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Shipping hack for huge books: media mail is lying to you
Had a chat with a guy at the post office in Cleveland last week after I tried to send a 12 pound art book to a swap partner. He pointed out that media mail is cheap but slow, and if the book gets damaged, you are out of luck. He suggested shipping via UPS ground with your own box, and suddenly the $18 quote I got online dropped to $11. The catch was I had to flatten a bigger box to fit it exactly, not just slap it in a big one. Anyone else found a cheaper way to ship these monsters without using the post office?
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cora5622mo ago
Oh man, I've been there with those big art books... they're a nightmare to ship cheap. What worked for me was buying a roll of brown kraft paper and wrapping the book up tight like a present, then slapping the label right on it. It sounds sketchy but I've shipped a few heavy ones that way and never had a problem. Also, if you have a personal account on Pirateship, they sometimes have rates that beat the counter prices, especially for ground. And yeah, cutting the box down to size is the real trick, the space is what they ding you on more than the weight sometimes. Just make sure you wrap it in plastic first in case it gets wet on the truck.
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