6/19/2023 0 Comments Media mail usps pricingPrinted Musicīoth loose and bound sheet music is allowed as well as play scripts/manuscripts for music, books, periodicals, etc. Books sent must be at least 8 pages long and must not contain any paid advertisements. In general, books are one of the most straightforward items that can be sent via Media Mail. This precludes sending blank media/paper, things with advertisements, etc. In general, Media Mail is meant for editorial and scholarly media in its final form. Let’s break it down and talk about the most common media mail packages that you might send: 6 Things You Can Send Via Media Mail But what about everything else? Well, there is an official document but it’s pretty dense. Yes, you can ship books via media mail, that much is obvious. In fact, knowing what can be shipped through Media Mail is where 90% of the confusion is. There are lots of rules surrounding what can and can’t be sent as Media Mail. However, it’s far more complicated than that. Prior to that, it was a paid upgrade and you had to request it when shipping the package. If you ship a high volume of books (typically 300+ pieces per day) you can qualify for what is known as a “pre-sorted” rate from the Post Office which is really just a bulk discount.Īs an added bonus, USPS added free tracking to Media Mail in 2015. So a book that weighs between 1lb 1oz and 2lbs will ship for $3.33.īecause a couple of ounces is not only a cost difference but runs the risk of having a package returned, I highly recommend you get a shipping scale to weigh your packages if you ship from home. Increments of a pound count as a whole pound. So, no matter if it’s going next door or across the country, you will be charged $2.80 for the first pound and $0.53 for each additional pound. Unlike other shipping services (such as Priority Mail) Media Mail rates are figured solely on weight, not on the distance the package is being sent. The minimum shipping price figures a weight of 1lb meaning that any book one pound or less will ship for $2.80. Despite price increases, Media Mail still holds the position of the cheapest way to send books and similar materials. USPS updates (meaning “raises) their rates every year. How Much Does It Cost To Send Something Media Mail? While this started off meaning books and printed materials, as technology has progressed the definition of allowable media has been expanded to include film and some forms of digital media. Its original purpose was to encourage the flow of printed media that promoted ‘educational, cultural, scientific, and informational values’ through the mail system. Media Mail (also known as “book rate”) is a shipping class introduced by the United States Post Office in 1938. To make things easier, I decided I might as well document everything I learned (as well as the sources for each) so you can be sure you’re on the up-and-up when you start shipping packages. Ask two different USPS employees what you can send and you’ll likely get two different answers. There is a lot of misinformation surrounding the service as well as a lot of ignorance. The Media Mail rabbit hole that I went down really isn’t that pretty. In my mind, that meant finding out exactly what we could and couldn’t send via Media Mail so we could make maximum use of the service. Once we started getting into the full swing of reselling and realized that we were spending over $1,000/month on shipping we decided that it was time to figure out how to save some money on shipping. I ended up paying about $3.00 to send it via media mail but was warned that “it might take a while.” I simply wrapped my physics book up in brown paper, took it to the post office counter, and told them I wanted to ship it the cheapest way possible. So when my books finally started to sell I knew I had better figure out how to send them if I wanted to get paid. I was all about making more money but, like most people in my generation, had hardly ever sent a package before. My wife encouraged me to sell my textbooks on Amazon at the end of every semester instead of selling them back to the campus bookstore. One of my first exposures to shipping via media mail came before I even started reselling on eBay. As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |