Well, the details are in on the new USPS rates. As it is every year, there are winners and there are losers.
We all know stamps went up 2 cents (or 4.76%). Overall, the increase is 3.5%. Almost all classes we checked got an increase this year (including the 01/18/09 partial increase). However, not all did.
Many people are discovering, if you ship books or other materials with the USPS using Bound Printed Matter (BPM) rates, you are in an excellent position to save money on postage. Some of the ideas presented here can give you modest savings immediately, with almost no effort. Others will produce substantial savings as a reward for investing a little more time.
With the recent changes by the USPS to move to shape based rates, Bound Printed Matter is becoming more attractive to catalog mailers, who previously used Standard Mail. Even without the cost saving techniques we’ll be discussing, BPM is now a better option for anyone that mails a large catalog.