Step #9 Fun With USPS
Ok, it took me several years to jump on the online postage wagon. I drug my two lovely children to the post office about every two days, scads of boxes in tow. The looks I would get from the other customers! Not because my chidren misbehaved or anything, but the stares were without a doubt due to the mountain of Priority Mail boxes I carted in with me each time (I even had a little postal cart). The people in front stared, thankful they made it in before me, and the people behind me stared, trying to will me back into my car with their ugly looks. The funny thing was, that I, even with my package mountain, was usually quicker than the one gal with one cardboard box who couldn’t decide if it was safe to mail without delivery confirmation. All my stuff was ready to go.
I am not one who changes my ways easily. My system was very organized and worked well for me, even if my kids did hate going to the post office. Not until this last summer did I finally decide it was time to explore printing my own postage online, via the USPS website. It is very easy to do if you have established your Paypal account, and even if you are choosing not to use Paypal.
When each auction ends, and you have sent an invoice to your customer (and assuming they have paid you), ebay has installed a handy button that reads: “Print Shipping Label” . If you press on this button it will take you directly to the USPS page where you can fill in your shipping information. You can tie your ebay account to you Paypal account to simplify the process. Money will be taken directly from your Paypal balance or you can pay with a credit card. There may be some info to fill in regarding shipping specifics, but once you have done it once or twice it should be pretty easy to navigate. Just remember to keep scrolling down to the bottom of the page to proceed.
Once your postage has been printed you can tape it directly to your package. If you trust leaving your packages on your front step the post office will pick it up for free…but so could your neighbors or any theif passing by. I never do this, even though we are in a nice neighborhood. Too tempting. The other option is just taking it to your local post office and presenting it to the counter help (you generally will not have to stand in line for this). Again, the people standing in line will look at you like you are breaking a rule or cutting or something, but you can just smile at them and tell them to have a good day growing old in the post office line. You are outta there!
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Good Blog. I will continue reading it in the future. Nice layout too.
Aaron Wakling
I guess we are lucky at our post office. We can walk in the front door and drop the package into a drop box. That way we don’t get dirty looks from the people standing in line.
Why would anyone want to do it the old fashioned way?
Because we are hard headed and have a difficult time with change!
AMEN! You finally admit it! Love you, C
I feel like this will be held against me in the future…
Tracy,
Like David, my neighborhood Post Office has a large drop-down mail depository chute. Having already weighed my package using an official U.S. Postal Service scale, purchased Click-N-Ship postage on-line and attached it to the box I simply pull down the huge “drawer”, put my box in and listen to it make its first hit on the way to the buyers address (good place for a posting on proper packing). I turn and walk out to the stare of those poor fools standing in what is always a long line with their arms wrapped around their packages waiting for the Postal employee to weigh it and affix postage. I grin to myself and wonder why more people don’t do it MY way. I will concede that most only ship a box once in a while and don’t even know about on-line postage, or perhaps their package is an International shipment or other unique issue. But for routine domestic service Click-N-Ship is the way to go. But some may just be afraid of doing things the “new” way. By the time they get to the front of the line I’m home again and my box is halfway to its destination!