General Forum

I noticed a price hike last night too when printing my label for a trade on here. Mine was in a Flat Rate Padded Envelope (bubble mailer). It was only a 50-cent increase over the last time, but still cheaper than the Small Flat Rate box costs now and that box wouldn't have fit that many cards. I do use Paypal shipping and the cost was $7.75. I thought it might be the new Zone system USPS has added b/c I haven't shipped much since they did that change. I had to go PM b/c the weight was nearly 2 pounds. I do have a digital postal scale but no idea what it cost. I just know it has saved me a bunch of money and even more trips to the PO. My Mom gave it to me for Xmas a few years ago. As a mail carrier herself, she might have gotten some kind of deal on it. But I have an Accuteck 50LB scale. It works great and has a flip-up surface cover to hold flexible packages upright in case they hang way off the scale.

As for the printing label questions, you don't need anything more than regular printer paper, some scissors to cut out the label and some packing tape to attach it to the BM or box. Don't cover the bottom bar code with tape!

Regional Rate boxes are AWESOME for a large quantity of cards (or supplies) and cost less usually. But there is a weight limit (A is 20 LBS and B is 15 LBS or vice versa). But they are only cheaper for regional shipping. If you use one to ship from NY to CA, it'll cost the same as a Medium Flat Rate box. But if you ship from NY to NC, it's about half the price and only slightly higher from NY to FL. I'd imagine shipping from CA to WA would be the same as NY-NC and CA to TX would compare to NY-FL. They truly are REGIONAL RATE, but still cheaper than most Flat Rate boxes now. I have a stack of both A and B boxes sitting here for when I need to use them. But last I knew, Paypal doesn't have the option for printing labels for these boxes. They can only be done thru USPS.com and have to be picked up by your mail carrier or dropped off at a PO. The shipping cost easily outweighs the possible inconvenience though. Regional Rate A boxes were $6.60 the last time I sent one. It's been a while since I used one now but that one was about 6 pounds and went 6 states from NC.

I just wanted to add: Who remembers when a Small Flat Rate box only cost $5.25? Seriously, over $3.50 more now and it's only been about 10 years. That price is a much higher-percentage increase than gasoline over the same time period ( or even the "sin-tax" products of tobacco/alcohol/sugary products).

Garrison, this may interest you from the USPS site: "Priority Mail Express, Priority Mail, or Global Express Guaranteed packaging provided by the US Postal Service can only be used for the class of mail specified on the box (Priority Mail Express® service, Priority Mail® service, or Global Express Guaranteed®). Misuse may be a violation of federal law."

Here's a comparison between the various methods. I used the Regional Box A ($10.00 in Dec last year) on a trade. It was from Texas to New York and too big for a small flat rate box:

Just print on regular paper and use tape to secure the label onto the package.

I have been using Paypal for a few years and love it.  I use a normal printer and cut out the label, but I do tape across the entire label.  Have not heard off not covering the bar code. 

I feel like it was $5.25 just a couple of years ago!

Tape over the bar code can cause the code scanner to not read it correctly due to reflection, especially if there is a wrinkle in the tape. I usually tape over the tracking number in case the code gets wet and smears/bleeds. When scanning the code doesn't work, the postal workers have to manually enter the number into the scanner to keep the tracking continuous. Some USPS workers will not take the time to do it if the code was taped over and won't read with the scanner. They'll just send it on to the next person to deal with and the tracking misses that stop or movement. I don't think Paypal mentions anything about not taping over it, but the USPS website does mention it (or it used to). I mostly do it to be kind to the Postal Workers (especially the carriers) b/c it saves them time from having to type in that long set of numbers while trying to deliver their route on time.

Thanks for the info, had no idea.

YW. You aren't the only one that doesn't know about that, trust me. Some carriers will mark packages like that as "delivered" before they even leave the PO with it b/c they have time to type in the numbers while waiting for the last truck to arrive before they can leave for their route. I've seen my carriers (the regular and the sub) use my driveway as a pit-stop to enter numbers into the scanner for the rest of the block. My driveway is shaped like an H and he/she can enter the far side, park in the middle to add those in all at once so they don't have to do it at each mailbox while sitting halfway in the road, and then they pull out of the other side right up to my mailbox. Then they are on the way to the rest of the boxes on my side of the street. USPS rules require mail vehicles to BACK-UP into a driveway to drop off a package that won't fit into a mailbox OR to re-sort the crates of mail inside the vehicle. Since my driveway has an entrance and an exit, it's just logical to use it for safety purposes and saving time. Technically, UPS and FedEx are supposed to back into driveways as well, for safety reasons. Many of them don't seem to do it though. I see so many parked on the side of the road as if they are at a mailbox, but they are still blocking traffic and getting out of the vehicle. If someone hits that vehicle, it is the fault of the UPS/FedEx driver for blocking the right-of-way. Same thing for a USPS driver IF they are out of the vehicle. Backing into a driveway is much safer than backing out of one, especially when in high-speed areas or somewhere with visual obstructions. That is why the rule is there for delivery drivers. It's also a common practice with tow-trucks, big-rigs, dump trucks and concrete delivery trucks.

This is just like the hotdog problem. But the winner here is not you, it is time.  

So with PP, you need a label printer & a scale.  I looked around and found a label printer for $170 and a scale for $25 and the label maker uses no ink. I did not pick the cheeps ones but went low prices.  So if I saved a quarter for everything I mailed out. I would have to send out 780 packages to break even. I'm coming up on 2 years in June and have completed 133 trades. So this leads to around 12 years just to break even on the piece of the label maker and scales. Here is the hotdog. When I count the labels that will run out atone roll with 220 labels and have to be replaced 4 times and cost $30 a roll. Now I'm up to 1260 trades and 18 years to break even. if I save a quarter on everything mailed out. But now I don't have enough labels again and need another 2 rolls at $60. I can't catch up to the break-even point to start saving money.  I did the numbers again still did not break even and now I'm 85 years old and need more labels. If I get to be that old I better be sitting on a beach with a drink in my hand, watch the young girl sunning in the sand.

I did not count the price of the envelopes that would be needed. That is a push, you will need them no matter what way you chose to post them and you would have to buy all the labels now before they go up in price as they will. If you don't do that you can't win.

 Then the scale & label maker can never break for 25+ years. One or both will break by then and will have to be replaced, nothing is made to last anymore. You feel like your saving money one package at a time. But when you do the math you see you're never going to break even and start saving money. You can have a hotdog but you get no bun.

PP says you can save 45% on shipping, this is why I picked 25 cents off everyone sent. 45% of a stamp is 24.75.  I rounded this up to 25 to make the math easier and used my 2 years at 133 trades for the math.

There is a break-even point. where you will start saving. But for me at 133 trade every 2 years, I will not live long enough to make it. But even if I dropped the time to one year with 1260 trades in one year. I'm still short on labels and have to buy more. The first round of labels was at 7.3 and the 2ed round was at 5.7. So I can see it is getting closer to breaking even. But when the prices go up for the labels. The % takes a hit and jumps back up and now it's back to more labels & time. That will be never-ending. Now if you have a business. You can take this off your on your taxes and hit the break-even mark a lot faster and start saving but it's still going to take years.  Who here is doing that?

Also, I've yet to see any incoming trade showing me a savings of 45% on the postage. If I can't break even at the 45% mark to start saving money and I have to lower the %. It a losing game.  The label printer, the scale & I will not live that long, to save one penny and will be spending more money in the long run.

Is anyone using PP postage doing the math for a year? I would love to know what you have come out with. Remember all you spend to get started and keep it going are in the native. You don't start saving until you recoup that money. You don't spend $100 then save 5 cents and call that a win.

Has anyone had to replace a label printer or scale? How long did it last? If it's not lasting say 25 years or even more there is no way you will win this one and start saving.

The other day I received 36 cards in a 9x6 yellow envelope without bubble padding. They did use thin cardboard to pad the cards and the cards where fine. It had two stamps on it. By dropping the bubble padding and going with thin cardboard. Made it a savings of over $2 on that one package that would have been $3.50 at the old base price of a 9x6 bubble mailer. That is a 58% savings on the old price. With no investment and the plain yellow 9x6 envelopes are cheaper. I know what I'll be doing.

I like your post RJ. I am close to 100 trades but not quite there yet and I feel like as I go along I make less trades on here. It's great that there are a group of members on here that like to trade and after all it's a hobby so it doesn't have to always make financial sense but I still like collecting and filling in some junk era stuff with no real value. If I am missing a few cards I love trading to complete that set but let's say I'm missing a hundred cards of the set I am working on and I happen to get to a card show and I can buy a box to open up for $5 or $10 I would probably rather do that then trade and pay shipping for what I need. Again, it is a hobby so you should handle it how it brings joy to you but I think with the amount of trading I plan to do going forward I may as well continue to do my small PWE trades.