If you’re going to be mailing stuff, why pay for envelopes and boxes when the USPS will send you great ones for free? The USPS will send you Priority Mail flat rate boxes, shoe boxes, envelopes, video boxes, address labels, stickers…. as well as all the various forms you might need… for free.
So, if you sell things on eBay or otherwise do a lot of mailing and have been paying OfficeMax for envelopes and boxes… don’t. Order this stuff, it’s awesome.
Priority Mail Shipping Supplies [USPS]
Express Mail Supplies [USPS]
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@HungryGrrl: “flat rate was increased by $4 this year- it used to be a mere $4.85 or so. Now it’s almost $9.” — you are thinking of two different flat rate packages. The small ones cost the same as one pound, while the larger ones (which used to cost $7.00 and now cost $8.95) are the cost equivalent of a 3 to 10 pound priority mail package depending on where you are shipping from/to. So, if you are mailing a 4+ pound package from New York to LA it is typically more economical to use the flat rate box than plain priority mail. If you are shipping locally, though, it is sometimes more economical to use your own packaging and pay a lower per pound rate.
@weave: Amen! People love to complain about “government waste”, but it isn’t like the private shipping firms are lining up to provide daily mail service to virtually every U.S. domicile.
I’ve worked in mail order for a good number of years now and agree with timmus that the USPS is a great parcel delivery service, especially for smaller and specialty merchants. Sometimes UPS/FedEx/DHL has a better rate, but that is typically if you are shipping volume (as in hundredweight) or (more importantly) shipping to locations with their own scheduled UPS (or FedEx) pick up service.
Also, Global Priority Mail flat rate can be a great bargain if you are shipping overseas, especially things that are dense and heavy. Almost all of the international orders I have processed in the last few years have been dramatically cheaper with Global Priority flat rate (either the large envelope or the box) than UPS, FedEx, or other USPS services.
Wow. I have too much to say about shipping. Going to go have a life now.
UPS (and I think FedEx, too) makes me pay a “rural surcharge” on every package I send to my home in rural northern Minnesota. We’re not even worth the effort for any high-speed internet options other than satellite, and no mobile phone provider has erected a tower that provides signal to our area. Sometimes government-imposed monopolies are good at insisting that basic services are provided equally and fairly.
And I think you people need to stop drooling over the idea of getting anything free and consider the economics and ethics of why that thing might be free. If you need boxes to use with the USPS, then take advantage of their service. But if you need boxes to build forts in your basement, then go spend your own money. Don’t ruin things for other people by abusing them.
Maybe now eBay auction whores won’t be inflating shipping 200% while moaning “but we have to pay for the boxes too!”
Then again, probably not.
USPS will also pick up priority mail from your home for free. Just mentioning this in case a shipping rape apologist chooses to pipe in with a “but I have to drive to the post office and gas is so expensive omg!11!” comment.
Linky
https://carrierpickup.usps.com/cgi-bin/WebObjects/CarrierPickup.woa
/has a few issues with bullshit shipping fees.
“I mean, [deregulation] sure worked great for electricity and telecommunications.”
And for the airlines, banking and broadcasting.
“We’re not even worth the effort for any high-speed internet options other than satellite, and no mobile phone provider has erected a tower that provides signal to our area.”
It’s the exact same situation where I am on the Oregon coast. Far cry from where I grew up in New York City, but that’s the situation here.
They’re not REQUIRED to give a shit about us, so they don’t. Please do not lecture me about the theoretical miracle of deregulation. As far as I can see, the tangible results of it are the Enron guys laughing on the phone about robbing “Grandma Millie” of her pension check. Remember that?
I’ve heard grumblings from two different post masters (one is my mother in law) that the USPS actually helps to subsidize *other* governmental operations (*cough* Iraq *cough*). The post office makes a healthy revenue and they turn part of it over to the government….so it’s kind of a one-way street. That was partly what was behind the last 2 cent hike…..a way to get some extra $$ for whatever the feds wanted to do
I’m not saying it’s 100% fact, but I did hear this directly from two different post masters in two different regions, so take that for whatever it’s worth
Foghat – I had a guy rant to me the same thing a few years back, that his “hard earned stamp money” was going to support the troops in Iraq and Afghanistan in a war he did not support. The same individual found the “We Support Our Troops” sign in the Post Office’s window HIGHLY offensive and demanded it be removed (something I did not have the power to do as I did not work at the post office he referred to.)
Then again this was a customer not a postmaster and his entire argument was centered around that “We Support Our Troops” sign. Still, it would not surprise me if some of the USPS’s income was being subsidized to other things such as the war. They said that Congress was making USPS open an escrow account for the price hike to 39 cents but did not offer a clear explanation for the most recent one.
@loraksus: “shipping rape apologist”
Hilarious… that should be in Wikipedia.
You know, people using post office boxes for moving instead of mailing things increases their costs, which increases our postage…
Just a thought.
Seriously people, go to your local bookstore. Skip everything else, just go out to bookstores and ask for boxes. Unless they’re in the middle of an inventory cycle and returning things like mad, they’ll give you as many boxes as you ask for and bookstore boxes are the PERFECT size for moving, unlike priority boxes which are mostly odd shapes. You can pack a bookstore box with anything except loose paper, stuff it to the gills, and still be able to pick it up. Because it’s designed to be full of books and still have the average employee be able to lift it.
Loose paper is doable if you’re strong or hiring movers, but I can’t manage it so I usually alternate. Loose papers are packed with lighter items like clothes to even it out.
I’ve moved eleven times in ten years. Priority mail boxes are not what they’re cracked up to be. Their poster tubes are handy, because poster tubes are costly. That’s the only product of theirs that I use.
For people who are looking to use these boxes for moving (at least one or two have mentioned it in previous comments) – again, it is illegal to use these boxes for anything other than shipping through USPS.
Although I think it’d be pretty hilarious to see someone try, seeing as how the “largest” of the boxes is 7″x7″x6″. JeffJ-NJ already pointed this out.
my primary shipper is USPS. If I had one wish, I wish they would update their tracking system a bit better like UPS or DHL.
I just wish they had better package tracking.