Month: December 2014

Postage to and from Australia can be a bit of a piss off.

We’re kind of stuck here with a long way to go to get anywhere. So, of course postage is going to suck. Even so, you can imagine my shock when a potential trade went up in smoke because:

I went to the post office… and they wanted to charge me over $20 to send three zines.

Wait… wait… What?

I know we’re far away and all, but in no universe does it cost that much to send zines to Australia. I took a couple pictures to prove it:

This envelope contained three zines (US half-fold), a greeting-type card and a business card.

This one contained one zine (US half-fold), a mini-zine, and a single-page note.

If your post office tries to tell you that sending a few zines costs more than $20:

1. Make sure they are charging for letter post, not parcel post. I’m not sure if those are the exact categories in US mail, but it all comes down to sending documents versus sending other items.

2. Ask for other shipping options. They might be trying to put you down for first class, express shipping or some other such stuff. They might be assuming that you want extra cover, sign at the door, blah blah blah.

3. If they still insist that it’s $20+ (and you’re definitely sending paper material only), then screw them and either go to another office or go pre-paid. Even a pre-paid First-Class Mail® International Large Envelope only costs $12.60 USD. How do I know?

4. Look it up on the USPS International Postage Calculator. If you do that, then you can say you did that and hold them accountable.

There’s my little rant for the day. It may seem like a small thing to some, but it’s definitely not to me. For reasons.

I mentioned Friend/ship Books in my Happy Mail post this week, and a question came up as to what the things are.

Friendship books (also known as “FBs” in their abbreviated form) are small booklets made by stapling paper together, or are sometimes just sheets or strips of paper. They are usually decorated and the person who starts the book writes their name and address as the first person sending the book. People often include a list of interests as well. The FB is then passed around from penpal to penpal, and can often also become a way for one to meet new penpals. Most people hope to see the book again once it is full so they add their return address to the back cover of the book too, or inscribe “Return to Sender” on it. People also sometimes make FBs for someone else rather than themselves, in which case they write the name and address of the recipient on the front/at the top. Some people find friendship books fun because you can see where they have been in a trail back to the original sender/recipient.

– Wikipedia

Here is one of the ones I received:

Post-its with black marker were put over the addresses, but you get the idea. This is one of the nicer ones. The others are a bit ‘rougher’.

Inside, people write their addresses (if they want) along with specifics in regards to the people they want (and don’t want) to write to them.

If I recall correctly, there are little codes that are used to designate these things shorthand. Ah, yep! At the bottom of the Wiki page, you’ll find the abbreviations.

So there you go! Some people find them annoying, some people think it’s fun to see where they get to in the world… (Once it’s filled up, you’re meant to send it to the person who made it/whom it was made for.)