USPS plans to end Bound Printed Matter

This is huge for booksellers. If BPM is eliminated, we will have to increase prices on our lower-priced books. Best case scenario (other than USPS deciding to keep BPM) is that Amazon can negotiate better Media Mail rates. Sure would be nice if eBay, Pirate Ship and others would attempt to do the same.

[Postage Saver] USPS proposes to end Bound Printed Matter postage rates

[Bookscouter] USPS Plans to Eliminate Bound Printed Matter (BPM) Services: A Game-Changing Shift for the Book Industry - BookScouter Blog

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Be thankful that Media Mail remains.

It has neither the volume nor the price to contribute to a USPS profit.

The postage saver article refers to Informed Visibility Barcodes which I believe is what Ebayers are seeing on Ebay Standard Envelope and are unreliable so do not see them as a hope for lower rates.

It also notes the presorted BPM rate which I doubt many of the small or medium Amazon sellers are using.

They also failed to note the other BPM defect, the need to mark the package to authorize the return of undeliverable shipments.

I cannot say the absence if BPM will make any difference to my little business, but I’ve shifted to lighter shipments and Ground Advantage.

Mod edit: Political commentary removed.

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One thing not mentioned for differences is that there are some items that we booksellers sell that are not allowed to go MM due to advertising; such as yearbooks, auction catalogs, and Broadway Playbills, all of which can be shipped BPM. So for these things, the additional cost will be even more.

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I find my playbills to be cheaper to ship via GA, auction catalogs too.

But it may be the effect of the zones my buyers are in.

I have not checked out the effects of cubic rate for GA on my larger, heavier shipments.

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We’ve only recently started using BPM for things other than books (started using Vequo, so have it available for eBay, etc.). We’ve had only a few orders, so haven’t double checked.
But since it’s always been cheaper (buying on Amazon) for books than any other service, I’m surprised that you find GA cheaper. Although I do find GA Cubic cheaper than MM on some heavier books, but still more than BPM.

And we’ve not had a multiple catalog order recently; those can get heavy fast! (and since BPM has a weight limit of 15#, could come into play).

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This is a pretty big blow to booksellers on Amazon. We use bpm for 99% of our orders and save prob $.50-2.00 on average per package over Media Mail. Over a year this is thousands of dollars. I would expect media Mail to be next on the chopping block relatively soon.

I can easily see a place where each book requires a $7-10 shipping fee tacked on just to cover costs.

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Recently we have seen Ground “Disadvantage” costing less than Media Mail. Always used Media Mail for qualified items. It took a while to catch on, thanks to Amazon (not sarcasm this time) we would only be resented the Ground Advantage option, check with our shipping system. The costs were less on both for GA.

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Note that @Picks_by_Nisha has not noted this phenomena. Apparently there is a weight range which when sent to an appropriate zone where this appears.

My fixed price shipping using GA still is not a loser for me when I check each month so media mail is now a rare service for me.

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I have seen cases where GA is cheaper than MM; but never cheaper than BPM (just to make sure it’s clear).

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I have seen cases where MM is cheaper than BPM and when I used those services would have to check which to use.

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I used to see this in the past, but since 2024’s price increase, which affected MM but not BPM, have not seen it. And I think that BPM is no longer zoned, but same price no matter where it’s going, although I’ve not double checked. But for the last year, it’s generally at least $1 cheaper than MM on all but the lightest books.

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As I have said, with rare exceptions, I am now shipping items under one pound. I can live with the cost of GA and will unless there is another price increase.

I expect USPS’ rate schedule will look like FEDEX or UPS in terms of number of services in a year or two, unless there is no management change. I expect it to be sooner, if there is one.

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BPM is not zoned, you are correct. The only time we see GA cheaper than MM is if it’s a very light parcel, such as for a CD or DVD, and only if it’s going to a very close zone, in-state or just one or two states away.

In the Postage Saver article I linked to above, the author notes that “USPS argues that '81 percent [of all BPM] was sent by just 10 large corporate mailers (72% of all BPM flats, 91% of all BPM parcels).” Presumably, Amazon is one of those “large corporate mailers” (perhaps the single biggest user of BPM) but of course it is not Amazon, AFAIK, actually shipping anything BPM, only the FBM third-party sellers to which it is offered. With this in mind, I am pipe-dreaming that Bezos uses his perhaps newfound influence to stop this change.

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I believe Amazon might not be in the list of Top 10 BPM mailers.

Unlikely, any use other than by FBM sellers and books are now a minor category on Amazon.

Unlikely that Jeff would ask a favor of anyone for such a measly amount of money.

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