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Comment by pico303 | Hacker News Reader

Did it seem to anyone else that during the holidays, UPS prices skyrocketed? I felt like a box that would have run me $25 to ship 3 day ground a year or so ago was almost $60 this year. If this is how others felt, UPS might struggle next holiday season while USPS and Amazon thrive.

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Maybe it’s just been years since I sent an overnight envelope without my secretary’s help, but a couple months or two ago, I went to a UPS store to send a letter overnight and it was $75. Crazy.

I feel like not that long ago, overnighting a letter was a $15-20 expense (as long as you weren’t opting for one of the “very first thing” delivery slots).

If I go to a FedEx store I routinely get prices of $30 - $50 to send an overnight envelope, if I go to my corporate mailroom it’s $10-15 for the same shipment… my point being there are is a broad range of pricing regimes based on volume etc.

It can get really broad, too. A former coworker who used to work for a brand you've probably heard of (if you're American) whose core business model involved/involves a ton of mostly-overnight shipping told me once that he could send a heavy package literally from one corner of the country to another for $LOTS on his own dime, $90 for 5-day ground on the company's dime, or... $8 for early overnight. Eight bucks! I don't think that even paid for the jet fuel.

Guess which he chose?

Shipping prices are weird.

Sign up for a shipping account. It's often an immediate ~50% discount off retail, and that improves (slowly) as you ship more. At least that's how it works for FedEx.

I don't know if that's just because they like keeping out the "retail riff-raff", they like having your credit card on file, that juicy "data", or what, but it works.

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