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Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)On Friday I'll be attending a free program hosted by eBay & our Post Office, to go through the steps involved in using the pre-paid label-making capability and front door pick-up for pkgs sold through eBay. I should think that it applies to all front-door pick-ups, as there are TV commercials advertising this service.
As our postage increased last month and online purchasing of postage has a discount (Jared mentioned this too) I'm going to begin to use the service.
It's being held at our Library and is only a 2 hour session. You might want to ask your PO if they're going to host this presentation. I'll have more specifics on it after Friday.
I do feel sorry for my postie, an awfully nice young fellow, who always rings the bell to LMK when he's dropped a pkg on the front step along with the mail in the box. I'm going to be asking him to pick up pkgs now too - glad I do minis!!!
q.D.paToOtieSFunny you should mention this Bobbie as I'm trying it out for the first time today. I heard about it from Laura Lynn and have always wanted to try it. So I thought instead of dragging the three toddlers to the PO (and making the PO employee's day 
), I'd give it a go. I'll let you know how it works out.
So far, I've found out that those Flat Rate Priority Mail packages (you can get the boxes free at the PO) are much more economical than trying to guess the weight and ship it that way. My bears (although small) are heavy and shipping them Priority Mail using their weight it was going to cost almost $14.00 without insurance! With the Flat Rate Priority Mail it was $8.95 before insurance. Quite a difference!
Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)I get all of my shipping boxes free from the PO, ordered online and dropped at my door! How great is that?? There are about 6 sizes I keep on hand.
We had a discussion before about new or recycled boxes for shipping.
It didn't matter - even when I bought them at The Container Store (that place is a hazard to my budget: I didn't even know something existed but then HAVE to have it when I see it - ala our other thread about eBay as advertising) I still sent auction winnings out in new boxes. They look so Fresh!
I always recycle boxes that I receive and will send supplies/orders out in ones that're in good condition but I would like to receive my bears in a pretty new clean box with fresh wrappings and labels.
I accidentally ordered those flat rate $8.95 ones and used 2 of them before realizing what I'd done. The same size with my bears' weights are about $5 in the standard Priority Mailers. The PO was glad to get the flat rate $8.95 ones back.
Apparently we customers ordering online get better service than the main offices, where there should always be an adequate supply.
Heck, I'd pick them up there since they're free, but delivered too? How can you beat that? It also saves one more trip to the PO to have something weighed (the charts for fees online wasn't always accurate...), come home and email the client, then back to the PO.....
Back Road BearsThe Container Store .... I go so BROKE when I go in there!!!!! Yes... so many things I never knew I needed! :crackup:
Just a caution on the Flat Rate boxes.... they CAN be economical if you are shipping something very heavy and/or shipping to the other side of the US. If you are shipping something just a few states a way and it's not really heavy it'll actually cost you more in the Flat Rate boxes than in regular Priority. My Postmistress was kind enough to point this out to me! She saved me a lot of money!
I also get my boxes shipped to me.... along with labels, tape, stickers, forms, etc.... just cause I'm lazy and have a tiny PO with not much selection. I just realized they have "shoe box" sized priority boxes now! Great size!!! I want to make a bear just to fit the box! Ah, the sources of inspiration! Who knew it would be a USPS BOX!
:crackup:
q.D.paToOtieSYep, I know the "Flat Rate Box Rule." LOL! I only pulled one out of my stash after I saw it was going to cost $14.85 to ship in a regular Priority Mail box. Yikes! Shipping across the US can be expensive.
Now I need to go out and get a good Postal Scale.
P.S. Glad we don't have a Container Store here...I spend enough time/money at all the fabric stores!
BruinwerksLet me get this straight....Your letter carriers (what they're called up here...) PICK UP your parcels at the door??????
Holy Cow..... 
Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)Pick-up? Yes, Ma'am. With a smile. Though only those that have online, pre-printed, postage paid labels affixed. And we have several senior citizens (those a generation older than us new seniors) who leave their letters in their boxes to be picked up by the posties. (Ours are also letter-carriers - we just shorten things like posties & webbies...)
Our son's family lives in the next town north, in my in-laws original home; it's an unincorporated area just outside the actual town lines and they just raise the flag on the side of their mailbox: a vestige from the old days when you sometimes wouldn't get Incoming but wanted to signal the mailman that you had Outgoing.
It's not "your folks' old Post Office", from not too many decades ago, where it was difficult to tell who had the grimmer expressions: the clerks or the Most Wanteds.
BrisbaneAnd you get FREE boxes??
Creative Design Studio (RKR4CDS)Yep!
http://www.usps.com/athome/
(Supplies) http://tinyurl.com/rncrn
They're in bulk, from a minimum of 10 boxes in some sizes up to several hundreds in labels. There's a charge for some but there've always been more than enough choices for what I need/use.
When one thinks of all of the perks we have, we Yanks are such whingers!!!!
BrisbaneYou american girls really are lucky with your postage!! The idea of free boxes and a postie to pick up the mail from the house is just a dream over here!!!
