Alphabet stamps are not the only ones the USPS has issued without denominations – there have been thirty-some other ordinary First Class rate stamps, several semi-postals, special stamps for Bulk Rate and other high-volume uses, and four lettered Official stamps. At the National Postal Museum site there are the vital statistics about all of them up through February 17, 2009. Images are provided so that if you find some of these in a drawer and want to know what they are worth, you will be able to identify them.

Can old stamps be used today?  Yes, although you may have to add extra postage to get up to the current rate.

Highlights of the new single-piece First-Class Mail pricing, effective Jan. 22, 2012, include the below services.  For details of specific prices visit the postal service 2012 rate change page.

• Letters (1 oz.) – 1-cent increase
• Postcards – 3-cent increase
• Letters to Canada or Mexico (1 oz.) – 5-cent increase .
• Letters to other international destinations – 7-cent increase

Priority Mail Flat Rate product increases include:

• Small box
• Medium box
• Large box
• Large APO/FPO/DPO box
• Regular envelope
• Legal-size and Padded envelope

Express Mail Flat Rate Box debuts:

“The introduction of the Express Mail Flat Rate Box leverages the success of our Priority Mail Flat Rate advertising campaign and further positions the Postal Service as the best value in the shipping business,” said Paul Vogel, president and chief marketing/sales officer. The new box will be available for customers who need overnight service for items larger than what can be placed in an Express Mail Flat Rate Envelope.

OUR COMMENTS:

1.  Jackson Pack N Ship is a postage re-seller which charges slightly more than prices available directly from the USPS post office.  Our customers love our convenient retail counter and super great parking.

2.  Your best value is most important to us.  Although the flat rate boxes are attractive, they may not be the best value for your shipping project. Often times we have saved our customers real money by looking at ALL shipping options for the weight, size and destination of the package.  Now that an Express Mail Flat Rate box is available, it certainly may work well for you but please let us shop for you in a single stop.  Fed Ex and UPS have guarantees that the postal service does not and many times at better prices but they can not ship to a PO Box.

3.  Is all this too confusing?  JPNS customers never worry about these details, rules and regulations.  We are the experts and all you have to do is tell us about your shipping project and we help you select the correct service for the money.

2.  Choose gifts that are smaller and avoid the ‘big box’ fees.

3.  Avoid very fragile items to minimize packages costs.

4.  Consolidate gifts into a single box going to the same address.

5.  Ship a single box to a relative that can distribute contents to families in the same area

BONUS TIP

6.  Ship your gift with love and happiness and not as a duty.

A day or two has been added just in case there is bad weather.  Ship by:

December 3 ….for FPO/APO Address (Irag and Afghanistan)

December 10…for all other FPO/APO Addresses, HI, AK and, International

December 15…for economy domestic shipping

December 19…for CA, NV, WA, AZ, etc. ground domestic shipping

December 20…for FL, TX, MT, ME, etc.

December 21…for NY, NC, IL, GA, TN, KY, etc.

December 22…for MI

Don’t worry if you can’t meet the deadline – we have our ways of getting packages from here to there on-time.   Air services exist to meet the one-two-three day need.

Yeah, we thought so.  We know that shopping is hard work and shipping shouldn’t be.  It is the last thing to do in a long list of tasks so we want to help make it easier than ever.  Santa’s Helper got his start when thinking of an idea for a random act of kindness to our customers.  Now, we can’t live without him.  He gets you in and out fast. This is the 3rd year for our son Brett Sowers to perform his Santa Helper duties at Jackson Pack N Ship!  He keeps a watchful eye at the front door and charges into action when a car pulls into the lot.  He is quick to collect your packages and gifts from the trunk of your car and into the shop.   When on Christmas break from Central Michigan University, our Santa Brett opens the door for you, sells stamps, and takes your pre-paid packages. He is our red carpet service and our gift to you.

We are the shipping store in Jackson MI that is different.  We are ready to make your shipping experience the best you have ever had.  First, our parking is great because you are never more than a few feet from the front door and there are no curbs or steps.  Next, Santa’s helper is available (December 9th) to carry in packages from your car into the store, and if he’s not available, there is a cart so you can easily load and wheel in.  Okay, if there is a short line (heaviest shipping days are December 12th through the 19th), a table is set next to you for you to set your items instead of holding them the entire time plus we set cookies out for you to munch in the meantime.  As you watch how we handle each transaction at the counter, you’ll notice that we make sure we are getting you the best packaging, value and service for the gifts you are sending.  You will feel very confident that your gifts will get where they need to go on time.  We may take a few more seconds to ask you questions so that we make the right recommendations so ask us any question you want!

Everyone knows that shipping at Christmas can be a dreaded experience.  Before we became owners of a shipping store, I remember standing in long lines with a bunch of other people holding their packages, awkwardly and wearily.  We realize that by the tim you are ready to ship, you are already exhausted and grumpy.  We get that getting the wrong shipping service can put a downer on your Christmas cheer for the day not to mention packages that arrive late.  We are the store that is different and our goal is to be happy even if you aren’t.  You are not just next in line to us!

UPDATE:  In 2011, with the dedicated help of you, our customers, and partner ReCellular in Dexter MI, Cell Phoones for Soldiers kept more than 1.5 million phones from ending up in landfills.  This very cool concept for donating used cell phones gives prepaid minutes to Soldiers and is a terrific green initiative.  Donate used phones today at Jackson Pack N Ship!

Old cell phones are turned into pre-paid phone cards and distributed to soldiers in all branches serving overseas.  Each phone provides about an hour of talk time.  Donation is easy.  Next time you are in our area, bring the cell phones to our drop-off box.  After about 50 or more are collected, we send them to be turned in to pre-paid phone cards or about every couple of months.

How it works:  donated phones are collected and sent to a company – right here in Michigan – that disassembles them to remove valuable metals.  The metal is sold and a portion of the proceeds are used to purchase pre-paid phone cards.

We take chargers and batteries too!  Although there is no credit given for them, we like to do our part to help the environment by avoiding nasty stuff from getting into our landfill.  These items are recycled or reclaimed by the same company that reclaims the cell phones.  Learn more  at their website: Cell Phones for Soldiers

Watch this video to see more:

Jackson Pack N Ship! is proud to also promote customer and Jackson singer/songwriter Kelly Trudell who is restless on a mission to help us always to remember our veterans.  Watch her music video and read more about her at www.kellytrudell.net

Need to return an online purchase with a provided UPS or FedEx prepaid label?  Each different type of label must go into the right carrier shipping system, UPS or FedEx, not to mention the USPS.  Which office store chain does UPS  and which has FedEx?  I can never get it straight, so why should you?

As an authorized ship center for UPS, USPS and FedEx, Jackson Pack N Ship! is the only place in town that accepts all brands of pre-paid return labeled packages.  Really!  JPNS is an independent ship center, which means that you are free from having to drive to separate locations for each type label.  3 trips made into 1 at Jackson Pack N Ship!

Things to know about pre-paid return labels:

• The online store will usually deduct a fee from your account to pay for the shipping.  The fee can be as small as $4.95, however some fees are $8.95 or more.  Be sure to know what fee you will be charged.  JPNS is keen to see where you may be over paying and will suggest an alternative for you if one exists.

• It is highly recommended that you retain the tracking number of the return label just in case the online store doesn’t credit your account and claims that they did not receive your return.  Prepaid labeled packages do not appear in the database at JPNS as a sale so we cannot save and retrieve the tracking number for these labels if lost.  The tracking number can provide you with valuable information if you need to prove delivery.

• As with any returned merchandise, include a copy of the sales invoice or packing ship to identify you as the returning customer.

Quality of operations is a hidden charm of a shipping center.  Quality activities that prevent unsatisfactory shipments go unrecognized by the customer.  They only feel the effect of a failure, when and if it happens.

Delayed, damaged, or returned shipments are defective.  Causes of defective shipments should be analyzed.  The ship center that seeks to have the highest satisfaction rating from their customers would want to solve for each of them.   Many causes for defective shipments come directly from actions a ship center does or does not take, such as:

• Address corrections
• Picked up by wrong carrier
• Returned from 3^rd attempt to deliver
• Wrong or missing postage on mail
• Damage claims from insufficient packing
• Misplaced mailbox holder mail

Zero defects is virtually impossible and the slogan has disappeared from manufacturing because it is unrealistic, however, a business should strive to minimize them as much possible through the use of store policies and procedures.

The steps that a ship center takes to prevent causes of defective shipments are unique to the type of business and how it is operated.  The staff at Jackson Pack N Ship (JPNS), in Jackson MI uses a set of procedures designed to catch mistakes and includes a few proactive ones to prevent mistakes.

To prevent delays from a wrong address the staff verifies each one during the transaction at the counter.  The address is compared using an address checking application that flags it for incorrect or missing suite or apartment number, syntax, spelling, and zip code.  Each time we find an error, we can count it as a delay that never happened.

Carrier staging areas, specific locations in the back room where packages are placed by carrier name, are inspected every afternoon.  When we find a FedEx package is accidently placed in the USPS area, we know we have prevented a very big problem.

JPNS tracks every package twice per day.  Our policy is to call the carrier, sender and/or recipient at the second delivery attempt to arrange for an alterative delivery such as hold at terminal.

The contents of the USPS bin are 100% inspected to see that each envelope and box has postage (and custom forms when applicable) and that no box or envelope exists without postage.

Occasionally, after a transaction is finished, and the item is packed in the backroom, we find that the packaging we sold looks insufficient.  Preventing damage claims is much more subjective but at JPNS the staff understands that it is much less expensive to lose a little profit by beefing up packaging then to pay out a claim.  So that is what we do. Even customer packed shipments get an inspection and they are beefed up a bit at times.

JPNS uses a Daily checklist to make sure tasks are completed, that way it is much easier to remember to get it done.  The checklist covers items as mundane as filling copiers and printers – before they run out of paper, cleaning, tracking, ordering supplies, and auditing mailboxes for misplaced mail.

It would be very interesting to hear about policies and procedures used by other ship centers to prevent or catch mistakes.   A comparison or benchmark of these actions would be beneficial for developing a shipping center Best Practice collection.

Measuring quality could be more difficult since it could be subjective based on owner/manager opinion.  Blaming the customer for a wrong address, unavailability of recipients, and damage may exclude many preventable mistakes from being counted.   However, looking at causes more objectively has helped JPNS to measure true shipment quality and strive to improve it.    Regardless of fault, a ship center easily measure quality by keeping a tally of the number of returned packages, address corrections, and damage claims.

Would you be interested if we said that while traveling you can:

• Skip the long line to check your bag at the airport
• Save money by never paying unexpected luggage fees?
• Bypass the wait at the luggage carousel for your suitcase to finally appear?
• Never wait for TSA to finish rummaging through your stuff?
• Be free of worry that someone at the airport walks off with your luggage?
• Smile while everyone else crams luggage in the overhead compartment

Enjoy convenience and avoid hassles when you ship your luggage ahead at Jackson Pack N Ship! Whether heading to the slopes or to a conference, it’s easier to send your gear ahead — and also to ship it home.

Business Travelers: From presentations to signage and more, have everything waiting for you upon your arrival so you can focus on your business.

Vacation Travelers: Start your vacation off on the right note when you ship your luggage it is already waiting for you when you reach your destination. Let us pack and ship your skis, golf clubs, strollers and more.

You can generally expect shipping ahead to be more secure and you’re far less likely to have your bag “mishandled” (that’s the fun word the Department of Transportation uses) by your airline or the TSA.

Just so you are informed: In most cases, shipping your luggage is a little more expensive than checking it with your airline. When comparing the value of the benefits, most travelers choose to pay for shipping if it means a more pleasant trip.

Guidelines:

• To get the best deal on shipping your luggage, you should consider using ground service, which mean shipping a few days in advance.
• Before you ship, you should contact the hotel first to make sure they will accept luggage and can store it securely until your arrival, recommends Sally Davenport, a FedEx spokeswoman.
• Also, some of your items may never get off the ground. Aerosol sprays, perfume, cologne and nail polish remover are all considered dangerous goods and can’t be shipped.

For more information about airline luggage fees visit AirfareWatchDog and check out this live JTV interview broadcast January 2012!