that was painful…puffy envelope

[Emily K]

I created a victorian paper purse to send to my daughter, which is basically an origami-like folded piece of paper. I did use lightweight mixed media paper rather than printer paper, so the folded piece was maybe a quarter inch (that’s roughly 6mm), and put it in a 5×3 envelope. It weighed a half ounce. I figured it might have to be hand canceled, so I took it to the counter…it was considered a package!! and cost me $5 to mail!! AND the giant postage sticker she printed out covered up my vintage sticker and envelope drawing. 🙁 Growing up that was definitely something that would have been considered a regular letter piece of mail. Live and learn I guess. I would expect to pay more for hand canceling, but not 3x more.

[Adam Yates]

Oof, that is expensive. If it was only 1/4 inch thick, it should have counted as a letter–perhaps you had an over-zealous clerk, or else this is the new plan to balance the USPS budget 🙂

[Lyneen Jesse]

I am mailing a ton of thank you cards.. (US) and they all are a little bulky. I am having to have them all hand cancelled. New postage rate for hand cancelling is $1.12. I am at 20 thank you cards, with at least that many more. These are expensive Thank Yous!

[Emily K]

Is 1.12 a U.S. rate for hand canceling? I’m still really not understanding how mine was 5.00. 1.12 is much more reasonable.

[Caitlin]

I might guess it was considered a “large envelope” due to thickness and also non-machinable. That shouldn’t have run you $5 USD; I would guess $2-2.50 USD. For USA, hand cancellation is free up to a certain number; I don’t know what the limit is.

[Emily K]

What’s more annoying is I asked a different postal worker at the same office about it a few days later and he was like “we can hand cancel that for free”. So 2 different answers and neither align with their policy on the website. sigh.

[Mia]

In the UK, that would have been a large letter. Standard letter – no thicker than 5mm (and C5 – the envelope for flat A5 paper). Large letters go up to 25mm thick, and whatever the envelope is to hold A4 flat.

On the thickness front, so annoyed that there are many more choices of puffy stickers than flat in stationery/craft stores…

And although the UK doesn’t do a square non-machinable surcharge thing, I’m also a little disappointed so many cards are square (and perhaps fall foul of minimum sizes for international mail).

[Author]

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