I just received, today, a book I ordered from Midtown on 7/1. 23 days to get here. Orders the slab from Mycomicshop on 7/17. It came yesterday. No disrespect to the OP. But midtown is no comparison to mycomicshop.
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Thanks for the answers, must be a weird thing happening to me since no one else seems to be experiencing it. I got the .99 quote from USPS directly (twice), so that was why I took umbrage at them charging 4.99 and sending it as bound printed matter, since it clearly delayed mine several weeks if Anthony got a 7/17 order on the 24th. I’ll email them for all the good it’ll do, but as Alana implied they’re extremely prickly people who don’t like to be questioned. If nothing else the way they treated her was creepy and cowardly, even if you don’t agree with my grievances.
I can only say, unless you got that in writing, I’d take whatever a random USPS customer service rep over phone with a grain of salt as well… If MCS is getting deep discounts, thats normally something that is kept mum.
I had asked that a link to USPS be provided as informational earlier … No link appeared that I saw, so I asked Mr/Ms Google …
https://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/263.htm#ep1019916
It’s a rather convoluted sub-class, one notable line being ::
"The USPS does not guarantee the delivery of BPM within a specified time. "
The link is quite confusing as far as it’s description, at least it was for me … it seems this class of mail is designed for ‘junk mail’ such as catalogs, etc … I may be wrong, it’s a bit tough to digest …
I will add, USPS does sometimes, cut sweet deals on shipping … Netflix is a good example … (yes, people still rent physical discs from Netflix, mostly folks that are outside of areas with a high speed ISP) …
I believe, even now, Netflix has in excess of 2 Million disc subscribers … and your subscription includes the cost of shipping both ways … so, I’d guess it’s about impossible for USPS to be making any profit when a stamp costs .55 cents and these deliveries are primarily going to rural areas …
After looking into it on USPS’s website, I highly doubt MCS is shipping via bound printed matter. Here is the info page about it: https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-is-Bound-Printed-Matter-Service
And here is the form you need to fill out with each shipment: https://about.usps.com/forms/ps8042.pdf
It also requires a permit to ship via that method. And the shipment needs to be dropped off at a “Business Mail Entry Unit” and not just picked up like a normal shipment. It sounds like a ton of work that would cost way more than $4.99 in real costs just to save a buck or two on the actual postage.
Also I just got a shipment in from MCS the other day and checked out the label - it was shipped via UPS Mail Innovations.
Yeah, that’s pretty much the impression I got … unless you are really, really shipping like a truck load of mail at a time …
Now that I do know … it’s an arm of UPS … designed to ease them into the possibility of buying the USPS when and if the Government decides to sell it …
Mail is free in China even international, Yay for American capitalism
I spend between $5000 and $10000 on shipping every year.
Could only imagine how much a online comic shop has to spend yearly
All of my MCS orders in the last 2 months I ran the tracking to get the shipping method and all were UPS Mail Innovations Expedited. Each I chose the $4.95 option.
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To be fair it is in no way free, it’s just not paid for directly. USPS actually does a really good job for what they have to do, and the only reason they aren’t profitable is due to some accounting requirements that were forced on them years ago that no other company in the world is held to (i.e. a tactic from a certain political party to make it look like the USPS is operating at a loss).
Oh, it was a bill back in like 2006 that Congress passed that pretty much screwed them out of any and all profits with crazy requirements. They were making profits and then since then, have done nothing but losses since…
Take the box/label to the local post office and ask them what it is. Maybe they can tell you what the the cost of it is too.
as long as you do not mind it being searched and confiscated.
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Here are two shipping labels, the first from MCS and the 2nd from Midtown.
MCS has the notation of BPM, which from what I found online for parcels is $1.39 for the first lbs and 19 cents per lbs after.
Midtown rate is PS Lightweight, which is Parcel Select Lightweight, which from what I found online is $1.94-$2.12 from 12-16 oz, then “I think” it bumps you up to another service like priority.
Midtown might even switch to BPM, I haven’t had a big order in a while over lbs to check…but most online sites I’ve ordered from a side from Midtown, MCS and NYCC will bump your shipping quote to priority if you have 3 or more comics in your cart.
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My midtown order ships every week that I use them the following Monday, but I got a new online honey hole that looks to only have one other person buying the good stuff.
Please share. With me at least. Lol