I have been spending too much time at the PO mailing stuff that is costing me $3.50. It seems like printing everything out here is the way to go. Can anyone make me less scared? With some easy info

What is scaring you?  It's really quite simple, just follow the prompts.  There's a $.50 transaction fee and I think an $.18 fee for something I don't remember. 

ETA missing word

Hi Natalie,

I could try to be of more help if you say what is scaring you.

Before you can print postage on this site, you need to buy PBS money. This can be done if you click on "Kiosk" underneath the blue banner at the top of each page and then go to "Buy PBS Money"

This link might also be helpful.

http://www.paperbackswap.com/help/help_item.php?id=8

Nora: I think the 18 cent fee you are thinking of is the actual cost of the DC which goes to the USPS, now raised to 19 cents.

So is it all inclusive? They charge .80 at the PO for DC. Is the .18 here on top of that. How do you know if your book is the right weight

Natalie: there are basically two types of postage related things that you can buy on PBS.

This links to where they explain the difference between PBS Postage and PBS-DC:

http://www.paperbackswap.com/help/search.php?terms=compare+postage+and+DC

If you buy PBS Postage, it is "all inclusive"  -- it includes

the postage (which depends on weight),

the 0.19 DC fee, and

whatever small amount PBS charges as the cost of providing this service.  

If you use PBS Postage, you don't need to buy it for 80 cents from the PO.

The only way to know for sure the correct weight is to weigh the book once it's packed. You can then enter this weight before you print the wrapper so the computer can calculate postage based on what you entered as the weight. But you can also trust the PBS database weight, print out the wrapper, and then verify the weight at the scale in the PO lobby, supermarket, wherever. If it's over, you can add the difference in stamps to the wrapper. If it's under, there's no way to get a refund, unfortunately.

I love using it!  It is so simple. It beats shleeping package to the PO every day.  Now i go to the PO just long enough to chuck the package in the blue box.

Also why are you spending $3.50 to mail books at the PO? Are you buying DC from the post office?  If so that's really a waste of money as PBS will not guarantee the credit.  Also afterawhile with any DC you end up spending more that what the lost book/credit would cost you. Or do you just mostly mail out heavy books?

But the printed postage is great if you just don't want to go the post office.  (it's a waste of money to me if you are going to the PO clerk anyway).  But it's great if you just want to toss it into a blue box.

The DC is cheaper through PBS but you do pay a fee to print the postage out.  I used it all the time when I did home daycare and going to the PO meant dragging 4 little kids inside.  Now I'm unemployed and just plan my book orders to make a once a week trip to the PO.

If you are going to mail books from home, I highly recommend you get a cheap kitchen scale or whatever so you can weigh books accurately. The weights listed on the website aren't always accurate or can be more or less depending on how you wrap/pack the book.

I think that's the biggest thing really.

Once I found PBS/DC I don't got to the PO unless I have a package that's over a pound.  Even with the .19 for the dc and the .43 for the printing of the label/PBS fee it's less money and less hassle for me.  My nearest PO is a 10 mile one way trip.  The nearest blue box is about a mile from my house.  I have a rural mail box and some really great carriers so I never have a problem printing the postage, wrapping the package and storlling across the street to the mailbox.

I have a scale and do check the weights to be on the safe side.

ETA:  Another advantage to using the PBS/DC is an instant credit.  As soon as you mark the book mailed you have a credit!