Free mailing supplies?

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Am I missing something here (http://shop.usps.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/ProductCategoryDisplay?beginIndex=0&pageSize=10000&langId=-1&storeId=10001&catalogId=10152&categoryId=13354)?

Better order some before they figure out they're giving that stuff away...

[libraryvixen]

It's all the time. They deliver it to your house.

[Kevy Baby]

It is normal. You can also get free boxes and other shipping supplies from UPS (I do it all the time) and Fed Ex. Somewhere there is probably the disclaimer about being a crime to use said supplies for any purpose other than its intended use with each respective company.

Don't get too excited.

[Alex]

Priority mail supplies have always been free. In my poorer days I found all kinds of non-postal uses for those supplies (somewhere on the interwebs you can find a guy who constructed a whole apartment full of furniture out of free priority mail boxes).

Of course, if you use them you have to send the item at the priority mail rate.

However, if a tyvek envelope is good enough for you this can be a good thing because you just turn the envelope inside out before using it.

[Morrigoon]

I seem to recall a site where someone had made a desk out of FedEx shipping tubes or boxes or something, very similar.

[CoasterMatt]

http://www.fedexfurniture.com/

:)

[Disneyphile]

Ok, the FedEx furniture rules!! :snap:

[Cadaverous Pallor]

Oh yeah, I had forgotten about the FedEx furniture thing.

So, if I show up at the post office with a handful of things and some newspaper, I can get a box for free, and they'll tape it up for me for free? I though they sold boxes there. The idea that they sell there but deliver the same stuff for free seems weird.

[BarTopDancer]

Only priority mail boxes. And some post offices quit letting people use the priority mail tape (really stupid since they will deliver it to you for free if you order it online).

As a side, those flat rate boxes can be pretty good deals.

[~MS~]

Be careful CP, now with the flat rate boxes, most P.O.s have stopped stocking anything but those and the flat rate/priority envelopes. I recently needed 2 of the 12x12x8 boxes and went to 3 different locations, not one had anything on hand other than the flat rate, they DID however have the plain white boxes for sale if I wanted that. I came home and ordered boxes, I'll use what I need then take the left overs up and drop them off at the post office.

[RStar]

It takes a week or two to get them, but I order them online. I wouldn't just show up at the PO expecting to pack because you never know if they are out. Of course you have to get a minimum of like 25 boxes. And like BTD said they will not let you use their tape. But they do sell plain box tape. You will have to wait in line to get the box and tape, and then again to get the postage.

I use Priority Mail all the time on eBay, so I go through the boxes. I print the lables online, get free delivery confirmation, and buy the postage and insurance online. Then I drive to the back docks and drop it off, and have them "round date" stamp it for proof of shipping. It only takes a minute to ship and I never wait in line.