Amazon told third-party sellers Wednesday they will have to absorb the increase in shipping costs when the USPS raises postal rates next week. Amazon charges buyers shipping fees for items purchased from its third-party sellers on Amazon Marketplace, but will not raise shipping fees for buyers; instead, sellers will absorb the higher shipping costs.

Amazon used to reimburse sellers for part of the shipping fees. In October, Amazon changed the way it displays shipping fees on seller reports. Instead of forwarding sellers the shipping fees less a "shipping holdback fee," it began crediting the full amount buyers pay for shipping and added a fee called "variable commission fee" equal to the shipping holdback fee (not a percentage of the selling price). Sellers complained about the change because buyers would fail to understand that Amazon was not giving sellers 100 percent of the shipping fees Amazon charged buyers (http://auctionbytes.com/cab/abn/y05/m09/i13/s01).

At the time, sellers speculated that Amazon was making the change in anticipation of higher postage rates that "would be easier to pass off onto sellers."

Four days before the impending USPS postal rate increase, Amazon posted in its Seller Success board, "At this time, there will be no change to what Amazon.com buyers pay for shipping or to what Amazon.com sellers are credited for shipping" (http://digbig.com/4fwdn).

Several threads on Amazon discussion boards have been started to protest the higher costs to sellers.

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