Here in the UK one of the favourite moans
is the price of posting a letter. Last year there was a particularly big hike,
but it is nothing in comparison to the rise about to happen in the US. I don’t
know the details across the board but it’s the change in the UK equivalent of “Small
Packet” postage cost that is really going to hurt. It seems the cost of posting
a single 45 from the US to the UK/Europe is about to go up from about $6.90 to
$12.95! The US dealers and vinyl fraternity are having kittens over at
Waxidermy and desperately trying to come up with ingenious ways of mitigating
the situation, but there appears to be no real answer.
Many of the 45s I have been buying in
recent years have been direct from the US. I have found that if you shop around
and also buy a few records at the same time the cost, including shipping, is generally
cheaper than buying from a UK dealer; plus the facts that there is 1) a much wider choice and 2) my experience is the US dealers often grade their records more accurately. If
you are buying an expensive record then I guess the postage cost is of little
consequence, but I operate at the cheap(ish) end of the market usually and I fear
this signals the end of an era for me L
We'll see what actually transpires after the 27th but it seems that getting my Soul fix is just about to get
a lot more difficult.
It’s not fair!