I picked up several of these and I've never done them before.

It's senerio B. You buy a ready box at the PO. Give me some ideas of what I can send thats over the minimum?

Do you bring packaging tape to seal them and put the box together there in the lobby?

Any other advice would be appreciated. I'm kinda nervous!!

I bring my item in another bag/envelope so I can discreetly put it in the other envelope or box. I have a daughter out of state in a condo we own so I usually send either stuff we need to get to the condo or food items for her.

I do actually bring packing tape with me to keep my activities out of the general way of the staff prior to bringing the package to the window. I also have an address label ready to go as its hard to write on some of the bubble wrap envelopes without it poking through.

I send two boxes of Velveeta Shells and Cheese the other day BUT I called them jewerlry stones when the clerk commented ... since obviously you aren't going to be insuring mac and cheese.

I think tomorrow (if I get the shop that they are paying extra for and sent out an urgent email for earlier today) I am going to send a couple of shirts I got on an Aeropostle shop and a flashlight we need down there to bring the weight up.

Liz

If I don't have anything to send to anyone I use my prepackaged envelope. I have a few large envelopes (typical office type with gummed sealer and a little clip) that are permanently filled with a stack of copy paper. I put that envelope in one of the Ready Post mailers. I use the one that costs $1.89. I think it's called a cushion mailer. It doesn't have to be a box as long as the package weighs over 18oz. I fill out the information at the customer desk and also do the other observations. The clerk won't know what is in the package because it's already in an envelope. Then I go on line and do the "thing." When the package arrives (I send it to myself) I remove the envelope from the Ready Post mailer and toss the Ready Post. The envelope is ready to be used again..and again. You just can't send it to yourself from your own PO (same zip.) I use a relative's home address for the return address so it doesn't look silly.

@MsJudi -

EXCELLENT Strategy! I've been reluctant to do any of the PO shops simply because I just didn't have the foggiest what to mail! I did only one - Scenario C - and freaked at the size of the box and just one can in there. I thought "for sure" I was doing it completely wrong. I did get paid, but I said no more of those.

I may give them a shot since they seem to always be available around here.

r@inyDayZ3 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> @MsJudi -
>
> EXCELLENT Strategy! I've been reluctant to do any
> of the PO shops simply because I just didn't have
> the foggiest what to mail! I did only one -
> Scenario C - and freaked at the size of the box
> and just one can in there. I thought "for sure" I
> was doing it completely wrong. I did get paid,
> but I said no more of those.
>
> I may give them a shot since they seem to always
> be available around here.


USPS Scenario C ranks up there with IKEA as shops that everyone does at the beginning of their shopping careers....once.

I have a manilla clasp envelope with printer paper in it that I keep in my car. I can slip that into the ready-post box. I only do the surrounding towns so that I can just mail it to my own address. When it comes back, I open the box and throw the envlope of paper back in my car for the next time.

David

Thanks for the advice! I'll just mail printer paper.

Why waste printer paper? Just use newspaper or old magazines. Just make sure that the package weighs at least 18 oz. or it will be rejected by the MSC.

I have done many of these. You will be fine. I buy the cushion mailer and put 2 paperbooks in there, then send them to myself. I have a digital scale I got at Walmart and weigh the books before I go.

OK-dumb question alert: The PO's Im going to are between 15 and 30 min away, in different counties. Is it safe to assume that those PO will not be the ones processing my zip code so I can mail these to myself?

Does that even make sense?

Hudge -

I have a "zip code" map bookmarked in Firefox.

You should be able to pull up a local/county map online - just google "mytown zip code map".

Pull up the page, and then bookmark it. It also comes in handy when some MSC's do not post the street address, just a zip code. I can usually figure out exactly where the shop is located.

I've done over 20 Scenario A, B & D. Of the 3 A & D use your own box & I use 3 Sleeves of Golf Balls and paper and send them to my son out of town. For Secenario B I take 4 sleeves of Golf Balls and use the Small thin envelope and send them to my son. I get all the packages back when he comes to visit me or when I go see him. Then I start the whole game again.

I thought you had to send the packages to a different "ZONE" and never understood how far away the "Zones" have to be. Can anyone explain that?

Not wasting printer paper, I just keep sending the same stack of paper to myself. If I want/need to use it, I'll just open the package when I receive it and use it

To send to a different zone just means that it has to go from one town to another. I do the shops in different local towns and mail back to my own town,



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/15/2012 06:46PM by delcal.

Oh ok...makes sense.

Delcal - So if the town is 15 or 20 miles away, I can ship to myself?

I send a can of dog food to a distant shelter. In the box I add a letter explaining that I am a MS and why I am sending it. I also add my email so they can tell me to cease if they want to. so far they have accepted my donations.

Now I REALLY like this idea! I may just adopt it from you Samwise!



samwise Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I send a can of dog food to a distant shelter. In
> the box I add a letter explaining that I am a MS
> and why I am sending it. I also add my email so
> they can tell me to cease if they want to. so far
> they have accepted my donations.

You have to be careful with the postal zones. For example, Middletown, Valley Station and Pleasure Ridge Parks are all sixth class cities that used to be "distant" towns from Louisville, KY. Now they are simply suburbs and thus are still postal zone 0. I have to leave the county to get to postal zone one. So even though Middletown is 4 miles away and Clarksville, IN is around 10 miles, I can't send something from Middletown back home. I can cross the county line into Oldham County about three more miles from Middletown and it will be postal zone 1 or I can cross the river to Indiana and ship back home.

My pet project is Operation Christmas Child. It sends shoeboxes of toiletries and toys all over the world around October of each year. So I've started collecting items I would purchase anyway to put into shoeboxes later in the year and shipping them to a friend in Bowling Green, KY. I'll pick it all up when I visit her later and bring it home and do it all over again. I processed 687 shoeboxes full of stuff last Christmas and noticed that some people included hard candy and others did not. Soooo, I went to Walgreens and bought quite a few bags of hard candy (24 ounces) that slip easily into a bubble envelope and ship easily. I figure in October when it's time to stuff those boxes again, I'll have about 60 pounds of hard candy to include in them. lol And the cost is spread out throughout the year so I don't feel the pinch.

It has to be different Zip Codes. I am in the middle of several different towns, all different zips. Two miles west, 4 miles SE ect.I send to myself, sister, niece or friend. Only one time did the clerk ever say anything about how close it was. I just said it was a surprise & she likes to get surprise mail.

I have edited this post regarding using 2 magazines. It's not enough. I found out the hard way on the first one I did today. They did not have a scale in the lobby and I guess I was thinking positive, but it was underweight. What could I do-the clerk already had the package. So I guess I won't be paid for that one. After that I loaded more paper into the other envies and those shops, of course, went off without a hitch.

Live and learn!

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/18/2012 12:59AM by hudge95.

So if I am at 87121, I can mail to 87112 and that would be acceptable?

Yes, as long as it says Zone 1 on the receipt and not Zone 0 you will be okay.

I lost count of how many single one pound bags of beans I sent to my mom in January. I did call her to let her know what I was doing but I sent the first one to my grandfather, who lives with them, and told her not to tell him first. She and my stepdad enjoying his reaction before mom told him WHY I sent him a pound of beans!

A one pound bag of dried beans and the weight of the box fulfills the minimum 18oz requirement for that particular shop. We had an overstock of dried beans at my house because we used to buy 4 boxes of Angel Food each month.

lucky7s Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I have done many of these. You will be fine. I buy
> the cushion mailer and put 2 paperbooks in there,
> then send them to myself. I have a digital scale I
> got at Walmart and weigh the books before I go.


How do you get away with that if it is your same zip?

But in the Louisville metro area there are over a dozen zip codes that are all processed through the main post office. That makes them all zone 0. Be careful. Mistakes are expensive.

I have encouraged my stepdad to start MSing...so I also introduced him to this MSC and the ease of the shops. He did his first 'A' shop and sent packages to my kids (we live 500 miles away from them). Each kid got a package from grandpa and were super excited to open it, until they saw the package of spaghetti, 2 packs of gum, and 2 bite size butterfingers. LOL. My 12 yo was like "really Mom, really????" My 2 yo handed me the spaghetti and says "I don't like this". I was ROFLMAO. Gotta love these shops.

At least when I did my shops I sent them crackers with peanut butter and twizzlers. I am stocking up for when the kids go on vacation there for a month this summer. LOL!!!

I send small gifts to my daughter who lives several zones away.

lololol at SecretAgentMom....

I used to send my friends a box of pasta, or bag of rice. It would be a bit shy of the required weight so I bought bags of decorative rocks at the Dollar Tree. I'd pop in two or three rocks with the pasta to increase the weight. My friends would then open packages with food and ......ROCKS???? Really, JoAnne...ROCKS?

It was too funny. Then, last year, when I could still drive, I went to yard sales and picked up stuff for $.10 or $.25 that I could stuff in an envelope and ship. And you can always send stuff to Goodwill in a different postal zone. They'll be glad to get it and it gets it out of your house. I had to get imaginative when I ran out of stuff to ship.

I love to use those shops to send "cheer up" gifts to friends all over the country. That's the blessing of internet friends, I never run out of people to send gifts to.