The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I recently learned about and started using Pirate Ship (pirateship.com) for most of my USPS shipping outside eBay. You just enter details about your package, pay for postage online, and print a label on your regular printer. Tape the label to your box and bring it to the PO, or get a free USPS pickup. The best part is that you get full access to "ComBas" pricing, which in most cases is lower than you would pay at the post office.

They also have a unique international rate called "simple export rate" that is significantly cheaper than usual postal rates.

When you ship through them, they even provide a summary page of all your shipments so you can track the status and location of every package in one spot.

Even if you only ship packages occasionally, it's worth checking out.

Thanks...

Just wanted to update this with a specific example. I recently had very heavy box sent to me and the postage charged at the post office was $53+. For grins, I ran a quick quote on PirateShip for the same weight and zip codes, and the resulting quote was $43, a $10 savings on just one package. There are no additional fees, so the savings is real.

I have now shipped dozens of boxes through PirateShip and have had no issues of any kind. I now use it for all my non-ebay shipping. (Ebay uses the same reduced rates when you purchase postage through them.)

No affiliation or commission here, just a recommendation from a happy customer.

Thank you for sharing this information. I'd never heard of them until now.

I learned about them this year and have used them a number of times. Very happy so far, and yes, great rates.

Just wanted to bump this to remind you all about Pirate Ship for 3 reasons:

1) The USPS has "temporarily" raised prices for shipment of all packages
2) The USPS has begun deliberately slowing down package delivery for the holidays, and
3) Pirate Ship now also allows you to ship with UPS, which is often cheaper and faster for package delivery than USPS.

Once you put in basic info about your package, Pirate Ship goes through all the options and shows them to you, cheapest first, regardless of carrier. They do all the calculation and comparison for you.

Again, I'm not affiliated with the company, I'm just a happy customer.

Nice to know, thanks!

I use Pirate Ship too and have been happy.

For larger parcels I have been using "Parcel Monkey" and the savings are substantial. I intend to compare Pirate Ship's UPS prices to PM soon and will report back.

I always forget about this. I will have to start using Pirate Ship because USPS has been a rip off lately. I just mailed some old football cards out in a envelop and it cost me over $15!