The Postal Nerd Blog

We were asked by Cards Against Humanity, a novelty card game, to help them complete a “wacky” project. They had decided to mail individual potatoes to bring awareness to something that was important to them and their customers. Over 2000 of their customers wanted to participate. Each potato would have a sticker with that customer’s […]

The major changes are summarized below. If you need any clarification, please let us know. The USPS has published a  summary document.  The key changes for your office are: First Class, Retail postage changes: 1 ounce letter forever stamp = $0.49 1 ounce letter METER rate = $0.46 see additional rates at the bottom of this […]

The USPS is implementing a pricing change to certain parcels on August 28, 2016. The price change affects parcels that are under 4 ounces. The rate for a parcel that weighs up to 3.9 ounces is increasing to $2.62 from $2.45.    An updated RETAIL PRICING SHEET is attached for your mail room use.    As a reminder, PARCELS […]

Why should you know your 9 digit zip code? The USPS is incredibly automated. It may not feel like that at times, but it is. Every mail box in the US is data point in a massive database. Your mail box is called a DELIVERY POINT (DP) and is grouped with other similar addresses to […]

As of April 10, 2016, the USPS is rolling back the price for postage to 2013 rates. April102016-FirstClassPostageCharts. Background:  In 2013, the USPS was granted an emergency price increase to help recover from impact of the recession. This price increase was capped at $4.634 Billion. This cap has now been met and prices must be […]

Each year the USPS releases limited run commemorative stamps. The 2016 roster has been released. A thorough listing of all stamps to be released can be found here. In addition to images of the stamps, the historical background of how the stamp was created is also included. Traditionally, these are a limited release. Most post […]

On January 17, 2016, the US Post Office implemented a variety of changes to their rules and rates. These do not impact First Class, Non Profit or Presort Standard Letter and Flat mail rates. The changes are almost exclusively related to packages. Following is a summary of the more commonly used categories of package mail: […]

Since I was a kid I have been fascinated by how things get done. Maybe it is growing up in a family mail shop business. Or maybe it was all those “this is how it is made” films we would watch in school and as part of Saturday morning educational TV. But, I’ve always been […]

People love to complain. And they seem to love nothing more than complaining about the post office. But that is really unwarranted.   For every delivery challenge you hear about, there are millions (more likely billions) of pieces of mail delivered without incident. So, I’d like to take this day to compliment the USPS. The sheer […]

May 2015 Postage Rate Changes – Discounted Mail (Commercial Rates) Trying to figure out what your average postage rate is for a presorted mailing can be frustrating. Postage discounts are based on zipcode density of your list. If your list has enough mail going to a specific zipcode to fill a mail tray, you will […]