I never really paid attention until about a week ago, I mailed a bunch of books (with stamps, some hardback, some paperback) from the office at my apartments, a couple of days later they were returned to me, I took them to the post office and they told me it was because the book was over 13 oz and had stamps,. Please tell me how I can tell if the book is over 13oz

Weighing it on a scale is your best bet.

PBS will give you the postage amounts based on whatever information they have in their database. The sizes and weights of books are not always correct in the database, so you should always double check your postage before mailing. If PBS thinks a book is over 13 oz, there is a note on the wrapper that says that. I believe it's in red in the area where you would put the stamps.

Thank you Cathy. That was just the info I needed..

Have a wonderful day

1. PBS label
2. home postage scale
3. USPS lobby scale (my PO still has one)
4. Amazon book information includes shipping weight, remember to add a bit for wrapper.
 

I don't think the problem was necessarily incorrect postage. I think what they were saying in this case is that any package weighing over 13 oz. mailed with stamps and not metered postage has to handed to a postal worker in person. It cannot be left in a mailbox or even dropped in the slots inside the post office.

If PBS has it listed as over 13oz there should be a big red banner on the Print Wrapper screen telling you you have to take it to the Post Office if you use stamps only. That's not always fool proof as some of the weights are off in the system, but it will flag many of them for you.

The only real way to know for sure is to use a scale and weigh it. (A kitchen scale or postal scale can be obtained pretty cheaply in many places.) I would not rely on the weight listed on the PBS label--it's wrong about a third of the time in my experience. And I think that's what the problem was--if you just put stamps on a book over 13 oz, even if you have adequate postage it can be returned because of that 13 oz rule...no stamps on a book over that weight--it's a security issue so people can't mail bombs.

This is the sole reason I use the PBS printable postage, because I do mail a lot of hardbacks and trade paperbacks that weigh over 13 oz...and I can only get to the PO one day a week. With the printable postage, I can just drop them in the blue box in front of my work regardless of weight.

Cheryl