TOPIC: Mailing materials

Fred K wrote: I’m hijacking the thread a bit but does anyone use a print at home solution for postage and mailing? I try not to go into the post office itself now and would prefer something that lets me print postage at home and still have tracking numbers. Any suggestions for that?

Fred

I use stamps.com

It costs about 20 a month and will import orders from eBay.

It makes it a snap To print first class and priority mailing labels with tracking info. I think you get a 30 cent or so discount by doing it yourself.

If you don’t ship much you can buy 1/2 page adhesive labels from amazon for maybe 15 cents a piece in bulk of 100 labels at a time (they come 2 to a page on a standard paper size).

If you print a lot, I can give recommendations on a heat impression
Based label printer which is: faster, with cheaper labels, and no toner. But the label printer itself costs like 200.

I know there are other more modern options - for me I’m used to how stamps.con works so there is no incentive to change.

It’s worth every penny in terms of time saved.

Stamps also offers no hassle add on insurance.

Fred K wrote: I’m hijacking the thread a bit but does anyone use a print at home solution for postage and mailing? I try not to go into the post office itself now and would prefer something that lets me print postage at home and still have tracking numbers. Any suggestions for that?

Fred

See my PayPal link above

Fred K wrote: I’m hijacking the thread a bit but does anyone use a print at home solution for postage and mailing? I try not to go into the post office itself now and would prefer something that lets me print postage at home and still have tracking numbers. Any suggestions for that?

Fred

I don't do much shipping so a monthly service is out of line for me.

For my few random shipments I just use USPS click and ship to send small flat rate boxes. it's about $7 to send one but it comes with 3 day delivery, tracking and $50 incl insurance.

They also schedule pickup with your next daily mail service so you don't have to take it anywhere.

I just have a small pile of the boxes for when I do transmutes and I toss tokens in there.

Definitely more expensive but it''s good for my situation

I use pirateship.com. super easy interface, no monthly fee and competitive rates with paypal.

Matthew Hayward wrote: I use stamps.com

It costs about 20 a month and will import orders from eBay.

It makes it a snap To print first class and priority mailing labels with tracking info. I think you get a 30 cent or so discount by doing it yourself.

If you don’t ship much you can buy 1/2 page adhesive labels from amazon for maybe 15 cents a piece in bulk of 100 labels at a time (they come 2 to a page on a standard paper size).

If you print a lot, I can give recommendations on a heat impression
Based label printer which is: faster, with cheaper labels, and no toner. But the label printer itself costs like 200.

I know there are other more modern options - for me I’m used to how stamps.con works so there is no incentive to change.

It’s worth every penny in terms of time saved.

Stamps also offers no hassle add on insurance.

I also used to use stamps.com and have a dymo 4xl label printer, but I was sending 10-20 packages a week. You should also be able to print and tape from stamps as well. I am wanting to explore the paypal ship option.

Kirk Bauer wrote: It's funny because I was just thinking about how difficult those might be to open, as I was taping one up tonight.

Some fun facts about those envelopes: (1) I actually fit up to 18 tokens in there arranged in 6 stacks of 3 and (2) the amount of tape I put on is more or less dependent on the value of the tokens inside. So if I ship a Charm of Avarice there isn't an inch of that envelope that isn't covered by packing tape.

Kirk don’t play (this came in today)

OK, I thought I could send a first class item and $200 insurance...for about 3.60...the issue is that if you use the cardboard mailer, they consider it "parcel"....so they charge parcel first class...3.95 and then 3.55 for $200 insurance...

anyone else have a verified way to get it shipped cheaper? I don't like sending tokens without insurance because frankly its risky...if the tokens were lost...who pays to get them replaced?

Jamie Campbell wrote: OK, I thought I could send a first class item and $200 insurance...for about 3.60...the issue is that if you use the cardboard mailer, they consider it "parcel"....so they charge parcel first class...3.95 and then 3.55 for $200 insurance...

anyone else have a verified way to get it shipped cheaper? I don't like sending tokens without insurance because frankly its risky...if the tokens were lost...who pays to get them replaced?

The "parcel" thing means it's not machineable - same as a bubble envelope.

Speaking from personal experience, you don't want your packages to be machineable with tokens - then tend to get ripped up in the machines.

If you really, really want you can mail them in a plain white envelope. If you just drop them in there they are all but guaranteed to get lost.

If you put them in a magic card sleeve, tape them shut, tape the sleeve to a piece of paper big enough so it doesn't shift around, and reinforce the edges/corner of the plain white envelope with tape you stand a decent chance of it not getting destroyed.

Even so, your envelope will not be machineable as it "contains items such as pens, keys or coins that cause the thickness of the mailpiece to be uneven" as per USPS policies. This will in turn add a surcharge to your standard mailing cost, which will take the postage to around 70 cents for 1 ounce. I think you're limited to 3 or 3.5 ounces for first class envelope mail, so 4-5 tokens is the most you can possible send this way.

Note that the post office will tend to put such envelopes through machines anyway, even if you paid the non-machineable surcharge, and even if you've stamped the exterior of the envelope with a stamp saying "not machineable" leading to accidental destruction. One way to avoid this is to make sure your envelope is square - such as a greeting card envelope - these nonstandard envelope sizes are less likely to be put through the machines.

I used to do this.

It was such a hassle that now I just send everything in bubble envelopes and pay the $3.

ok...but what about the insurance...

if someone sent me a gold nugget....and I paid 135 for it...and it was lost...who covers it? what happens? I was actually thinking that True Adventures could create a revenue source by simply insuring tracked packages on the same day of shipment.

Jamie Campbell wrote: ok...but what about the insurance...

if someone sent me a gold nugget....and I paid 135 for it...and it was lost...who covers it? what happens? I was actually thinking that True Adventures could create a revenue source by simply insuring tracked packages on the same day of shipment.

In general? The shipper should cover the insurance. In practice? A lot of people seem to think they can push that onto the buyer for some reason.

My expectation as a customer is that when I pay you to send me X, I will receive X. If X is lost or damaged in the mail, eaten by your dog, teleported to the astral plane, not my problem. You need to get me X, or give me my money back.

Anyway, insurance options:

1. Do it through the USPS: www.usps.com/ship/insurance-extra-services.htm

2. Do it through a third party, integrated with your shipping system: stamps.custhelp.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/286/c/1/related/1

3. Self insure. USPS insurance is very expensive - especially for cheaper stuff - you'll be paying 2%. So... will more than 1 package in 50 go missing?

Beware - USPS insurance can be a pain to claim if a destroyed package isn't delivered. If they lose it in their system be prepared to put into the "no specific delivery time is guaranteed" runaround for weeks or months.

4. Ship via UPS, FedEx who have robust insurance offerings. Minimum shipping prices with these operators is over $20 so... not great for smaller transactions.

So for all the vets of this board...and all of the notions of a convention every few months...problem solved, just wait...but I am perplexed. Ultimately, if I sold someone 1 aragonite...for $27...and then it got lost...my thinking to your "responsibility" statement is that we need to now go and find someone who can sell me an aragonite because it was the only one I had...

according to law,
The seller is responsible for the package until it reaches the buyer. This means that as a seller, even though the package is out of your hands – you are responsible for it until the tracking states “Delivered” or “Notice Left”

so if someone delivered to me $1000 worth of tokens...and it was lost...they would need to replace or refund the $1000...I am not sure how many people realize the issues around this.

Jamie Campbell wrote: So for all the vets of this board...and all of the notions of a convention every few months...problem solved, just wait...but I am perplexed. Ultimately, if I sold someone 1 aragonite...for $27...and then it got lost...my thinking to your "responsibility" statement is that we need to now go and find someone who can sell me an aragonite because it was the only one I had...

No - you just need to refund me. (I mean, if you want to track down another one, great! - but refund is always acceptable, if not ideal).

according to law,
The seller is responsible for the package until it reaches the buyer. This means that as a seller, even though the package is out of your hands – you are responsible for it until the tracking states “Delivered” or “Notice Left”

so if someone delivered to me $1000 worth of tokens...and it was lost...they would need to replace or refund the $1000...I am not sure how many people realize the issues around this.

Fortunately (so far anyway) the package delivery has been very reliable, and fraud in our community low.

I think I've had 4 packages get lost or destroyed in all my time. Twice it was my fault for insufficient packaging. Once it was a freak occurrence and the package got delivered months later.

Once it was delivered and then stolen at the point of delivery. The buyer then told me they get lots of packages stolen. That one still stings a bit (I wish they had told me ahead of time so I could have insured it).