USPS Flat Rate

[Dehn0045]

I've received a lot of shipments of wood and other things, but haven't done much shipping. I posted some blanks for the "Harvey" fundraiser, and made sure they would fit in a small flat-rate box. Well, I ended up adding a few more blanks to the box and they wouldn't fit, but I figured I could ship it in a flat rate padded envelope for a few cents more. Now here comes the problem: where to get the flat rate padded envelopes. You can get the "legal" paper style envelopes at the post office, but not the padded ones. It seems you can only get the padded ones online and have them shipped to your house. Folks online say you can sometimes get them at the post office, but I didn't have any luck. Now for the second part of the problem: It took almost 2 weeks for the envelopes to arrive at my house.

The flat rate padded envelopes are a great option for shipping stuff. You can fit about 60 blanks, or odd shaped stuff that doesn't quite fit in the SFRB. And they are bigger and more secure than the legal envelopes. But if you ever think you might use them, order them now, they're free (pack of 15), but they might take a while to arrive...

 

[Herb G]

You have to order the padded envelopes directly from USPS.
They will send a certain amount free.

 

[wood128]

That's right, the padded envelopes are free from USPS ordered online. They ship for $7.20 and I have mailed up to 30 blanks in one envelope.

 

[MRDucks2]

Unfortunately you can't get everything at the post office you can online. Back when eBay was relatively new and we were selling on it, I used to place online USPS orders and include some for the local post office which I would deliver to them when I shipped packages so they would have better inventory.


Sent from my iPhone using Penturners.org mobile app

 

[Dehn0045]

That's right, the padded envelopes are free from USPS ordered online. They ship for $7.20 and I have mailed up to 30 blanks in one envelope.

I received 64 blanks (3/4" x 5") once, that seems to be the upper limit.

 

[SteveG]

Get more shipping for the buck, and use what is available at the post office. I load up a REGULAR size cardboard FR mailing envelope, then put that inside a legal size FRM Envelope. I also add extra tape on the exterior envelope to prevent loss of contents. This is economical and has worked out well for me.

 

[Edgar]

I put SFRBs inside a regular FR envelope. Depending on their size, I can usually cram 6-10 additional blanks into the envelope. Then I tape the heck out of it. FR envelope is also a little cheaper than sending an SFRB by itself.

There's a tutorial in our library for using PayPal to print your labels at a discount from the standard USPS on-line or at-the-counter rates.