Used to be, I’d indulge myself and buy a sheet or two to use for the occasional piece of snail mail I end up sending out each year. But recently, USPS postage rates have been so on the rise that stamp values become obsolete way too quickly and I end up having to pair them with a gajillion of these make-up stamps:

Or these, which are slightly cooler but still annoying to use:

Like, 42 cent stamps came and went in such a flash (didn’t they?!) that I barely even had time to notice these awesome Year of the Ox stamps, much less get myself a sheet!

These days, I hardly use stamps anymore anyways. Even stuff that I used to snail mail — primarily legal documents, checks, that sort of thing — I now just scan and send via email, or pay with PayPal. Who needs stamps?! Not me. But I want them anyways! Who can resist USPS’s awesome online Postal Store, where you can find all sorts of cool stamps — AND OTHER STUFF! — for fun, for collecting, and of course for mailing. Doesn’t this super-cool Pewter Stamp Dispenser just make you want to run online and pick one and a coil of stamps up for yourself OR WHAT?!

Similar Posts:

• Curse you, BOE!
• Shopping for shipping supplies

I swear officer, I never received my 4th Quarter 2008 Sales and Use Tax form! And, subsequently, I didn’t even think about submitting payment. I did however receive my notice of delinquency on Friday, after which I got my butt right on it, crunched the numbers and handed my hard-earned money over. Plus a delinquent fee…and interest. WAAAH and a slew of upside down smilies! Sigh. I know I know, I take full responsibility for it (sorta) but a girl can still grumble.

As if that didn’t hurt enough, the added salt on my wound was the reminder that the California sales tax goes up by a whole dang 1% on April 1, 2009. YIKES! That makes my county’s sales tax a whopping 9.75%. Ugh. To see how much additional money you’ll have to fork over in your county, here’s the State Board of Equalization’s chart on the new tax rates (pdf).

And that sad news reminds me that shortly thereafter, prices for USPS mailing services will also increase. Starting May 11, 2009 our postal friends will not only bump the price of a 1-ounce First-Class Mail stamp from 42¢ to 44¢ (I can’t even keep track of the stamp increase these days), but other services like Standard Mail, Package Services, Parcel Post and Extra Services (delivery confirmation, insurance, that sort of thing) will also climb.

But but, I JUST re-did my Etsy shipping prices to reflect the January 2009 change! Well, thank goodness for Etsy’s shipping profiles and batch shipping features at least.

Now, back to pouting. Or maybe to clean my workspace. The latter probably a bit more productive.Similar Posts:

• 44 cents…and rising
• Shopping for shipping supplies
• Problem: a mess of receipts. Solution: the Envelope Pouch.

Jiffylite Cushioned Mailers
I currently use two sizes of Jiffylite Cushioned Mailers, the outsides of which are made from 100% recycled content and 10% post consumer content. The Bubble Wrap® brand cushioning inside, which also provides a moisture barrier, is made with 10% recycled plastics. At 68 and 88 cents a piece including shipping for the #5 and #6 sizes, respectively, they’re not too bad of a deal. But, I’m not sure I really need the plastic padding so much as something that’s just water- and tear-resistant. A product without the bulky padding will also make the mailers a lot easier to store, and Jimmy will like that. =]

image from Overstock.com

CareMail Mailers
I really liked the CareMail Mailer that my Figs & Ginger necklace arrived in a couple months ago. It was a plastic-free, cushioned rugged mailer made by Duck Products. CareMail Mailers are made from 90% total recycled content (50% post-consumer), cushioned with recycled newsprint and can be recycled along with your mixed paper. Unfortunately, they’re not quite the right solution for me either since they’re a little more rigid than I need and again, my products are soft and kind of self-cushioning.

image from duckproducts.com

Tyvek Mailers
So now I’m looking at non-cushioned Tyvek mailers, maybe the expanding ones like these from Amazon:

image from amazon.com

Tyvek is what those soft USPS Priority Mail (and FedEx) envelopes are made from. These are free from the USPS if you’re shipping with their Priority Mail service, but if you’re only going First Class like some of my smaller and/or less expensive items, the post office won’t allow you to use that packaging at First Class rates.

Tyvek mailers are not only lightweight, resistant to water and tearing and strong enough to repurpose into a vast array of DIY projects as a quick web search of “Tyvek DIY” will prove, but they’re also 100% recyclable! Tyvek maker DuPont runs a nationwide recycling program to collect used Tyvek envelopes and recycle them into other materials. Who knew?!

The bummer about it so far is that prices are higher than the Jiffylites and there don’t seem to be as many larger-sized options, so I have some comparison shopping to do.

Polypropylene Mailers
Poly mailers look just like the Tyvek ones and are also less expensive, but I’m wondering if these are just lower quality knockoffs that are also without the benefit of being recyclable. The ones from Staples are however, made from 25% post-consumer content, so there is some green in it.

So I guess after all that, I’m still shopping for shipping supplies. If anyone has any tips, I’d love to hear! The Switchboard Forum has a couple of threads here and here with links that look worth trying (you might have to register to see). Think I’ll check those out on a later break…

Update 01/23/09:
I’ve been hearing so many good things about Uline.com that I think I’m going to give them a try. They have bubble mailers, padded mailers, expandable Tyvek mailers AND a zillion colors of competitively priced tissue paper!

Otherwise, trusty old Costco’s got shipping supplies too. And they’re cheaper than over at Overstock. Why didn’t I notice that before?!Similar Posts:

• Curse you, BOE!