FYI All - I got this for my UPS business account last week, and thought it would be of interest to those shipping parts. Not a huge increase, but still....

You may want to ship them before the end of the year if you have anything to get or ready to go out now.

<snipped>
Dear UPS Customer,

Thank you for choosing UPS®. As a current account holder, we want to make you aware of changes to the 2012 published rates. Next year, the published rates for our services will be increasing; however, this increase enables UPS to continually expand and improve our portfolio of solutions, helping us serve you and making the service you offer your own customers even better.

2012 Rates Information
Effective January 2, 2012, UPS rates will increase as follows*:

UPS Ground services will increase a net 4.9% through a combination of a 5.9% increase in rates and a 1 percentage point reduction in the UPS Ground fuel surcharge.
UPS Air and International services will increase a net 4.9% through a combination of a 6.9% increase in rates and a 2 percentage point reduction in the UPS Air and International services fuel surcharge. Rates for UPS Next Day Air® remain up to 4% lower than our largest U.S. private competitor for similar services.
UPS Next Day Air® Freight and UPS 2nd Day Air® Freight rates for shipments within and between the U.S., Canada and Puerto Rico will increase 5.9%. UPS 3 Day Freight® rates will remain unchanged.

To review these new rates, as well as changes to accessorial rates and customs brokerage fees, visit ups.com/rates.
<end snip>

Ouch!
I've had great luck with USPS this past year selling some parts, hard to beat the price.

Reducing fuel surcharges but bumping up everything else.

Wonder if they are anticipating an economic upturn, because once that happens, fuel is going back up, and that way they have their other price increases already in place.

I guess an 8.1% revenue increase this year wasnt enough...

Nathan,

I shipped an NOS 2.0 banana muffler earlier this year, and my UPS quote was only $6 more than the Post Office Priority Mail (flat rate doesn't apply to large items). UPS included $300 insurance & they actually track it & deliver as quoted.

The seller got the lower USPS quote & we decided to try them, but USPS was a week late on their promised date (20 days in all) & offered no tracking nor insurance over the $100. The seller & I both decided to forgo using USPS whenever possible.

However I have had good luck with shipping USPS Priority Flat Rate on smaller items from other members on here in the past.

Back up....!!?? I'm still waiting for them to go back down!
4
There is no reason for crude oil to be in the $90-100 per barrel range right now, other than speculative bubbling - just like when it hit the $140+ level with $4-5 gas a few years back. Only consolation is some late speculators lost money on the commodities prices after the bubble popped.

Housing & Real Estate is not the only bubble prone area!