Cost of shipping vinyl from Germany to increase due to DHL amendments

The cost of shipping vinyl from Germany to the rest of the world is set to significantly increase as a result of pricing amendments to ‘vinyl-sized’ parcels by DHL. 

Currently, shipping two record from Germany to most of the world costs €6, but could rise to €19.98 from 1st July under the new guidelines. The same service shipping a UK address will cost €16.70. 

A petition has now been launched on Change.org in a bid to pressure DHL into offering a solution. The firm’s most recent year-end financial report showed record earnings for 2021, with overall revenue across all divisions up 22.5% and a turnover of €81.7bn

“2 records (two regular 12″ Vinyl) to destinations outside of Europe can now still be send [sic] for EUR 6,00 and 4 Records (that’s four 12″ records) for EUR 9,00 to places like the US or Australia or any other destination outside the EU until now. This will not be possible anymore after July 1st,” a representative from YoreStore, one of the record shops behind the campaign, posted on a Discogs forum thread. 

“It would then go up to EUR 15,89 for the same service (sending 1-4 records to the US or Australia or any destination outside of Europe). The US for example is a strong market for vinyl to be ordered from Germany and it would simply not be possible to serve US customers anymore (unless for orders of 7 records or above). Who’s going to pay EUR 15,89 (without packaging) compared to EUR 6,00 for 1-2 records being sent?” they continued, adding: “This will effect all German record labels, all german vinyl mailorders, all smaller or bigger german Discogs sellers, and all german record stores.” 

The statement goes on to explain the petition is “not even about the prices of the fares” but rather asking DHL to change the formats of their parcels, so 12″ vinyl records can fit into the new maximum size packaging for cheaper parcel rates, as was once the case. A number of comments underneath point out that shipping costs from Germany have historically been much lower than many other EU and non-EU countries. Nevertheless, the new charges could potentially have a major impact on sales, with many stores reliant on mail order demand from major overseas markets such as the US and UK, where vinyl sales have significantly increased in recent years.