How long is a shipping label good for ?

[bluegrass1]

If I print a shipping label today but don't mail right away. how long is label good for ?

[ovidiu]

first class package, you got a good long time, at least a week. I think they won't honor priority mail labels after about 4-5 days because they technically guarantee the delivery time.

[vogeltron]

Originally Posted by ovidiu

first class package, you got a good long time, at least a week. I think they won't honor priority mail labels after about 4-5 days because they technically guarantee the delivery time.

I have used labels up to 3 weeks later. I have one friend who says they complain if you drop them off late if you have a weird post master somewhere. Priority Mail is not a guaranteed service. You do have $50 in basic insurance included now if you can go through the crazy paperwork.

Honestly, I had a package I printed a label for I save them as PDFs. It guess somehow I forgot to print it and ship it. The buyer messaged me. I told a little lie that I had dropped it off. Said I was going to use the same label and I would deal with USPS if the other one showed up. That was 7 days later. It arrived two days ago I got positive feedback. No problems.

[ovidiu]

Priority Mail is not a guaranteed service.

Not guaranteed per se, but they say they will arrive in 1-3 days and they are pretty good about that. Just saying have a friend who ships a lot and their late priority labels aren't honored.

[Dmshark25]

I ship all priority mail , Flat a rate Boxes and Padded Envelopes , so maybe that is the difference, but I never had an issue with a flat Rate Priority Postage and the date, I have Mailed 100s that were a week past the date and never an issue

But it was all Flat Rate Priority if that makes a difference

[vogeltron]

Originally Posted by Dmshark25

I ship all priority mail , Flat a rate Boxes and Padded Envelopes , so maybe that is the difference, but I never had an issue with a flat Rate Priority Postage and the date, I have Mailed 100s that were a week past the date and never an issue

But it was all Flat Rate Priority if that makes a difference

Exactly. Flat rate or not. It really shouldn't matter. Every once in a while you might have a post office where the Post Master is crazy strict about things. I had one post office where the post master got upset because the shipping from Zip code where I lived in the town over was on the package instead of where the post office was. These were flat rate envelopes and even if they were by weight it wouldn't have mattered. I mean some of these people are nuts usually the smaller the post office the nuttier they are. Personally have never had a problem using a label with an older date.

If they actually gave me grief I would tell them to give me my money back. I paid for the shipping.

[Dmshark25]

I'm in a city where the post offices are always busy so they never said anything about my addresses or the dates on the label

I have however been changing the ships from Zip code to a zip,code near my real location, so even The return address could be across the country, the option that says ships from zip, I do always put one of my cities zip codes in, just because I been using a lot of the Regional Boxes , the Regional A priority Postage and the price is determined from where it is shipped from

[vogeltron]

Originally Posted by Dmshark25

I'm in a city where the post offices are always busy so they never said anything about my addresses or the dates on the label

I have however been changing the ships from Zip code to a zip,code near my real location, so even The return address could be across the country, the option that says ships from zip, I do always put one of my cities zip codes in, just because I been using a lot of the Regional Boxes , the Regional A priority Postage and the price is determined from where it is shipped from

Definitely how you need to work it especially if you have stealth accounts scattered all over. . Are you a black out the return address and place over it Biz P.O. Box or something like that?

[bluegrass1]

that's what I do is scribble out the return and put a return address sticker over it ..
Also you are correct you need to change your ship from zipcode if using a regional box as I have been accused of not using the correct ship from zip to get lower shipping rate and now I think about it I see what they are saying so no biggie not trying to stiff the po on a few bucks and sure don't want them picking on my every package I live in a small town and I tell you the old gray haired woman that is rude as she can be really thinks she is postal god "even had her to sniff some of my packages like she is a drug sniffing dog lol No worries last thing she gots to worry about lol but oh well she can smell my package haha if that's where she gets her kicks hahaa hehe o my

[Dmshark25]

Originally Posted by vogeltron

Definitely how you need to work it especially if you have stealth accounts scattered all over. . Are you a black out the return address and place over it Biz P.O. Box or something like that?

I have the sheets that you can print like 50 return address labels or whatever per sheet, and I'll just put that over the other return Address, it's a small label and just fits perfect to cover the other Address

And I use one location for all my return addresses

But the thing with this is I only do this with,accounts that I sell a low cost item but high yield profit, because if something happens with the delivery im pretty sure the post office will return it to the address that is originally on the label, I think that it's all computerized and is all read through the Barcode

So Any high cost items that I would not want to lose, from either a buyer returning it without asking first or an undeliverable address and it gets returned to sender, I have the accounts set up with a return address that I have access to

[trosky]

Do you guys just use ebay/PayPal to print your labels? Because on other services you can simply change your return address so that it prints that address on the label, so no need to put labels over it later.

[bluegrass1]

yep I just print from eb and put one of them little stickers over the blacked out return with my correct address on it . I have also printed out a label and not mailed it for almost 2 weeks this was first class label ..

[vogeltron]

Originally Posted by trosky

Do you guys just use ebay/PayPal to print your labels? Because on other services you can simply change your return address so that it prints that address on the label, so no need to put labels over it later.

I like to print labels using eBay/PayPal just out of convenience. I don't have to copy paste etc. No room for human error on my end.

[rsot]

Originally Posted by bluegrass1

yep I just print from eb and put one of them little stickers over the blacked out return with my correct address on it . I have also printed out a label and not mailed it for almost 2 weeks this was first class label ..

Blacked out return address, professionally looking I hope

[trosky]

I like to use other services that just import ebay orders so no copy/paste...one less reason to login to each account

[bluegrass1]

Yes I black out then put a printed sticker over the blacked out area just at a glance it looks like its part of the the shipping label and even if a problem buyer pulls off the sticker it is blacked out underneath.That way If there is a return I tell them just send back to address on box.I never have had anything I couldn't afford to lose in a worst case deal.. So far so good but you never know what tomorrow holds.Always better to play it safe tho