Shipping Pennies the Proper Way

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

So the" box inside the box" is severely taped.


The outside box is not taped.

Let's adjust our tactics so the box appears unaltered. We can make a CTU $98fv plus a silver dime.

a CTU is OUR definition. This is not a problem.

Funny.. that's how we used to do it in the old days.. long before they even had a flat rate box. This was how we shipped using the flat rate envelope after they put in that new rule about not using tape on the flat rate envelopes. They used to call me Mr. 320. I think the reason they put the tape rule into effect was when I managed to ship an entire mint sewn bag of 68-S cents in one of those flat rate envelopes. It looked like a football.. but it made it to Indiana!

[chris6084]

If you tape it, it is not as-is. He told me if you mail something that heavy then you are abusing flat rate services, and you must pay full price. He was completely nasty with me and told me he would make sure my box was not delivered no matter how many times I resent it. Unless I did not tape it.

Well according to the USPS advertisements and THEIR regulations if it fits it ships up to 70 lbs. So how is that abusing the system? And by using tape on the outside of the box you are not altering it you are reinforcing it. I have been shipping $100.00 face value copper for years and I use a LOT of reinforced tape every time I ship a box.

This guy was just a complete jerk. When I asked him about why they allow 70 lbs, he just said that's not what flat rate boxes were meant for. It turned into a yelling match. He was very adamant that taping is altering. I ended up just having to walk away from this situation knowing that I was not going to win. Arguing with idiots is a pet peeve of mine.

[frugi]

If you tape it, it is not as-is. He told me if you mail something that heavy then you are abusing flat rate services, and you must pay full price. He was completely nasty with me and told me he would make sure my box was not delivered no matter how many times I resent it. Unless I did not tape it.

Well according to the USPS advertisements and THEIR regulations if it fits it ships up to 70 lbs. So how is that abusing the system? And by using tape on the outside of the box you are not altering it you are reinforcing it. I have been shipping $100.00 face value copper for years and I use a LOT of reinforced tape every time I ship a box.

This guy was just a complete jerk. When I asked him about why they allow 70 lbs, he just said that's not what flat rate boxes were meant for. It turned into a yelling match. He was very adamant that taping is altering. I ended up just having to walk away from this situation knowing that I was not going to win. Arguing with idiots is a pet peeve of mine.

I would go down there in person and give that guy a piece of my mind, then I would ask for them to pull out their Postal regulation manual which is at ALL post offices, it is about the size of a phone book,. and I would waste his time paging through it until you found the part where it says you can use as much tape as you want as long as you do not "cut and reshape the box".......... that guy sounds like a douche bag! http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm100/flat-rate-reference.htm

[chris6084]

I would go down there in person and give that guy a piece of my mind, then I would ask for them to pull out their Postal regulation manual which is at ALL post offices, it is about the size of a phone book,. and I would waste his time paging through it until you found the part where it says you can use as much tape as you want as long as you do not "cut and reshape the box".......... that guy sounds like a douche bag! http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm100/flat-rate-reference.htm

He is in Atlantic City, I am in San Antonio. Kinda hard to give him a piece of my mind face to face. I did over the phone but it was hard, all he did was repeat the same thing over and over. Like listening to a broken record. I reported him online, but all I got was a call from some post office in my hometown, which I missed, so I got a message explaining to me why I cant ship items over 70 lbs. I called back to explain the problem was tape, not weight. but they wont return my call. I have not picked up the package yet, because I am out of town, but I will talk to the local post office when I do. It is probably pointless because my post office is not the problem.

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

I think you should tape the printout from that link to the outside of the package and resend it.

[mtldealer]

I think you should tape the printout from that link to the outside of the package and resend it.

+1

[mtldealer]

@ HoardCopperByTheTon

The first time i shipped CTU's i hadn't read this thread. The box got there but the buyer wasn't happy that everyone knew what was in the box by the time it got there. It seems that someone had dropped the box repeatedly to try to break it. Thankfully I had used coinlok bags. After that I was really hesitant about shipping that much weight. Recently sold a couple of CTU's and used this thread to box them. THANK YOU FOR SHARING YOUR WISDOM. I tested out the info by dropping a CTU in my garage repeatedly... Not only did it hold, it held with composure

[commoncents]

Has anyone shipped 4 of the $25 face value penny boxes in one flat rate medium box? If so, how did you organize it and reinforce it. The photos and descriptive comments seem mostly to address reinforcing boxes so as to ship bags. I have lots of the red $25 cardboard boxes of rolled copper cents and want to make sure I ship them correctly.

[frugi]

Has anyone shipped 4 of the $25 face value penny boxes in one flat rate medium box? If so, how did you organize it and reinforce it. The photos and descriptive comments seem mostly to address reinforcing boxes so as to ship bags. I have lots of the red $25 cardboard boxes of rolled copper cents and want to make sure I ship them correctly.

nearly positive, you cannot fit four in a medium flat rate box, might be able to fit three best case scenario.

there is less wasted space when using bags, you can fit much, much more using bags.

whatever you do, you do not want an uneven box with weight not evenly distributed,
which would be the case with three penny boxes, it would be hard to even that weight out.

[HoardCopperByTheTon]

Has anyone shipped 4 of the $25 face value penny boxes in one flat rate medium box? If so, how did you organize it and reinforce it. The photos and descriptive comments seem mostly to address reinforcing boxes so as to ship bags. I have lots of the red $25 cardboard boxes of rolled copper cents and want to make sure I ship them correctly.

You can actually fit 4 boxes in the long style MFRB, but it is not recommended. The boxes seem like they are made of thinner cardboard and they are certainly not as structurally sound. This is the method some folks use to ship 4 boxes of shiny zinc cents while still in the sealed boxes. The way I ship 200 rolls of copper cents when folks want them rolled is to use the normal MFRB and put 3 boxes across the bottom.. where they fit perfectly, then take the last 50 rolls and layer them across the top sealed in Tyvek bags or a coin shipment bag in case (as is likely to happen) the PO manages to bust some of the rolls. There is not enough room left in the box for a bunch of bubble wrap, and those 69 pound CTU's are not always "Handled with Care" by every postal employee on the way to their ultimate destination. Rolls will sometimes suffer some impacts, but in your case the ones that get busted can easily be rerolled by the buyer as long as they all arrive.

[MikeJ]

Thank you for the details on how to ship properly. Some people think its easy. It is not, lots of work, thank you.

[PennyPauper]

*file retreived

[OtusLotus]

Wanted to make sure so I searched the usps.com website.. it says..

1.5
"Any amount of material (up to 70 pounds) may be mailed in a USPS-produced Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope or Flat Rate Box. When sealing a Flat Rate Envelope or Flat Rate Box, the container flaps must be able to close within the normal folds. Tape may be applied to the flaps and seams to reinforce the container, provided the design of the container is not enlarged by opening the sides and the container is not reconstructed in any way."

http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/123.htm

[coolcoinz2017]

Can you ship pennies (1000) in freezer bags or dump 5000 pennies into a plastic pretzel jar and then place that into a box and then ship? I want to sell copper pennies and was thinking 500 or 1000 pennies per freezer bag would work. Tape them then tape the box that they were shipped in.

[thecrazyone]

Thanks for the info!

Can I ask how you guys accumulate such large amounts of these cents? I keep the ones that come to me in change, but I don't happen upon enough of them to be shipping them out in bulk

[fasteddy]

It was good to see Hoard's thread come up to the top...I miss Chuck as I am sure everyone else does also.

Since you asked...Hoard used to carry multiple bags of cents in each hand when he was picking up his pennies. I myself use a 2 wheel dollie to haul 10 boxes out to my truck. The cents come from your fovorite or not so favorite banking institution or credit union.

[cwgii]

A year plus .
My problem.is not having sold for 4-5 years are the USPS rules the same.

[cwgii]

OK, went to po for boxes.have they downsized??. Seems the large are the size of the ,,,old,,, mediums.

[NDFarmer]

OK, went to po for boxes.have they downsized??. Seems the large are the size of the ,,,old,,, mediums.

I was wondering the same thing. I have shipped many CTU's (2 bags or $100.00 of pennies) in a MFR box. They would weigh just an ounce or two below the 70 lb. limit. But now when I ship one bag ($50.00) of wheat pennies it pretty well fills the box up. Is anyone still shipping $100.00 worth of pennies in a MFR box?

[cwgii]

Ty, I know my mind is now playing tricks on me.

[jin.coy]

I am new to shipping from US to US addresses.

The pictures from the first pages are they

'Priority Mail 2-Day™ Medium Flat Rate Box
USPS-Produced Box: 13-5/8" x 11-7/8" x 3-3/8" or 11" x 8-1/2" x 5-1/2""
-or-
large box?

I am looking to ship a package from east coast to west coast, are these prices correct?
Is there a cheaper ***cough/cough*** safer alternative that should be used?

thanks,
jin

[TXSTARFIRE]

Fun to see a thread pop up started by HCBTT.

[mishra142]

In my experience flat rates are about of cheap as your gonna get. If you are shipping pennies 6 flat rate boxes fit perfectly inside a medium flat rate, fill those up with pennies (shake to settle) and you'll be good to go.