Nickel over at Five Cent Nickel reminded me that postage rates are going up on January 8. One of the most convenient things I’ve discovered last month is the ability to print postage yourself, using your internet connection and printer.
I’ve known this service has existed for a while, but I had been under the impression that fees are involved. As I discovered, that’s not true. You can print your own postage directly from the U.S. Postal Service for free! For some items, you will have to know the weight of your package (watch it!) but it doesn’t hurt to provide a conservative guesstimate if you don’t have a scale.
Printing my own labels and stamps has come in handy since I started selling used items on Amazon.com.
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I think I’m going to start buying stamps online as well. Have you experienced any problems doing it this way?
The only problem I encountered was a problem with Adobe Acrobat Reader, which is necessary in order to print the stamps and labels. You have to make sure that your reader is configured:
* to load certain plugins (this is the default, but many people remove the plugins to speed up loading times)
* to view PDFs in a separate window (not in the browser — this is NOT the default)
You can buy stamps online from stamp collectors for less than their value in postage (stamps never expire).
http://www.bargaineering.com/articles/how-to-buy-stamps-under-face-value.html
Also, printed postage, regardless of weight, can be mailed via the blue boxes whereas if you use regular stamps, anything over 16 oz. must be taken to a teller.
If you misweigh it and don’t put on enough postage, the PO will return it to the return address but the postage is still valid, just slap on some more.
(I used to be a PowerSeller back in college so I knew all the little tricks to save that precious beer drinking time)
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