Media Mail... hoo boy.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Your clerk is lying to you (and making-up regulations that do not exist). I can mail a Britney Spears CD, or a Titanic DVD, via media mail even though these items are published by commercial companies. I've done it many, many times in many, many post offices ranging from New England to Michigan to Oklahoma.

Next time, try a different post office that DOES allow CDs/DVDs to be mailed as media.

Also of note: "Sound recordings may include incidental announcements [advertisements] of recordings and guides or scripts prepared solely for use with such recordings." - http://pe.usps.gov/text/qsg300/Q370.htm



Where is your post office located? I'd like to go check it out myself (I do a LOT of travel & eventually get to everywhere). I'd like to talk to these clerks face-to-face to see if they refuse to let me ship a Titanic or Britney CD/DVD via media mail. Book Rate and Media Mail are the same thing. (Media is the formal term; book rate is the slang.) If you think I'm wrong, please provide the usps.gov link that describes "book rate" as distinct from media mail. Thanks.

Bottom Line:

You have a lousy, idiotic person running your post office. I've shipped from many, many different offices all across the U.S. and every one of them allowed me to ship CDs/DVD regardless of the content of those recordings (music, video, or games). Repeat: Where is your USPS office located? I want to visit them.

Media Mail is not the same as Book Rate / Bound Printed Matter.

Media Mail:
http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/173.htm

Bound Printed Matter:
http://pe.usps.gov/text/dmm300/363.htm

Media Mail cannot contain advertisements, so you can't send magazines or similar stuff that way. Books can be shipped Media, as long as they're educational in nature, and they can't have anything but incidental ads for other books (like a list of the published works of the author, or other books in the series, I bet). Bound Printed Matter items can have advertisements: Magazines, comic books, and other types of books can be shipped this way. Anything that's bound, from the Bible to Mein Kampf, can be shipped.

(Did I just invoke Godwin's Law? )

Many clerks don't know the distinction between Media and BPM; One clerk at my location knows about BPM and chooses that when I ask, but another chooses Media instead.

Media Mail is also a bit more expensive than BPM; Media costs $2.13 for the first pound, while BPM can cost up to $1.70 for the first pound. There's also a fifteen pound limit on BPM.

If you want to know my post office's address, it's the 92231 office in 1101 Ollie Ave, Calexico, CA. Good luck convincing them.

[y-bot]

Media Mail is not exclusively for educational items. Maybe your post office is confusing Library Rate with Media Mail.

http://www.usps.com/send/waystosendm...ibraryrate.htm

USPS employees are wrong all the time. Many times we've had to print out the rules from the USPS website and show them to the clerks at a post office. Some of them are totally clueless. Videogames, music CDs and DVDs are computer readable media and can be shipped via Media Mail. Unless they change the rules and specify those items I don't see what the problem is.

y-bot

[veronica_marsfan]

Media Mail is also a bit more expensive than BPM; Media costs $2.13 for the first pound, while BPM can cost up to $1.70 for the first pound.

TOTALLY WRONG. Media does cost $2.13 for the first pound, but Bound Matter costs up to $2.46 (your link states).

Furthermore:

There is NOTHING in the media mail rules that says "education only". Not one damn thing to that effect. (If you believe there is, show me the link where it says "only" for education; it doesn't exist.)

it's the 92231 office in 1101 Ollie Ave, Calexico, CA. Good luck convincing them.

I searched. There are *6* post offices within 20 miles distance of your home. Why don't you go use one of the OTHER post offices that DOES allow shipping CDs/DVDs as media mail? Go try one of them; you might be surprised to find yourself mailing CDs/DVDs for less than what you've been paying.

[Kitsune Sniper]

I searched. There are *6* post offices within 20 miles distance of your home. Why don't you go use one of the OTHER post offices that DOES allow shipping CDs/DVDs as media mail?

As for my Star Trek novel, the link you provided clearly states I can NOT ship that novel as bound-printed matter.

Would I pay $20 for a round trip taxi to any of those post offices? Or do I go to my local one, which costs me $2 for a round trip bus ride? All of those other post offices are -outside the city-, and there are no bus routes that go that way, except for the Heber post office... which is smaller than my room. Taxi cabs charge a lot for trips out of the city.

And is your Star Trek book in a binder or something? Why can't you ship it via BPM?

[veronica_marsfan]

"bound printed matter" is intended to ship stacks of newspapers or magazines wrapped with string or plastic bands. NOT single books. It says it right there in your link. ----- AND I already showed you how shipping the Trek novel by media mail is *cheaper* than bound mail, so media makes more sense.

Furthermore:

There is NOTHING in the media mail rules that says "education only". Not one damn thing to that effect. (If you believe there is, show me the link where it says "only" for education; it doesn't exist.)

[Kitsune Sniper]

"bound printed matter" is intended to ship stacks of newspapers or magazines wrapped with string or plastic bands. NOT single books. It says it right there in your link. ----- AND I already showed you how shipping the Trek novel by media mail is *cheaper* than bound mail, so media makes more sense.

Furthermore:

There is NOTHING in the media mail rules that says "education only". Not one damn thing to that effect. (If you believe there is, show me the link where it says "only" for education; it doesn't exist.)

Bound Printed Matter refers to anything that is, uh, bound and printed. Books bound with glue, staples or string, count.

About the rates, I was looking at the second table, not the first one. My mistake.

Perhaps the postal workers are confusing Media with Library, but the Media guidelines say that several of the items that can be shipped through it are for educational purposes. Check 3.2.a: "Books, including books issued to supplement other books, of at least eight printed pages, consisting wholly of reading matter or scholarly bibliography, or reading matter with incidental blank spaces for notations and containing no advertising matter other than incidental announcements of books." Then there's sheet music, printed -test materials-, playscripts and book manuscripts, educational reference charts, and medical information. ALL of that can be considered educational. I think the movie reel thing is a throwback to the 1950's or so when schools used to show movies in classes with reel projectors.

I still think Media can't be used for games and software, but until the USPS gets off its ass and clears this up, we'll never know for sure.

[ryborg]

Media Mail arguments are awesome.

[Kitsune Sniper]

Media Mail arguments are awesome.

Well, all those fights regarding RugalSizzler's $30 shipping fees were boring.

[veronica_marsfan]

the Media guidelines say that several of the items that can be shipped through it are for educational purposes.

Yes they CAN be educational, but they don't have to be. They could be a Madonna CD. They could be a Titanic DVD. They could be a copy of Stargate the novel. ----- None of which is educational.

I still think Media can't be used for games and software, but until the USPS gets off its ass and clears this up, we'll never know for sure.

They DID clarify the rules. Around 6 years ago they added the phrase "computer-readable media". Prior to that, you couldn't mail computer discs (floppies). Now you can.

[geelw]

games sent via media mail (unless they're packed to survive the trip) WILL MOST LIKELY ARRIVE DAMAGED. period. i took note of the last ten games i'd gotten that were shipped via media mail in either plain manila or crappy "bubble" packing (on and off of ebay) and nine out of that ten arrived in worse shape than originally pictured or described.

as a seller, i refuse to send any game via media mail no matter how far it's going. i've sent out satacks of vhs tapes in the past via media in one of my crazy frankenboxes (patent pending), but games i'm picky about. i send stuff out the same way i'd want to get it, as opposed to some ebay sellers who overcharge just to recoup listing, closing and paypal fees while they stuff games in the cheapest packing possible and claim that paying for insurance will somehow keep your game safer.

granted, i pack games to the point where they could survive an explosion, but as another poster reported, stuff isn't gently sorted as much as it is mashed together when shipped media mail.

g.