20 is reached before a payment is made. You will not be charged the $1 fee if a payment is not sent.
We are considering adding a "Credit" based system where you could spend any accrued money to purchase cards on CardShark. Let us know if anyone would find this useful.
Our reasoning for the vacation status changes and active inventory deletions should be obvious. They are to help us remind you of your account via email first and give you a chance to keep your inventory current. They will be used to detect bounced emails. They also serve to improve the overall quality of the cards listed by removing lapsed sellers or people that may have forgot they even have cards listed. This should benefit everyone by reducing cancellations, removing unreachable sellers, bringing active prices closer to true market and encouraging regular account maintenance by sellers.
One last thing: we have also increased SharkShares for buyers leaving feedback to 5 from 1. This will hopefully encourage more feedback to be left.
These policy changes are effective now but may take several weeks before full implementation.
If you have any comments, please email us or post it here for community input.
Thanks for your understanding of these changes.
All of us at CardShark.com!
We have several new policies that will affect all sellers.
Payment frequency
1) You will be paid once a month (for free) instead of every Friday.
2) You may opt to be paid weekly still but there will be a $1 fee deducted from your payment (see reasoning below).
Activity
4) If you have not logged into your account in 3 months, your inventory will automatically be set to "On Vacation" mode for all games.
5) If you have not logged into your account in 6 months, any active cards for sale will be deleted. Your history, SharkShares and Account will always remain active.
6) Any accumulated seller level promotions (Great White, Hammer Head, LandShark) will be lost after 6 months of inactivity and will need to be re-applied for.
7) If you are unreachable by email your account may be placed On Vacation.
Email warnings will go out before and during all of these events. All of the activity changes should have no affect on regular sellers.
------
Reasonings
PayPal has recently increased their fees for us to pay you by 400%. As you know, CardShark pays all of the e-commerce fees related to your sales. In the past we have been able to also cover fees to send you weekly payments, but due to this large increase we can no longer absorb this cost.
If you wish to receive monthly payments, we will still absorb any fees, but if you prefer to continue to receive weekly payments, there will be a $1 fee deducted from your payment.
You must enable weekly payments via the Seller Preferences screen:
http://www.cardshark.com/Account/EditSellerPreferences.aspx
On this page you also now have the option to disable support for Delivery Confirmation if you do not wish to offer it.
Q: When in the month will I get paid? - Every Friday we will check if you have the weekly payments option selection. If yes, you will be paid all outstanding amounts and $1 will be deducted, if not, we will check if you have received a payment yet in this calendar month. If Not, you will receive a payment for all amounts pending.
When the next month rolls around, the same check is performed. Most likely people will see payments roll in on the first Friday of the month due to this setup, but it also has the added bonus of being able to get your money faster if you don't make regular sales. It also has the bonus of allowing you to get at your money at any time by simply checking the Weekly box and paying the $1. If you really need the money, just check the box and a payment will be made that Friday; You can always un-check it afterwards to go back to monthly free disbursements.
We have also set the minimum payment amount to be $20. This means that your account will accrue money due until $20 is reached before a payment is made. You will not be charged the $1 fee if a payment is not sent.
We are considering adding a "Credit" based system where you could spend any accrued money to purchase cards on CardShark. Let us know if anyone would find this useful.
Our reasoning for the vacation status changes and active inventory deletions should be obvious. They are to help us remind you of your account via email first and give you a chance to keep your inventory current. They will be used to detect bounced emails. They also serve to improve the overall quality of the cards listed by removing lapsed sellers or people that may have forgot they even have cards listed. This should benefit everyone by reducing cancellations, removing unreachable sellers, bringing active prices closer to true market and encouraging regular account maintenance by sellers.
One last thing: we have also increased SharkShares for buyers leaving feedback to 5 from 1. This will hopefully encourage more feedback to be left.
These policy changes are effective now but may take several weeks before full implementation.
If you have any comments, please email us or post it here for community input.
Thanks for your understanding of these changes.
All of us at CardShark.com!
Friday, June 10, 2011
Small shipping adjustment
In April we had to increase our shipping prices due to another large shipping increase by the USPS. A while back we had merged the 4-7 and 8-15 card categories for simplicity, but with the recent changes, this has forced the cost of shipping 4 cards (a very common number) up to $3.50
We have received a number of complaints on how expensive it is to buy a play set of 4 cards and we agree wholeheartedly.
We did some creative changes to the current shipping prices and the end result is the addition of a 4-7 card category at $2.99 This is the best we can do considering the current large price to ship rigid/non-uniform materials via the USPS.
Sellers will find that the 1-3 card shipping allowance has been expanded to 1-7 cards. The new USPS pricing supports similar pricing on 1-3 ounces, so we feel that sellers can absorb this change. Higher quantity orders still provide a generous shipping allowance and can help offset the tight margins on shipping 1-7 cards.
Hopefully this change will improve sellers ability to make sales in the 4-7 card range where previously it may have been price prohibitive. We also hope that buyers will be pleased by the shipping reduction.
As always all of us at CardShark appreciate your business.
We have received a number of complaints on how expensive it is to buy a play set of 4 cards and we agree wholeheartedly.
We did some creative changes to the current shipping prices and the end result is the addition of a 4-7 card category at $2.99 This is the best we can do considering the current large price to ship rigid/non-uniform materials via the USPS.
Sellers will find that the 1-3 card shipping allowance has been expanded to 1-7 cards. The new USPS pricing supports similar pricing on 1-3 ounces, so we feel that sellers can absorb this change. Higher quantity orders still provide a generous shipping allowance and can help offset the tight margins on shipping 1-7 cards.
Hopefully this change will improve sellers ability to make sales in the 4-7 card range where previously it may have been price prohibitive. We also hope that buyers will be pleased by the shipping reduction.
As always all of us at CardShark appreciate your business.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
April 20th Update to Shipping Prices on CardShark.com
Greetings all,
It's been a long time since we have blogged about anything, but this one is major and we wanted to take a chance to communicate some big changes to shipping prices at CardShark.com this week.
The USPS has once again announced some huge increases while trying to pretend they are only increasing by a few pennies. New USPS Rates affective April 17, 2011. Sadly if mail is classified as rigid/non-uniform it is technically treated as a parcel. The last big increase brought this distinction and saw a massive increase to prices. This time around the USPS has combined the first 3 ounces of parcels and raised the rate by almost $.50
They have also finally gotten around to significantly raising international rates as well to be more in-line with domestic parcel increases. Our international users will note a small increase on small order sizes, but may notice a slight decrease on larger orders as we fine tuned some of the shipping prices to be in-line with current prices. Check out the new Buyer shipping prices.
How will this affect the single card buyer?
We had to increase the 1-3 card rate to $2.75 shipping. The 4-15 card rate has increased to $3.50. After that it evens out pretty much with no real increases.
We try as much as we can to keep our 1-3 card rate as low as possible, but with these huge increases it is very difficult to make this an affordable option. Some suggestions for our price conscious buyers are to try to purchase more cards from a single seller or to combine your orders into as few sellers as possible to help save on shipping charges.
How will this affect Sellers?
We have tried to maintain the same (adjusted) seller shipping allowances where possible. Sellers will notice they have extra materials costs in their international orders. The toughest part is the 1-3 card domestic orders. The materials costs is very low here and we expect sellers to be extra efficient in their packaging materials. As orders move into the 4-15 card range they will find a lot more flexibility in the materials costs.
As a company we have to support the lowest common denominator in shipping prices. Almost any rigid/non-uniform piece of mail could be classified as a parcel. Also using a bubble mailer will almost certainly get you classified as a parcel. Due to this and the heavy use of bubble mailers by many of our shippers we need to support parcel prices as the default. Some of our more clever shippers are still welcome to try to use letter sized envelopes with top loaders and pay non machinable surcharges which can yield a tidy profit on your shipping allowance or provide more money towards materials.
Check out the new Seller shipping allowances.
Insurance
Insurance rates have gone up $.05 to $.10 across the board and these prices have been adjusted accordingly on the site.
Please comment on any suggestions for improved shipping policies or feelings about the recent USPS postal increases and thanks for your continued support of CardShark!
It's been a long time since we have blogged about anything, but this one is major and we wanted to take a chance to communicate some big changes to shipping prices at CardShark.com this week.
The USPS has once again announced some huge increases while trying to pretend they are only increasing by a few pennies. New USPS Rates affective April 17, 2011. Sadly if mail is classified as rigid/non-uniform it is technically treated as a parcel. The last big increase brought this distinction and saw a massive increase to prices. This time around the USPS has combined the first 3 ounces of parcels and raised the rate by almost $.50
They have also finally gotten around to significantly raising international rates as well to be more in-line with domestic parcel increases. Our international users will note a small increase on small order sizes, but may notice a slight decrease on larger orders as we fine tuned some of the shipping prices to be in-line with current prices. Check out the new Buyer shipping prices.
How will this affect the single card buyer?
We had to increase the 1-3 card rate to $2.75 shipping. The 4-15 card rate has increased to $3.50. After that it evens out pretty much with no real increases.
We try as much as we can to keep our 1-3 card rate as low as possible, but with these huge increases it is very difficult to make this an affordable option. Some suggestions for our price conscious buyers are to try to purchase more cards from a single seller or to combine your orders into as few sellers as possible to help save on shipping charges.
How will this affect Sellers?
We have tried to maintain the same (adjusted) seller shipping allowances where possible. Sellers will notice they have extra materials costs in their international orders. The toughest part is the 1-3 card domestic orders. The materials costs is very low here and we expect sellers to be extra efficient in their packaging materials. As orders move into the 4-15 card range they will find a lot more flexibility in the materials costs.
As a company we have to support the lowest common denominator in shipping prices. Almost any rigid/non-uniform piece of mail could be classified as a parcel. Also using a bubble mailer will almost certainly get you classified as a parcel. Due to this and the heavy use of bubble mailers by many of our shippers we need to support parcel prices as the default. Some of our more clever shippers are still welcome to try to use letter sized envelopes with top loaders and pay non machinable surcharges which can yield a tidy profit on your shipping allowance or provide more money towards materials.
Check out the new Seller shipping allowances.
Insurance
Insurance rates have gone up $.05 to $.10 across the board and these prices have been adjusted accordingly on the site.
Please comment on any suggestions for improved shipping policies or feelings about the recent USPS postal increases and thanks for your continued support of CardShark!
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