Letters 1st Class 46¢ + 20¢    

Nonmachinable surcharge increased to 20¢ May08
Up  2 cents from $0.42  on 11May09.
Incrementing 20¢, not 17¢, on 17April2011.   
Up 1 cent from $0.44 on 22Jan2012.
Up 1 cent from $0.45 on 27Jan2013. 

Rigid object inside?  Metal clasp?  Button & closure string? 
Add  non-machinable surcharge ("bad envelope" penalty),
        increased to $0.20 May08;
        unchanged for '09, '10, '11, '12, '13   praise the Lord.  
Square?  Goes though their machines but they can’t tell which way?  Add   $0.20
Almost square (less than 30% height-width difference)?  Add  $0.20.
Too skinny? (long length more than 2.5x short)?  Add   $0.20.
Length over 11 ½”  ? Go to “Flats” (next)
Height over 6 1/8”? Go to “Flats”.
(A "Size 14" envelope is OK; Size 10 is normal.)
    If you want to send someone a stamped, self-addressed ("SSA") envelope
    to return-mail you, it's nice to get a few Size 11 envelopes.     
Thicker than ¼”?  Go to “Flats”.

Tired?  Sorry.  Too bad.  Congress gave away its power of oversight and let the Postal Service change rates by itself.  

“Flats”  (Large 1st Class Envelopes)

1 oz            $0.92            and add 20 cents each additional ounce as of 17Apr2011;
2 ounces   $1.12                                                                         unchanged 2012,13
3 ounces   $1.32            (fold it in half and go in a business envelope for 86 cents)
4 ounces   $1.52
5 ounces   $1.72
6 ounces   $1.92
7 ounces   $2.12          
8 ounces   $2.32
9 ounces   $2.52
10 ounces $2.72
11 ounces $2.92
12 ounces $3.12
13 ounces $3.32

FLATS:

Small Packages / Cartons / Lumpy envelopes 1st class

Padded envelopes over 3/4" thick, rigid photo mailers, medical samples, small boxes under 1 cubic foot.  You may write on your little box, "1st  Class Airmail."  The official name is "1st Class Package" or "1st Class Mail Parcel"  (not  Parcel Post ! ).  In 2013, an official name is also "Parcels" ( not  Parcel Post !) 

We told you it is not  Parcel Post, and we told you again.  Just to make sure you get it, we are abolishing Parcel Post entirely.  There's no such thing.  Get over it.  As of 27Jan2013, those big cartons are  STANDARD POST.  Again:  these small cartons are "Parcels", there's no such thing as "Parcel Post" and the big parcels are "Standard Post".  ((Why did I start this Webpage?  What ever made me think I could find the logic or explain it to anyone?)) 

2011: No longer available on-line to the American public.
Pitney-Bowes can print it for eBay Inc, but you and I have to stand in line at the Post Office.   

But wait!  To send  small 1st Class Packages ON LINE, go to this unpublicized URL ("Universal Resource Locater" or Web address):  https://www.paypal.com/ShipNow   (Thank you, JohnD.)

You must be a registered PayPal user (a part of eBay, Inc). You must enter a PayPal user name and password.  No coffee breaks!  If your session times out, you'll lose the address you were typing and have to start over.   

This page normally comes up only if you sold something on eBay and must ship it.  There is not supposed to be public access.  When public access to this URL is shut down, there will be some excuse.  You didn't sell on eBay, we don't know what you are sending.  But all our parcels are subject to opening for postal inspection, so tell me again, What are you afraid of?   Explain one more time why it is up to eBay, Inc. to say whether we, the American people, have the right to use our own postal system?  Keep small parcel access available on line -- the Post Office needs the money.  Americans want a Postal Service.  Our Constitution (Sec 1, Art 8) promised one to us. 1Jan2013:  Still no public online access to  First Class Mail Parcel postage. 

     

Length plus girth over 108”?      Go to Parcel Post calculator.  No even Priority will take you.
Length plus girth over  130"        Go to UPS like I told you -- Post Office won't take it.

Posters rolled up (maximum post office length): Global Express Guaranteed is only 46", Express Mail Intl. is 60", domestic Priority Mail is maybe 60", and sometimes there is a formula of length plus how tight you rolled it up, so you don't really get the maximum.  I'm terribly  sorry about this -- they can't seem to pick one rule, if they pick a rule, then they don't always tell the public, and, if the public ever finds out, then they change it. 

1 ounce any country $1.10.  Thank you for this simplification.
International 1st-ounce forever stamps appear in 2013.  Thank you for this mercy.

One ounce is a business envelope with 5 sheets of typical Xerox paper, or 1 sheet and six  4x6" photos.  Leave out 1 sheet or 1 photo to be safe.   
"3.5" oz means you can't weigh more, but you pay for 4 oz.  
Limits, all countries:  value under $400, size under 6 1/8" x 11 1/2" x 1/4" thick. 

BIGGER THAN A LETTER?  MORE THAN 3.5 OZ?

Int'l Flats

For envelopes up to 15" x 12", there are international Flats up to 4 lbs.  Costs are:

    Canada, roughly $4/lb;
    Mexico roughly $7/lb,
    ROW roughly $8/lb. 

To ROW at over about 3 lbs, a Priority Flat Rate Envelope will be cheaper, but it's a couple inches smaller both ways, so get the legal size Priority Envelope  9 1/2" x 15" (which is the same price as classic size in International service).  

To check  First Class Mail International Flats pricing, select the large plain envelope icon at http://postcalc.usps.gov/ and  then select "First-Class Mail Int'l Options".  You still cannot buy the postage online as of 1/2013.  This is stupid. 

As with all flats, the International Flat envelope cannot be rigid (so it can round the curves on their conveyors past high-speed  scanners).  And thickness?  We are going up to 4 pounds here, folks, so the infamous "quarter-inch warning" does not say you can't be thicker than 1/4 inch.  Instead, the warning is, don't have more than 1/4" VARIATIONS in thickness.   So, use padded envelopes lined with bubble-wrap.  If you fail the thickness test, you are a  First Class International Package box, not a First Class Mail flat, and prices are 40, 50% higher, even double for the low weights. 

eBay returns to China: a padded envelope International Flat is your lowest possible cost  -- $2 or $3  to return one dead CPU or fraudulent USB thumb drive. 

Don't  try to mail a small envelope over 3.5 oz.  "LETTER"  service up to 64 oz was dropped on 12May2008, so now there's only big "flats".  Some post office minds think, therefore, that you have to put the small envelope in a big one to make it a "FLAT", and then put the additional stamps on it.  You can't persuade them to just take the money -- the same money, all the additional stamps.  They want the envelope too.  They want to fill the airplanes with big envelopes. 

HEAVIER THAN 4 LBS?

Priority international boxes take up to 20 lbs, cost a fortune, and require the #2976 Customs Form.  Sketched in Priority section below.

First Class LETTERS                            FLATS (manilla envelopes)    
Small Pkgs & padded envelopes                Int'l Airmail LETTERS + FLATS  
Postcards                                            Domestic PRIORITY boxes  
Int'l Priority                                           1st Class Mail INT'L PKGS  
ExpressMail $$$                                   MediaMail BOOKS          
Parcel Post                                          Money Orders, Delivery Confirm            

Postcard  33¢  

International Postcards 1.10¢ all countries

Aerograms / Air Letter Sheets  are discontinued by the postal service of the United States. .  Was $0.75 to any country, postage printed on the paper, no stamps. Write whatever you want, mail it to any address you want -- done.  The good old days.  

 Domestic PRIORITY Envelope & BOXES  

To cope with the complexity and to obtain a discount that is about 4%,  purchase Priority postage online at:
http://postcalc.usps.gov/  

For local shipments, use straight Priority and drop the flat rate boxes.  Otherwise: 

$12.35  regular/medium  flat rate box any zone, 70 lb max,  $11.30 online

Two medium-size boxes are available:

11" x 8.5" x 5.5" and
            13.625" x 11.875" x 3.375

$10.50 online in 2011, up from $10.20 in 2010
            $10.85 online in 2012, up from $10.50 
            $12.35 at the counter 27Jan13, up a buck from $11.35 

Priority “Dimensional Pricing” --  beyond flat rate:  

Packages larger than 1 cubic foot traveling far  (Zones 5 through 8) are priced by size because such trips use air transportation.  Or rather, you use the same old  tables that price everything by weight, but you must use an imaginary weight calculated from your package size as  8.9 lbs per cubic foot.  This works out to  LxWxH in inches divided by 194.   <rant>:  These people are trying to have something both ways at once (size or weight? We can't decide!!)  Now we have a world of lies:  your box surely does not weight exactly 8.9 lbs/cubic foot.   Complexity, lies, and indecision might be some people's definition of "bureaucracy".   </rant>

Envelope           $19.95
Flat rate box      $39.95; 70 lbs max
Maximum not-flat-rate charge is $370.20.

Sample rates:
--- for 2 lbs to near-to-far zones, expect $18.10 to $39.40                      
--- for 4 lbs, expect $22.95 to $50.80

Since 12May08, everything varies by zone.
2011:  no changes for flat rate.  
22Jan2012:  Envelope  goes up to $18.95,  flat rate box goes to $39.95; 70 lbs max (not flat rate) goes to $342.10.
27Jan2013:   Envelope goes up to $19.95,  flat rate box stays at $39.95; 70 lbs max (not flat rate) goes to $370.20.                                          

To cope with the complexity and to obtain a discount that is nearly 5%,  purchase Express postage online at: 
http://postcalc.usps.gov/

Any Express letter up to 1/2 lb must use a "Flat Rate Envelope".  If not a flat rate shipment, you can use your own packaging, but, if it will fit, a flat-rate mailer is usually cheaper, because:
a $19.95 flat rate envelope takes any weight to any zone. 

Since 2011 there's a longer size for legal paper, 15" x 9-1/2", and padded envelopes, all at the same price. 

To find the page if they move it again, search on  site:store.usps.com  $0.00 express mail box  like this:  sample search.   

Media Mail Rates -- BOOKS

To send  Media Mail packages ON LINE, go to this unpublicized URL ("Universal Resource Locater" or Web address):  https://www.paypal.com/ShipNow   (Thank you, JohnD.)

You must be a registered PayPal user (a part of eBay, Inc). You must enter a PayPal user name and password.    Normal United States citizens are not allowed to buy Media Mail postage on-line.  Corporate customers are privileged to enjoy services that US citizens don't get, even though the USPS is authorized by the Constitution of the United States to serve all its people.  Of course, when public access to this URL is shut down, there will be some excuse.  But all our parcels are subject to opening for postal inspection, so tell me again what you're afraid I'll mail.  Explain one more time why it is up to eBay, Inc. to say whether we, the American people, have the privilege of fully using our own postal system.  Keep Media Mail access open -- the Post Office needs the money.  

PARCEL POST  

A personalized chart from my town McLean to ZIP XXXxx

Try http://postcalc.usps.gov/Zonecharts/ (a U.S. Postal Service link) to get a chart like the one below for your own town.  This chart works for Priority boxes that are not flat rate, and for Parcel Post.

Up to $500 -- $1.15  

$500.01 to $1000.00 -- $1.55, 

International Money Order $4.45

Your overseas maximum is $700.    The Hong Kong and Shanghai Banking Corp. (HSBC, a British bank from colonial times) had a slightly higher money maximum.  They  laundered at least $800 million in drug lord and terrorist money  into the American economy and banking system, and yet nobody went to jail.  The best way to rob a bank is to own one.  (No, seriously, that's the book on Amazon,  The Best Way to Rob a Bank Is to Own One: How Corporate Executives and Politicians Looted the S&L Industry
William K. Black.) 

Domestic Delivery Confirmation ("Signature Conf")

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