No problem, just amazed that I recieved a Mass Market paperback in a box yesterday. Sender spent $12.65 on Priority, delivery confirmation, AND insurance.  That is one expensive credit!

ETA: Not a new member either.

Yikes!!! I know I once had a member FedEx a book to me overnight...Strange choices...

Wow, that is expensive!  Maybe they mailed later than they meant to and wanted to make sure it got to you quickly?  Although even if I was going to do that, I'm not sure I'd have gone with the insurance on a MMP...

Wow!  Even with Priority, you could put it in the small flat rate box and pay, what? life $5??

Some people are able to ship things through their work, so may not have known it was going to be that expensive when they sent it to the mail room.

It may be that a business mail room overdid the shipping, not realizing that it was supposed to be media mail?

Wow!  Even with Priority, you could put it in the small flat rate box and pay, what? life $5??

I didn't think this was allowed with books and media mail, am I wrong?

You can use a small flat rate book for priority mail, but you cannot use the small flat rate boxes when sending via media mail.

Books don't have to be sent mm.  I think the other person was saying that an MMP would probably fit in the little flat rate box that costs $5.  What you can't do is use the priority box and then send it with media mail postage.

I was going to say the work thing as well.  I can send things through work w/o paying postage as long as I don't over due it.  So I can easily believe that the sender could have boxed it, put it through shipping at work and they didn't know to sent it media mail.

Or if they ahd a lot of books to send and can't get to a PO (or their mail box) for some reason: they might do Priority on 1 book in order to get a postal carrier to come to their house to pick up their packages.  I can see someone who is handicap maybe doing this sometimes if they don't have anyone to help them.  (like if the weather is bad and they can't get out to their mail box).

That happened to me when I first joined.  I pm'd the person, thanked them for the book and then reminded them they could send it media mail.  They responded that they had asked the dh to mail it and apparently he didn't know to mail it media mail.  I felt so bad that they spent so much.

Adrienne, I thought the same thing: they had someone else mail it for them and that  person didn't know about or was steered away from using media mail.  I  remind DH all the time to make sure he weighs it and uses the lower postage, especially when I send a box of books or he has to go the PO to mail it.

I am quite sure that if I asked my dad to mail something for me, half the time he'd choose the most expensive method - and the other half he'd be wondering why I'm willing to spend $2.35 to ship off a book.

Nice people who aren't familiar with the PBS site and with post office rates can get nervous about the whole thing, and end up sending it an expensive way just to be sure they're not doing anything wrong. (Yeah, it may cost me ten bucks, but at least I won't get scolded for - whatever.)

I had someone send me a book priority cost was about 6.00 when I ask her why she said media mail would have been the same amount.  It was only 1 small book.   So I don't know why it would have been so much

USPS.com now has free Priority Mail PADDED Flat Rate Envelopes (only available online, not at your local P.O.) that could fit most books for $5. If someone wanted to pay the extra $4 for PM. You could fit multiple paperbacks in one. 

I recently had a new member on bookmooch send me a book in a medium flat rate box! I send them a nice email with some useful links filling them in on media mail and other helpful tips for shipping books. They really appreciated the advice!