I was going to print a label for a book and the print label page said if I used the PBS printed postage it would be $2.42 total, no fees. The fee was crossed off. But when I went to pay for the postage, the price changed to $2.92. A 50 cent fee was added. So I was confused. The total on one page was different from the total on the other page. So I cancelled the transaction.

Then I tried again and this time it said the total would be $3.04: $2.69 media mail + $0.50 fee.  I cancelled again.

Now I am even more confused.

Maybe you don't have enough PBS money and the system is adding that fee to refill your account? 50c is how much they charge to do that...

I don't have any PBS money. I was going to pay via Paypal. 

I've never used PBS printed postage and I am finding it confusing. If I use Paypal, does it add more fees?

I don't want to buy PBS money.

Every time you purchase anything on the site, including "PBS Money", there is a transaction fee of 50 cents. It doesn't matter if you pay via Paypal or via Credit Card or how much you are spending, it's always 50 cents. This is the fee that PBS has to pay to the transaction processor. Typically a merchant who accepts credit cards or paypal has to pay about 30 cents per transaction plus 2.5% of the transaction amount. PBS has chosen to charge us a flat 50 cent fee rather than pass along the exact fee they pay. If you put $10 in your PBS Money account, PBS would have to pay about 55 cents to their transaction processor, and they would pass along 50 cents of that cost to you.

Separately from that 50 cent transaction fee for making a purchase, there is a 55 cent printable postage fee for each label. That 55 cent printable postage fee gets split between Endicia and PBS. PBS is giving you one free postage fee per month because you are a Standard Member. That's why you're seeing the 55 cent fee crossed out on the label setup screen.

The reason that the postage amounts came up differently is because you entered two different weights for the book (or someone else was editing it in the database between your attempts at printing).

You cannot buy PBS postage with PayPal. You have deposit money in your PBS Money account. There's s 50¢ fee to deposit money. 

Thanks for the info.