Here’s a gathering of the posts related to printing postage on your pc & shipping tips.
Cheers!
Print Postage from Your PC For Less!
When using www.PaperBackSwap.com, you can get your postage on that site, but I have found a less expensive way. Get an account With Stamps.com & print your postage from your home computer.
Click on the link below to obtain the Special Offer from Stamps.com: get Free postage, a Free digital scale and a FREE supplies kit (an $80 value).
When you sign up for the No Risk Trail Offer, you receive $5 in free postage immediately, so you can mail out several books before you have to buy your own postage.
If you stay on past the 4-week trial, you are eligible to receive $10 in free postage in the each of the next two months. You may redeem the free scale offer once the 4-week trial period has ended (and your credit card has been successfully billed for the small monthly charge).
I have used the service for several years. I definitely don’t miss less than $ .18 a day for the convenience of printing postage on demand at home at 3 AM if I want or need to.
Printing postage is easy to do using Stamps.com. No matter what time of day, I can pack the book, determine its weight and affix postage right from my pc! I don’t have to waste time & money going to the post office.
Also, electronic delivery confirmation is less expensive through Stamps.com. Many of the types of postage are discounted over the Post Office’s rates.
I looked into getting a postage meter, but found out that the ink for a postage meter is 100 times more expensive than any PC printer’s ink! That definitely turned me off to them. Plus, I’d hate to have to haul the machine up to the Post Office intermittently to pay for the postage used.
Whenever I need more money allotted to postage, I can click a button on my pc, select the amount I want to purchase & Bam! It’s there.
I print postage easily – I’ll always use Stamps.com for it.
Lots of Books to Mail
I just saw that I have 4 books to mail to 1 person at PaperBackSwap.com. At first I was flustered, as I am rushed today & didn’t see how I could add going to the post office to my errands list.
I’m so glad I have the account with Stamps.com. I realized that I don’t have to leave to mail the books! I plopped the books in a small box, went to stamps.com, clicked ‘media mail’ and filled in the information.
It was a snap! Time & again being able to print postage with my pc has been a lifesaver for me.
Shipping Books -No Worries About Weight
I love being able to ship off books from home & not having to go to the Post Office. It makes my life so much easier!
I was concerned when I saw a notice on a postal drop box that packages over 13 ounces had to be accepted by a postal worker in the Post Office, not dropped into a mail box.
I told a Post Office Supervisor that I shipped using Stamps.com, and asked if that rule applied to my packages. He said “No. Your packages are tracked via Stamps.com with your information listed & recorded. You can put them in your mailbox or a drop box without concern.”
Another reason why I love using Stamps.com to print my postage on my home pc & printer!
Printing Postage to Ship Books is Easy!
I am constantly happy with my decision to get an account with Stamps.com. It started with their special offer of free postage, supplies and a digital scale.
I enjoyed using the free postage. I’m also pleased to be able to track packages that I send out via Stamps.com. It is reassuring to be able to see where the shipment is & that it has been successfully delivered.
I sent out a couple of books today, and I messed up the postage. I had a sheet of 6 postage/mailing labels & without thinking which label I should print on, I clicked “print”.
Wouldn’t you know it, the postage was printed in an area I had already used the label from. So the $2.38 worth of postage was ‘lost’.
Thankfully, I was able to print out a form that Stamps.com even completed about the messed up postage. All I had to do was sign that the information was correct, add the sheet showing the postage printed on the backing paper instead of a label, and mail it off.
Stamps.com people will review it & then post a credit for that amount to my account. It was easy to take care of. Again, I am very happy I print postage from my pc @ any time with Stamps.com
Postage Personalized With Your Photo
Customizing your postage with your own graphic or photo is fun! It makes correspondence so much more personal to have unique postage.
You could also use your company logo for a polished look to your mail outs. I used to see people using a postage meter to print the postage on their mailings – but it is a big hassle. You have to lug the meter to the post office to pay for the postage.
I was shocked to see that the ink for postage meters is 100 times more expensive than top of the line ink for your home computer printer.
The convience of printing postage on my pc is huge and made even better by using photo stamps to make one of a kind postage.
Shipping Books With Delivery Confirmation
When shipping books using the delivery confirmation for quick credit, do NOT tape over the bar code.
If the bar code is covered in tape, it cannot be scanned, so you have wasted your 27 cents.
I like using the delivery confirmation so I am a. more likely to get a quick credit, & b. not having to rely on the person receiving the book to promptly go to their pc & mark the book received.
Most of the people using PaperBackSwap.com want the system to work well so they will mark books received in a timely manner. But I figure it is a small cost for me to pay and it might get my credit posted faster so I can find another great book to request.
So always pay attention with barcodes & stamps when you are adding tape to the package to make sure you don’t make them useless by covering these with the tape.
Shipping With Priority Mail For Less!
Shipping via Priority Mail with Stamps.com is easy & saves you money!
I had to ship something to Ohio that weighed almost 3 pounds. I got on my Stamps.com interface & saw that parcel post would be almost $10! I’m used to mostly sending books & am spoiled with the lower ‘media mail’ charges.
I was wondering if there were any other options when I remembered Priority Mail. It had been a while since I had shipped using it, so I couldn’t remember the flat rate fee.
I rummaged in my closet & found a Priority Mail Flat Rate box (11 7/8″ x 3 3/8″ x 13 5/8″). The stars were smiling on me as the item I needed to ship fit inside the box.
I looked on the Stamps.com interface under ‘packages’ & it’s drop down menu for ‘Priority Mail Flat Rate box’.
I was please to see it was only $9.85 & would get to it’s destination by 3 days or less (as opposed to 2-9 days for parcel post).
The help section @ Stamps.com on Priority Mail said that you saved up to 11% off the retail rate by purchasing the Priority Mail postage from Stamps.com rather than the Post Office!
Also, you can arrange to have it picked up from your house or location if you set it up the night before.
I had errands to run, so I just zipped into the post office & deposited the Priority Mail Flat Rate Box (with the postage on it already) in the ‘packages to mail’ bin.
As I was walking out, I thought about getting a couple more Flat Rate Boxes to keep on hand for next time. I was amazed to see that the postage listed for the same sized Priority Mail Flat Rat box was about $10.50 (I didn’t write it down).
So not only did I save money, but I didn’t have to stand in line to buy the postage. That just made my day! 
You can even go to the USPS.com website to order Flat Rate boxes to be mailed to you. You don’t even have to pay shipping & handling!
That’s great cuz my Post Office was out of the size I wanted to get. You don’t have to order large quantities, either. This way I can get a variety pack of each size shipped directly to me. What a convienence!
P.S. I just went to www.USPS.com to get the flat rate boxes shipped to me. I got 10 APO boxes for sending items to soldiers, 10 small Flat Rate boxes & the variety pack of 4 different sized Flat Rate Boxes.
I was totally shocked when I ‘checked out’ and had no shipping charges! I am flabergasted that they’ll send them straight to me totally free of charge.
Printing Postage Do’s & Don’t's
Basic Do’s & Don’t's with Printing Your Own Postage
1. When printing stamps:
a. Fill in the correct ID number for the sheet of stamp ‘labels’ you will be printing on. Area to be filled in is on top right hand part of the print stamps screen.
b. Know which side of the label sheet needs to face downward in order for your printer to print on the correct side. My HP takes the page head first, face down, but my Epson take it head down & face up.
c. When printing less than a full sheet of stamps, click on the bottom row of the sheet to print them first. If you print the top of the sheet first, the page gets too floppy to use.
d. Mark in upper right hand area number of stamps you want to print of same denomination – whether it’s 1 or 25
I mail out books frequently for a book swapping site. I put the book & any paper into a mail pouch, affix the mailing label, and weigh it. I then take that weight into the Stamps.com software to select the postage I need. Most regular sized paperback books weigh around 6-8 ounces.
If I have a trade paperback (the oversized ones) it may weigh over 10 ounces. I found that it is less expensive to send books that weigh 10 or more ounces as a package & select ‘media mail’. This designation is massively less expensive than first class or even parcel post.
For more info about printing postage on your pc, go to: www.PrintPostageOnPC.info
