So apparently I can no longer afford to pin trade by mail - thanks USPS!
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So apparently I can no longer afford to pin trade by mail - thanks USPS!
- Thread starter Jabberwocky
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I appreciate the suggestions - especially the tip about being able to get a scan receipt, but this doesn't help me when the local office is now only open in the middle of the day with no way for me to get there either before or after work. 
And as I said, the post offices near my work are nightmares. My local one is merely just really difficult and inconvenient. :/
Really, all it's done is put me off trading for other traders which I'd been trying to do a bit of since I haven't been able to trade for one of my wants by mail in ages. No one has my older wants at all and the newer stuff I can generally get either via ebay or with help from wonderful friends. But I'm really seeing the end of this particular phase of my trading life (trading by mail) and it's still just sad...
Like I said, I love my collection and I'm not giving up pins, but I just don't see any point in getting more traders and I think it's time to figure out how to significantly cut down what I have - if I'm not trading, there's no point in letting all these pins just sit in my bag.
And as I said, the post offices near my work are nightmares. My local one is merely just really difficult and inconvenient. :/Really, all it's done is put me off trading for other traders which I'd been trying to do a bit of since I haven't been able to trade for one of my wants by mail in ages. No one has my older wants at all and the newer stuff I can generally get either via ebay or with help from wonderful friends. But I'm really seeing the end of this particular phase of my trading life (trading by mail) and it's still just sad...
Like I said, I love my collection and I'm not giving up pins, but I just don't see any point in getting more traders and I think it's time to figure out how to significantly cut down what I have - if I'm not trading, there's no point in letting all these pins just sit in my bag.
Keep in mind you can drop USPS packages off at your local UPS Store; they will also give you a receipt for your peace of mind. In my area, the Post Office is rural and has very limited hours (8am-4:30pm weekdays; closed for a minimum of 1 hour everyday for lunch and closed entirely on weekends), but the UPS Store in town has longer hours and is open on Saturday. I avoid my PO altogether now by utilizing PayPal shipping and drop offs at the UPS Store (and not a lost package or inaccurate tracking yet).
tinkerbelle1956
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this happened to me around Christmas. I got some sort of a holiday discount on shipping due to the fact that I had mailed x amount of packages.
I got to the post office and charged $3.89 more. I explained I printed the label out at the library as I always do and they gave me this holiday shipping discount. She was very arrogant and said, well I don't know what Paypal is doing, but we are not honoring it. It was only $3.89, so I just paid it.
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The pin weight isn't the issue though I always bubble wrap well inside the LBE - the cost of mailing the pins was probably about 2.50. It was the tracking and insurance that cost the additional almost 4.50 that made it ridiculous.
When I started trading regularly by mail, an average package was maybe $3? In retrospect, I started really slowing down on the trading by the time it reached $5 per package. But this was just crazy sticker shock and it changes the situation entirely for me.
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My post office would return these to the sender. They are very strict about packages and weight. If pins coming to me don't have the correct postage, they are sent back to the original mailer. Always make sure you have proper postage on your pins. Don't try to 'cheat' the system to save a few cents.
Disneytechgeek
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You know you schedule a pickup from your house after doing online shipping right?
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There's no place to pick up from here so that won't work for me.
Disneytechgeek
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They come to your door at a scheduled time and you hand it to them..don't tell me your house doesn't have doors.
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I've never had them returned and its always delivered. Maybe my city is just more flexible? I don't do it often butch I do I always check USPS to make sure I have enough stamps for the weight.
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If these aren't returned to you as "postage due" they are sent to the recipient and the recipient has to pay extra postage. I have had that happen to me a few times in trades and getting a note from the post office that I owe $2 for a package that is sent to me with insufficient postage is pretty crappy, especially when I sent mine with sufficient postage and tracking.
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I have a mailbox which can't be picked up from and the post office as I've said is no longer open during hours I can get there. I'm not available during business hours to hand someone a package since I'm working. Therefore, there is no way to make that work but thank you for the suggestion.
This is unique to us (Jabberwocky and I..), but I've been sending most of my mail through work. I use the Paypal method and drop it off in our mail room - for me, this is a lot easier and I feel safer. (It was actually encouraged of me, by the company, to use their mail room.)
I know you're still stuck under the "unsure"-ness of using Paypal, but the mail here is usually taken well care of internally, they will continue to deliver mail over and over again (as in, they'll never leave a note saying it's sitting at the post office), and it shows up in the mail boxes at work (not $100's in pins sitting outside my front door).
I know you're still stuck under the "unsure"-ness of using Paypal, but the mail here is usually taken well care of internally, they will continue to deliver mail over and over again (as in, they'll never leave a note saying it's sitting at the post office), and it shows up in the mail boxes at work (not $100's in pins sitting outside my front door).
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Something to consider, if you look at the standard mailboxes now, they will take packages with pre-printed postage, i.e. postage from their site, PayPal, Stamps.com, etc, up to I think 1.1 pounds, so you could always do it at home and then drop it off at the mailbox outside the post office in the off hours.
I was not aware of this. I use paypal and stamps.com all of the time. Thanks for the info! Has anybody had trouble using Paypal for foreign shipments if it is not for something you've sold? It works for me for the United States, but only gives me the most expensive options for out of the country???
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LOL That actually never occurred to me to ship anything through the mailroom using my own postage. Interesting suggestion - maybe I'll talk to them about it!
Let me ask this of the PayPal postage users - I thought I read something about people needing to prepay with that by putting money into the PayPal account first? Is that true? Or can you just pay by credit card as a purchase when you create the postage?
You don't have to have a paypal balance. It can go right to your bank account, credit card, etc.
I'm going to agree with Starry on this one, and add one more thing you may not be thinking of:
This is theft.
Those boxes are not 'Free boxes from USPS', they are boxes that are paid for by using Priority Mail. If you take them and than wrap them up to avoid paying the Priority mail price, you are essentially stealing the boxes from the post office. If you don't want to pay for Priority Mail, there's other boxes in the PO that you can purchase and use for lower shipping options.
If you want free boxes, just go to a retail store like Wal-Mart, Target, any grocery store, etc and ask for them. Cut them up to make them smaller if need be... But don't steal the ones the PO is providing for their more expensive services, and then complain when they raise the prices of postage for other services... The reason they don't get rid of the 'free boxes' is because they are paid for by the shipping they are meant for. If too many people take them for other purposes, they may just stop making them all together. (In most POs in the LA area, you can't even get most of the Priority boxes anymore, just the Flat-rate ones. All the others you have to order from usps.com (still free though, just takes longer to get them). I think that is to avoid the casual 'Ooo, I could use a box that size' people from just grabbing them for other reasons...) And they've already stopped making the Priority Mail packing tape a while ago, which really sucks, because people would just take it to use as tape for anything but Priority Mail...
That's really good to know, I've never heard that before, thanks!
I agree. As an online business who ships a lot thru the USPS, I beg if you not to do this. We rely on these boxes and would hate to see them taken away from us. There are many free boxes to be found in your pantry. Granola bar abodes, Mac & cheese boxes, cereal boxes, and the like.
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