Back in college, I used to sell all sorts of products on eBay and thus developed keen understanding for how the post office worked. I didn’t do a tremendous amount of selling but as a lazy and poor college student, I did my best to make my shipping as efficient as possible. Many of the tips below come from that experience and are very much USPS centric since my packages were often very light, but many of those tips apply to any shipping service.

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I hate going to the post office. It doesn’t matter what day I go or what time of day I go, there is always a line and there’s always only one or two tellers working. I’ve gone to post offices that serve a large residential zip code and post offices that serve a smaller residential zip code, there is always a line and never enough tellers. If we’re near a holiday, forget it, I’ll be waiting in line for at least half an hour. If you visit the PO with any regularity, I bet you understand my pain.

The worst part is watching people struggle through a process that is otherwise fairly straightforward. People show up with packages they haven’t even finished packing! I understand not knowing how much postage is needed but to not have your package taped up and ready to go is inexcusable.

So, that’s why I try to do as much as I can at home so I can shorten the time I’m stuck in the post office. Recently, with all the shipping I’ve been doing related to contests and auction winners in the Bargaineering Bucks store, I’ve been considering printing my postage online. Here’s what I’ve found.

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I guess I just never really thought about the logistics of delivery to a Post Office Box before but only the United States Post Office can deliver to PO Boxes. If you think about it, it makes sense because the only way someone can access the box is with a key (you) or through the back (the post office), UPS and FedEx can’t very well leave the package outside a bank of PO Boxes in the hopes that you, and not some enterprising thief, picks it up.

While I’ve never FedEx’d or UPS’d a package to a PO Box before, I bet that their software or their people would probably notify me that they couldn’t delivery… but what if they didn’t? What happens if you try to use UPS or FedEx to deliver? Return to sender? Anyone know?