Shipping fees?
The Trading Post forum
Posted on Aug. 30, 2014, 8:56 p.m. by Krayhaft
So today I went to the local post office to send out some trades. I had several that were packed inside a single hard case, inside a paper envelope, with a single first class stamp.
The lady at the counter tells me that because of the hard cases preventing the envelopes from bending, these packages are considered 'parcels' and not 'letters', meaning I have to pay more than the standard postage stamp price to ship them.
Other traders, have you guys encountered something similar? This is actually the first time this has happened to me, I have shipped dozens of trades in this method with no issue. Often I would drop them in a mailbox and I have not had any problems with them.
Second issue: how much does it cost for you to get tracking? For trades in bubble mailers, I have seen ~$1 additional for tracking, which doesn't bother me too much. But today, when I asked for tracking on the paper envelopes before I was told they were 'parcels', the cashier tells me that it would cost $5 to get tracking for letters. Why are these price levels so strange?
I can't ever provide tracking unless the trade is substantial. Like you, it costs me 5-7 dollars to provide tracking on an envelope.
August 30, 2014 9:23 p.m.
I would think that the rates would be standardized across the country. Is this not so?
August 30, 2014 9:35 p.m.
ryuzaki32667 says... #5
Mine is always 4.86 when I do bubble/padded envelope with tracking, but I've never paid attention to see any fluctuating in the prices.
August 30, 2014 9:42 p.m.
I live in Canada, and all I need to do is attach a $1.50 stamp for American addresses on an envelope. I use top loaders, and I've never had a problem. Tracking, on the other hand, is something I probably won't do (Canada Post charges like $10-$15 for that).
August 30, 2014 9:49 p.m.
Unforgivn_II says... #7
If it isn't very thick, I just send as a letter (screw you post office). I've never had a package of mine get lost. If its heavy or thick, I'll do a bubble mailer, and shipping with tracking ends up being 3.50 or so
August 30, 2014 10:12 p.m.
Epochalyptik says... #8
When I ship PWE, I take a cardboard insert (normally cut from a beer box), penny sleeve the cards, and sandwich the sleeve between the insert and a hard case using desk tape. It's cheap, prevents bending/shredding, and never gets marked as a parcel. It'll generally cost one to two stamps to ship.
Bubble mailers typically cost between $1-3 to ship, and about $0.75 to $3 to track.
August 30, 2014 10:18 p.m.
WovenNebula says... #9
@Krayhaft I was at the Post Office last week and they have not required anything like that of me. For cards valued over 20-30 dollars I generally ship with tracking and get the padded envelope there and usually it costs me about 3-4 dollars to ship with tracking and cost of padded envelope, however, they have told me before that they don't recommend me to send cards in hard top loader case when I ship in envelope because of the machine that is used to sort etc.. envelopes. Usually though I ship those from my houses mail box since for some reason it seems that they get to where they need to be faster that way, unless its padded envelope with tracking. Whenever I would take a normal letter to post office they say in a way ship at your own risk and they seem to take a day or two longer. Just my personal experience over time and recently.
August 30, 2014 11:28 p.m.
CurrentlyUnavailable says... #10
I always ship bubble mailer, just my personal preference. But depending on who is working when I go into my Post Office, it only costs me the price of a stamp to ship the bubble mailer which is pretty awesome. But normally for the bubble mailers it costs me $2.49.
August 30, 2014 11:50 p.m.
Didgeridooda says... #11
I was told that letters must be shipped priority to receive tracking to certain places.
August 31, 2014 11:31 a.m.
- if you ship like that and they tell you it has to go as a parcel, tell them no, send it like this, and that you do it all the time, some post office workers have tried telling me this when I was sending out 15+ envelopes a week, it wont get returned, its fine, worst case just drop it in the mail box
- you can send it certified mail for about $3.50 which includes tracking and is cheaper than buying the bubble envelope + ship + track
August 31, 2014 12:48 p.m.
WovenNebula says... #13
To clear things up. I talked to my local post office and all the info is on their website. It is not recommended to have more than 1 hard top loader in envelope because of a machine that processes them. You can ship having bought a padded envelop there with first class and tracking for under 5.00 dependent upon weight. You are not required to do priority mail for tracking and if they do they are lying. It is on their website that you can add tracking to any first class parcel 0.99. I hope that clears things up for anyone, keep in mind this excludes Alaska and Hawaii .
September 8, 2014 8:13 p.m.
Didgeridooda says... #14
What I said was to alaska, so that might explain it. I am not going to do trades outside of the lower 48 anymore though.
themindbullet says... #2
I've never had any issues shipping my cards in the same way you've described. Although, I just slap a stamp or two on the envelope and drop it in the mailbox. I don't usually use tracking but I've heard that buying postage through paypal is an affordable and easy way to go.
August 30, 2014 9:22 p.m.