I'm trying to find out about postage rates on line so I know how much to charge for mailing items when sold on line. Thank you.
By Jill Bates from Steedman, Mo
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Have you gone to usps.com or ups.com? They are pretty handy sites. I especially like the flat rate boxes. Good luck!
I worked for a small mail order business for a year not long ago, and you will want to got to usps.com, and ups.com...I think up to 2-3 pounds, usps was less, and over that, ups. But, since it's been 3 years, they have calculators online and you can figure it out yourself by putting in imaginary parcels of the same size, but try different values re weight, and go over pounds by an ounce or two and see which works best for which sizes.
If you have PayPal, you can use this to print your USPS shipping label through PayPal. You won't have to pay add'l for shipping confirmation. www.paypal.com/
USPS's calculator
Go to www.usps.com and click on 'calculate postage'. It gives you the rate for all their mailing options.
I agree with the poster about using paypal to do the USPS shipping. It does save you a bit versus doing it at the post office.
I went to Office Max and bought a small postal scale. Didn't cost very much. Now when I need to know the postage amount of an item, I smply weigh it, then go to www.usps.com. On the red lline at the top, I click on Calculate Postage and enter the weight, sip codes to and from and size. It's never failed. But it has saved me a lot of hassles at the post office because I don't have to stand in the long liness.
It's a breeze to register with usps.com and then buy your postage online and print out the label with the postage on it. Then you tape this to the package. You can also order a pickup online, with just a click, and if you have at least one priority mail package they will pick up for free.
The flat rate boxes might work for some items but have been more expensive for me almost every time (compared with weighing a box and paying the appropriate postage).
You can order free boxes online at usps.com too, and they will even deliver them to you for free, in several sizes.
You will need a fairly good scale. I've seen them at yard sales (a food scale works fine.) You can test yours by weighing a package of meat that has the weight on it.
The flat rate boxes are great for me, but be sure to ask about the cost if not using the auto flat rate charge, if it is less our postoffice lets me take the box, cover with paper and send for less. I keep their boxes on hand and weigh them at home ready to mail, check the online for an estimate to get a pretty good idea of the cost, then cover with paper if I need to.
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