Proposed 2017 Media Mail Rates:

Current Media Mail Prices

First Class Packages Prices (if printed online, NOT at the post office)

So currently, if you are printing postage online through PayPal or the like (not PBS since they chage extra fees), it is 1c cheaper for 0-8oz to ship First Class, 9-16oz Media Mail is a decent amount cheaper. 

In 2017, 0-4oz will be cheaper first class. 4-8oz will be slightly more expensive first class, but might be worth the extra pennies for the faster shipping. 9-16oz will continue to see significant savings for media mail, especially at the heavier end of that range. 

I did not include media mail, but if you are interested in more of the proposed changes, I made a spreadsheet for some of the most common rates used by people shipping online. If you are on the other book swapping site and ship internationally, you'll be pleased to hear that the most common international rates are NOT increasing. 

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ZXlRkzVSINyewcaULzqISOrArq0_fi2Azz5oUeTkm-M/edit?usp=sharing

If you purchase postage at the post office, then media mail is always cheaper at this point, Media Mail is the same price online or at the PO, while First Class Packages are more expensive at the PO. 

Looks like they're edging us out of first class pkgs, so I'll be doing mostly media mail for books.  People can wait to receive their books.

Thanks for posting this.

I have been having some VERY fast MM deliveries, anywhere from 2 days to 4 days, sometimes 5 with a Sunday included! It takes 4 days,sometimes longer, for mail to reach this tip of Texas from my daughter just north of Houston - first class!    I'd say that MM has been quite good - I've had no books coming MM more than 7 days, including Sundays. I've been pleased thus far. Maybe it's because of our location - don't know, but I'll stick with MM!     M'ann

Ugh ... I just bought some postage stickers for $2.61 and $3.09.  I didn't consider prices may increase in the new year.  Is it permissible to add 1 cent stamps to these meter strips on book packages to achieve the new rates (assuming they are implemented)?

Valerie, you can do that. I print Endicia postage from a Dymo printer and since the program only has increments based on package rates, to get to the right total amount I've had to add a single 1 cent stamp or two to get to the media mail rates.

bump

This afternoon, I had an interesting conversation with the Postmaster of one of the larger USPS branches in my area about the upcoming rate changes. As part of this discussion, he said that he probably shouldn't tell me, but there has apparently been significant discussion about dropping Media Mail in the not-too-distant future. The main reason is that it is costing increasingly more resources to battle the "cheats" - those people who use Media Mail to ship things other than approved media.

Anyone heard similar rumours?

Caveat: I haven't yet had the time to corroborate this. I also doubt that I could get anyone at L'Enfant Plaza to give me a straight answer anyway.

Not as good or as good of a source as you.  Over on the ebay discussion boards, it's been discussed or predicted for years that someday the usps could take away media mail.

I mail all my books media mail. 

I discussed that with clerks at all 4 POs I use to mail out books weekly and no one had heard any such thing.  Might mean  that they are 'out of the loop' or the type of employeees who don't care about upcoming changes or long-term plans.

I still have not been able to confirm or refute this. I did text a guy I know who works in IT over at USPS HQ. He told me that he knows nothing about it - for now. Since his group is responsible for maintaining and improving the website, he might know sooner than others since they would need to program and test the changes. He did say that while he knows of nothing in the works, if it should happen, it likely wouldn't be until 2019 at the earliest.

I just printed a label to mail 3 individual books.  They are each about 130 pages.  The postage should be $2.63.

My printed labels from PBS says suggeted media mail rate $3.12.

Anyone know why this is happening?

Pamela, Is the weight indicated on the label screen under 2 pounds? For those that don't know, you can adjust the pounds and ounces to get the right weight, especially if you are adding a free book or more wrapping, etc. If you weighed the books and packing materials together and you are certain it's under, then it should allow you to lower the weight and the rate should decrease. If it doesn't change then that's a system glitch and PBS should be contacted.

The site shows the package (book) weighs 1.8 pounds.  Actually, I don't think it weighs less than l/2 pound.

I'll contact PBS.  I'm thinking system glitch.

On 3/9/2017 @ 1:35pm Pamela P. said: "The site shows the package (book) weighs 1.8 pounds.  Actually, I don't think it weighs less than l/2 pound."

You can change the weight of the book package to reflect the actual weight. I've been told in the past that the weights reflect what's in the database entry for each book. This is not a PBS thing, but a vendor thing, since PBS doesn't own or maintain the actual book database.

As I said, you can certainly adjust it in the boxes yourself. It's only if you can't get the fields to change then it's time to contact PBS.  Ed's right. In my experience, the system number is rarely spot on and I almost always have to fix it to match my package's actual weight.