Large letter shenanigans

[elusiveeditions]

Hi all, just a quick question, sounds trivial but please bear with me. I sell books (only a little on ebay but will probably increase it soon for lack of anywhere else to clear my stock) and often use large letter for small books, so no tracking and must be <20mm but it's nice and cheap.

Anything larger (like your standard 300+ page paperback) goes in a 500g satchel. These are overpriced as has been discussed here before, which must put buyers off cheaper stock, but you do get tracking which is great if the buyer claims INR.

I sometimes send books as parcels, but you can't accurately pre-price postage without knowing the destination. It's too messy to be refunding postage b/c I charged too much or taking a loss b/c I charged too little.

ANYWAY- as a minor test I bought a few cheap p/backs (well over 20mm.... one was closer to 60mm) to see how other sellers do this. Two of them arrived in A4 enevlopes, with 2 or 3 $0.70 stamps on them.

That's not a large letter is it? A 600 page book? They wouldn't have met the weight requirements for large letter at those prices, let alone the <20mm.

So- is it just a fluke that these got through and you're not really supposed to do this? It'd be great if I could send standard paperbacks for $2.10 but afaik you can't, and these sellers have just been lucky/don't realise/are trying it on etc. Is that right?

Apologies for longwinded-ness 🙂

[elusiveeditions]

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@am*3 wrote:

A little tiny bit of resistance is ok (even on the drop test.. if you shake the board a tad it might fall through) but I err on the side of caution.

Not at my PO it isn't. If it doesn't slip straight through without touching the sides, it doesn't pass as letter rate.

They are quite strict about this, all the staff, not just one or 2. 

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This just shows how much AP staff differ! At my small rural PO (a privately-licensed one, not actual AP iykwim) the staff happily yank things through the slot. Once the lady pulled so hard it ripped the envelope open & I had to go home & repack it. She gave me a free envelope and half a roll of sticky tape though 🙂

[elusiveeditions]

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@cq_tech wrote:

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@digital*ghost wrote:

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@van_werkhoven wrote:

The post office is rediculous as far as the guage goes. The limit is 20mm, the slot is 20mm. 

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The slot at the post office, on average, is actually around 18mm*, so they would reject quite a few packages that do in fact meet the large letter requirements.

*Different people have gotten different measurements from their AP gauges, but almost all of them have been under 20mm, and some of the wider ones were older / more used. 

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Upon reading the above, I immediately grabbed hold of my little-used official AP letter gauge which was given to me by my local LPO and checked the inside measurement with my digital vernier micrometer. The gap varied from between 19.185mm to 19.287mm, which as you quite rightly suggested is actually less than the maximum permitted width of 20mm. To say that I'm not impressed would be a gross understatement, and I'm now wondering just how (in)accurate their scales are. I'm also wondering how interested the Dept of Weights and Measures would be to learn of this discrepancy.

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cq_tech, how wonderful are you to have a digital micrometre handy to check this? I think I like you! 🙂

I used to deal with the Dept of Weights/Measures years ago when I worked for a chain of petrol stations. They were so very diligient about ensuring 1 litre of petrol really was 1 litre. Each petrol station had one known check each year plus at least 2 random checks. I wonder though, if they still have the budget/powers they used to have? You'd think they could've gotten around the the AP postage gauge before now.

[black*poppy]

Just thinking aloud... I wonder if the problem with letters fitting through the gauge depends on what's inside?  For instance with a solid plastic or paper, 20mm is 20mm, but with clothing it's kind of puffy, so when it's sitting on the desk it might actually be 22mm (say) in the middle, but will deflate a bit when yanked through the slot.  Maybe part of the reason for the drop test (at some POs) is to filter out this phenomenom?

[padi*0409]

I seen sellers of clothing here suggest putting 2 pieces of cardboard either side of the items and taping them to stop them puffing up - which could get them jammed in the sorting machine and ripping the envelope to pieces.