SiteAug24
A Weighty Issue
One of the best business purchases I’ve ever made is — a postage scale. Yep, a plain, old-fashioned, mechanical postal scale.
No more sticking on extra postage “just to be sure,” no more running to the post office to make sure the clips your editor requested won’t arrive postage due. Just weigh, stamp, and send.
Staples has a selection of fine postal scales ranging from $27 for a mechanical scale to $150 for a 400-pound digital freight scale (for those longer manuscripts ;-).
7 Responses to “A Weighty Issue”
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Ellie McFadden
Said this on August 25th, 2006 at 10:31am:I totally agree! It saves so much time. I really like using the service from the PO, called Stamps.com (I’m not affiliated, just a happy customer). You receive a free digital scale and you can print all your postage at home. When I used to live out in the country, my mail carrier would pick up all my printed-postage mail, saving me a trip to the PO. Living in the city, the carrier won’t do that but it still saves me time.
Ellie
diane
Said this on August 25th, 2006 at 1:54pm:unfortunately, in the UK they’ve introduced a new system, based on size not weight(I know, crazy! and a total rip-off). But I love the idea in principle. xx
LindaFormichelli
Said this on August 25th, 2006 at 2:40pm:I’ll have to check out Stamps.com…sounds even better than just the scale! Wonder if it’s available for Mac (I’m assuming you print out the stamps from your computer)?
Hm, Diane, so if you send a snail mail query and you fold it into a tiny little bundle, would it cost less to send? I’ll bet editors would love to receive tightly balled-up queries and clips. ;->
Ellie McFadden
Said this on August 25th, 2006 at 4:50pm:I think it’s available for Mac too, not positive though. Yeah, you just print out the stamps from your computer and drop off at the PO. I love walking into the PO, where there is a long line of people on their lunch break, and just plopping my packages in the bin. They look at me, like they’re thinking “who the heck does she think she is?!”
Lanora Mueller
Said this on August 25th, 2006 at 10:46pm:Also check out endicia.com: they offer both Mac and PC versions of their software, and their customer service is excellent.
Endicia charges a flat monthly subscription fee, with multiple service levels, and no surcharge on postage purchases. In addition, you can use their third-party carrier to insure packages online at a discount rate ($.65 for the first $100) without having to stand in line at the post office. It’s also easy to add Delivery Confirmation to your Priority Mail pieces.
Don’t forget that you can also print Priority Mail and Express Mail labels directly at usps.com without paying a surcharge or subscription fee.
I’ve used stamps.com but discontinued my subscription when I discovered endicia. The caveat with stamps.com is a percentage charge on each postage purchase, on top of the monthly subscription fee.
LindaFormichelli
Said this on August 26th, 2006 at 12:55pm:Thanks for this info!
diane
Said this on August 27th, 2006 at 10:54am:LOL, I guess so Linda!
That stamps.com sounds too cool xx