![]() If you have a Paypal account, you can ship from home using this ‘secret’ link: If your package weighs less than 15.99 ounces it can ship First Class Mail but you CANNOT ship using Click-N-Ship from home.The Click-N-Ship price is the price you will pay if you print your shipping label at home using your printer. The retail price is the price you will pay if you walk into a post office and pay at the counter. The USPS Postage Price Calculator will now show you pricing for different mailing services that you can use to quote your customer.In most cases, you’ll choose ‘Package’ or ‘Large Package’. On the next screen, enter the weight of your product and choose the type of package.Flat rate boxes are available free through the USPS at this link. As a note: Flat rate boxes are great if your item will fit in the box and is heavy, otherwise, choose “Calculate price based on shape and size”. (The time isn’t too important.) Then choose whether you will use flat rate mailing boxes or your own box. Input your zip code, the customer’s zip code, and the date of mailing.How to Use the USPS Postage Price Calculator Where to Find the USPS Postage Price Calculator Today, let’s look at where to find it and how to use it. One of the emails that I get a lot of through Cutting for Business is: “I just shipping my first package and lost money because shipping was way more expensive than I thought it would be!” Honestly, I hate to hear this because it is completely preventable! The United States Postal Service (USPS) has a shipping cost estimator on their website that you can use to help provide an accurate price quote to your customer. Additionally, I may get commissions for purchases made through other affiliate links in this post. Let us know if you’ve run into any other shipping anomalies with the June postal rate change.Affiliate Disclosure: As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases. We’re grateful to the reader who shared his concerns about the postal rate discrepancy. Should you consider Priority Mail rather than Parcel Select? We would refer you back to the June article where ’s Eric Nash offered examples of when you need to consider Parcel Select. If you are checking rates on the USPS website, it’s going to give you rates for Retail Ground, which does not charge DIM weight, so to get that rate, you would have to bring your box to the Post Office window.USPS Retail Ground is only available at retail Post Office locations Parcel Select is a comparable service, but is only available when buying postage online.It’s a very rare instance of the USPS charging more for postage purchased online than in real life for virtually the same service. Some sellers may be tempted to use the USPS website to get a baseline estimate of postal rates for a particular shipment, but in this case – meaning Parcel Select boxes larger than a cubic foot (Length x Width x Height equaling over 1728 cubic inches) – that would be a mistake. Online postage providers like and Pitney Bowes allow shippers to purchase USPS postage online – and not only that, they charge Commercial rates, which are almost always less expensive than USPS “retail” rates. It’s easy to see why sellers may make that assumption. If the seller brought his package to his local post office, the cost would be the price indicated on the USPS calculator (Retail Ground – no DIM Weight), but because he used eBay shipping labels, the cost was higher (Parcel Select – DIM Weight applied). You can *not* mail a package via Parcel Select at your local post office! If you enter your box’s weight and dimensions on the USPS website, it will give you a rate for what it calls “USPS Retail Ground.” But some sellers are assuming that’s the equivalent of Parcel Select – it’s not. Well, in this instance, both the reader and eBay were correct – sort of. “The correct postage was $16.44, but eBay charged us and the customer $31.96.” He was aware of the DIM Weight pricing, but said he got the rate information from the USPS website. We heard from a reader who was shipping an item via Parcel Select in a box measuring 10″ x 10″ x 20″ inches and weighting 5 pounds. But there’s one thing that is tripping up some sellers when they try to determine the cost of shipping such goods, and that’s the USPS’s own calculator on its website. Sellers must now pay much more to ship large, lightweight packages due to a DIM Weight pricing change the USPS rolled out on June 23rd.
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