Hubby often goes to the post office for me and says he's been given some crap from the USPS guy who thought a 30-page softcover crochet instruction book was a magazine.  Hubby assured him it was not a magazine.

He was behind a guy who was mailing a Chilton Manual.  USPS guy said that couldn't go media.

Is USPS guy right?  I've never had a Chilton Manual, so what would be the reason it can't go media??

MaryF

No idea.  Was going to say Advertisements, but looked in a couple of ours and there are no ads.

OTOH, many postal employees do not understand Media Mail guidelines.

Thanks!

you might point out to the postal guy the isbn on the back of chilton manual. Since isbn stands for international standard book number it might help.

Can't go by that, many things have ISBNs that cannot go Media Mail.

?

9780764945595  9781922217523

So the post office clerk asks you for the name of the book you're mailing?

Diane

This is what is allowed to go media mail. A lot of times things that don't qualify are because they don't meet the "printed pages" and "reading material" requirement.

3.0 Content Standards for Media Mail

3.1 Content Standards Only these items may be mailed at the Media Mail prices:

a. Books, including books issued to supplement other books, of at least eight printed pages, consisting wholly of reading matter or scholarly bibliography, or reading matter with incidental blank spaces for notations and containing no advertising matter other than incidental announcements of books. Advertising includes paid advertising and the publishers' own advertising in display, classified, or editorial style.

b. 16-millimeter or narrower width films, which must be positive prints in final form for viewing, and catalogs of such films of 24 pages or more (at least 22 of which are printed). Films and film catalogs sent to or from commercial theaters do not qualify for the Media Mail price.

c. Printed music, in bound or sheet form. 

d. Printed objective test materials and their accessories used by or on behalf of educational institutions to test ability, aptitude, achievement, interests, and other mental and personal qualities with or without answers, test scores, or identifying information recorded thereon in writing or by mark.

e. Sound recordings, including incidental announcements of recordings and guides or scripts prepared solely for use with such recordings. Video recordings and player piano rolls are classified as sound recordings.

f. Playscripts and manuscripts for books, periodicals, and music.

g. Printed educational reference charts designed to instruct or train individuals for improving or developing their capabilities. Each chart must be a single printed sheet of information designed for educational reference. The information on the chart, which may be printed on one or both sides of the sheet, must be conveyed primarily by graphs, diagrams, tables, or other nonnarrative matter. An educational reference chart is normally but not necessarily devoted to one subject. A chart on which the information is conveyed primarily by textual matter in a narrative form does not qualify as a printed educational reference chart for mailing at the Media Mail prices even if it includes graphs, diagrams, or tables. Examples of qualifying charts include maps produced primarily for educational reference, tables of mathematical or scientific equations, noun declensions or verb conjugations used in the study of languages, periodic table of elements, botanical or zoological tables, and other tables used in the study of science.

h. Loose-leaf pages and their binders consisting of medical information for distribution to doctors, hospitals, medical schools, and medical students.

i. Computer-readable media containing prerecorded information and guides or scripts prepared solely for use with such media. 

I see no reason Chilton Manuals could not go media mail.

They  certainly meet all the requirments.  

I've mailed several Chilton Manuals, and wondered this myself.  The issue being a few ads in the back.  As bound printed matter, they certainly qualify on that aspect.

Side note, I checked our Chilton's to see what type of ads were included (if they met the criteria of, "containing no advertising matter other than incidental announcements of books") and couldn't find any ads.  So either I'm mistaken or Chilton has stopped including ads.

Here is a handy chart that specifically says instruction manuals can go media mail: https://liteblue.usps.gov/news/link/2013/04apr/Media-Mail-Guidelines.htm

and in the 'new to me' category........didn't know educational info in a binder for medical purposes was considered 'media'.  But seems other educational materials in a binder should be eligible also-- I'm now thinking about how many of my daughter's college 'books' are not bound, they are loose leaf copies in a binder.