Media Mail

[Lager]

Is there any other way to send media mail without making a trip to the post office? I would like to ship these from home instead of waiting in line at the post office.

How do I send media mail from home? If someone can explain this to me, I'd appreciate it. Thanks.

 

[iwearnosox]

Stamps.com.

 

[Lager]

Originally posted by: iwearnosox
Stamps.com.

Thank you. 🙂 But is there anything cheaper? I'm not a power seller and the 10% fee plus 4.95 month is steep.

 

[manly]

I could be mistaken, but there's nothing sacred about media mail.

Put enough stamps in the postage area, and then write "Media Mail" next to the postage. At the PO, they'll stamp "Media Mail" in that area but it's not like you get a special label or anything.

Now whether or not the USPS will actually honor this is unknown to me since I've never tried it, but I don't see why not.

 

[iwearnosox]

You're always going to pay a premium outside of the post office. There's indicia.com, you could check their rates. YOu can print postage at cost here but not media mail.

 

[iwearnosox]

Originally posted by: manly
I could be mistaken, but there's nothing sacred about media mail.

Put enough stamps in the postage area, and then write "Media Mail" next to the postage. At the PO, they'll stamp "Media Mail" in that area but it's not like you get a special label or anything.

Now whether or not the USPS will actually honor this is unknown to me since I've never tried it, but I don't see why not.

This will work, but:

1. Unless you've got a gazillion 1 cent stamps you're going to overpay your shipping.
2. Gotta buy a good scale (required for any of these options I suppose.)
3. Post office people get wary of stamps like that, they usually want to meter the package and make sure you have sufficent postage. This would equal waiting in line again.

 

[Lager]

Do you guys go to the post office or just ship it from your home?

Are their extra fees for UPS to pick up your package?

 

[vegetation]

If you're sending a package over 16oz and use non-metered mail, you cannot mail it from a dropbox -- the package must be handed to a postal official. If you do not do this, the package will be returned to you. Having a meter (includes endicia.com, stamps.com) lets you bypass this rule.

 

[manly]

Originally posted by: iwearnosox

Originally posted by: manly
I could be mistaken, but there's nothing sacred about media mail.

Put enough stamps in the postage area, and then write "Media Mail" next to the postage. At the PO, they'll stamp "Media Mail" in that area but it's not like you get a special label or anything.

Now whether or not the USPS will actually honor this is unknown to me since I've never tried it, but I don't see why not.

This will work, but:

1. Unless you've got a gazillion 1 cent stamps you're going to overpay your shipping.

Many people would gladly overpay up to 37 cents (even less if you buy postcard stamps) to save any time in line at the PO. I certainly would.

2. Gotta buy a good scale (required for any of these options I suppose.)

I don't ship much stuff, but when I used to ship light priority mail packages, I used an inaccurate kitchen scale and rounded up. Of course, PM shipping rates only increase every half (or full) pound, so this was risk-free for me. If I shipped regularly in volume, I wouldn't mind investing in a digital postal scale.

3. Post office people get wary of stamps like that, they usually want to meter the package and make sure you have sufficent postage. This would equal waiting in line again.

I believe you can hand the parcel to the postal deliveryman or stick it in a mail collection box if it weighs less than 1 pound. If not, I just cut in line at the PO (in between customers) and hand over the package, telling the postal worker that postage is pre-paid. While this is for the USPS.com aforementioned printed priority mail labeled packages, I don't see a big difference to regular stamps or any other metered, printed stamps (i.e. neopost or stamp.com). The customer assumes the responsibility when they affix their own postage, which is what I alluded to originally. I'd actually be more worried during mail sorting rather than if a postal worker at the counter wants to be fastidious about enough postage. There are the rare cases when packages are returned to sender, even though they were metered at the retail counter by a postal employee.

Even though the final option doesn't prevent a trip to the post office, it can still save a LOT of time waiting in line during peak hours. What I've described above can be researched at USPS.com (for example, you can look up a table of media mail and first class postage rates).

As far as UPS picking up packages, I don't believe this is a no-fee option unless you do enough volume to arrange a daily pickup.