After buying and selling things on Ebay over the years, I’ve learn a lot about shipping packages with USPS.  Ebay makes it easy if you have a scale at home, you can just weight the packages and print out postage at home.

Today I want to share my experiences of shipping with the Unites States Postal Service (USPS).

First Class mail is the best way to ship.   I think it’s just as good as Priority Mail. Priority mail is great if you are mailing heavy items and want a flat rate. It usually delivers within 3 days. My only complaint is that the $4.95 box is too small.

Here is a list of prices for Priority Mail with USPS.

With Priority Mail, Express Mail and International packages you can avoid the lines at the Post Office and use USPS Click-N-Ship service.  These boxes are free and can be requested to send to your home within 7-10 days.

The shipping method I do not recommend is Parcel Post and Media Mail.  It may sound tempting to ship this way as the price is much cheaper.  It is the slowest way to mail anything. Makes you wonder if your mail was still delivered by the Pony Express.

Media Mail is described to be the following items:

Media Mail® service is a cost efficient way to mail books, sound recordings, recorded video tapes, printed music, and recorded computer-readable media (such as CDs, DVDs, and diskettes). Media Mail can not contain advertising except for incidental announcements of books. - USPS

Media mail is subject to inspection and you will have to pay any extras for items not consider media mail. Magazines are not media mail. Calendar was not on the list, but my local mail clerk said it was OK to ship media mail. A good thing to do is bring the stuff and pack it in front of the mail clerk (to make sure everything is legit).

I always get tricked into shipping my books and DVDs this way. One time I had to ship some library books back from a city that is less then 100 miles apart. It would normally take 2-3 days with First Class mail. But with Media Mail it took almost 1 week and I thought they lost my books. It even arrived a few days late and I was charged late fees. In this case, trying to save a few bucks really cost me more.

Media Mail and Parcel Post has a lower priority than other mail classes. It doesn’t go on the airplane and travels by road. And if it’s the holidays or tax season, then it will be shipped even slower. Somehow I forgot about this and recently decided to mail a package this way. So I apologize for the slow delivery!

As for packing, I find bubble wrap cushioning, newspapers, and even simple gift wrap paper to do a proper job. If anyone has any other tips and tricks of mailing and packaging, please let me know!

Recently, an Ebay seller from southern California sent us a tiny microchip in a simple envelope (with no padding). By the time it got to northern California, the envelope shredded to pieces and the microchip went missing. The USPS left us the shredded envelope with an “apology” note.

Fortunately we worked it out with the Ebay seller and they sent us a replacement chip for free. But this time packed in a decent bubble wrap envelope. I guess they must have been new to packing and shipping.