How many of you have purchased the PBS digital scale? The $25 seems pretty reasonable. If you have it, would you please give me your thoughts on how easy it is to use and if you think it is worth weighing your books vs. printing out PBS postage without checking. Have you found that the scale says you owe less postage? Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. Thank you.

I was going to get the scale through PBS, but then I realized it only weighs up to 5 pounds. While that may work well for single books, if I'm going to pay money for a scale I want it to be useful for more than just five pounds. Like if I do a multiple book deal for instance, if there are any hardcovers or particularly large books as part of the deal, the scale would be useless.

It is well worth having a scale, since the weights listed on PBS are often wrong or absent, but I would opt for a less expensive one off Amazon that can take enough weight to be usable in book deals and all as well.

That makes a lot of sense. Thank you for your input.

Yeah, the main reason I wanted a scale was for multiple book orders as well as for larger and heavier items - so I bought one that measures up to 22 lbs.  I can weigh lots of things - I hate having one job gadgets.

Ruth

I use a 5lb scale (not a PBS one).  Works fine for larger packages.  I weigh the box with a few books in it, then weigh sets of books and add the weights up.

I also use a non-PBS scale that I got at Staples for about $12.  Same 5 lb. capacity, digital readout, nice "hold" function and self-zeroing.

While PBS weight estimates are usually pretty close, there are some entries in the system that are wildly innaccurate and, of course, there's no way for PBS to know how much the wrapping you use is going to weigh.  Having a scale eliminates guesswork and ensures you pay the right postage without paying too much.  If it saves you just a couple of bucks a year, and one or two extra trips to the PO, wouldn't you consider it worth the cost?  And, you can use it for other things besides PBS, such as in the kitchen or sending out personal mail.

I got one at Walmart-looks just like the one through PBS. It works great.  I don't usually have large book orders, so it works fonr or me.

I have a 12 pound scale so that I can use it for bigger  boxes and packages. 5 pounds was just not big enough for me.

Thank you all for your input. In fact, I have to go to Staples today to buy some printer cartridges, so I'll just check out their postal scales and maybe I can pick one up for a reasonable price. Thanks all, appreciate all the input.