I mailed two hardback books today by media mail;   PBS 's suggested mail rate for one was $2.38 and the other $3.16.   The post office weighed them and each was $2.77.  Huh?

Apparently I'm going to need a postal scale if I intend to print postage at home.   Checked amazon.com and found the reviews of  the particular postal scale PBS sells aren't glowing reviews  (to put it politely).

Any suggestions of a good quality postal scale?  Or is it simpler and cheaper to stop at the post office?  There is a p.o.  the other side of town that has a machine which weighs and prints postage.

I bought an Ultraship on eBay & I'm happy with it.  Look for one with a detachable display, so when you put something fairly large on it, it won't be so hard to read.

I also got one off of eBay--mine was from "Just Pounds and Ounces".  I'm really happy with mine as well.  I paid 98 cents for it + $16.88 shipping--total of $17.86.

Just buy a basic food scale and enter the weight into PBS before you print the wrapper.  The APCs at the post offices do not have Media Mail as a selection so you'd need to have a list of MM rates with, weigh the package, then "Buy a Stamp" in the amount you needed.

Thanks, Laura and Melanie.   It took a few tries but I finally got the scale for the lower price.

Now, my second question is:  how do I correct the suggested postage for these 2 books?    Ahh, never mind!  I found the answer (simply edit the book data and change the weight).

This is a super place!

I bought a scale at Walmart. It is exactly like the one available in the kiosk, but I don't think PBS can weight things that are heavier.

Good deal!

I alreayd had a cheap kitchen scale from Walmart that goes up to 5lbs.  You can't trust the PBS weight if using the printed postage.  Most of the time it's right but sometimes it's off just enought either cost you a extra little bit of postage or to make you short. 

If it's short you can add stamps and still put it int he blue box because they can track the printed postage. If it's over then you are out the extra postage you paid.

Welcome to PBS Betty!!

I bought a scale on E-Bay and haven't had any problems with the weights it gives me.  The scale I purchased came from Hong Kong and arrived in a little more than a week. 

The APCs at the post offices do not have Media Mail as a selection.....

I noticed this the other day when I was checking out the machine in my PO lobby.  I wonder why they don't have Media Mail.  Can it be because people would just think that Media Mail was the cheapest and use it no matter what was in the package?