Difference between Stamps.com/ShipStation & eBay's Shipping Label Barcodes

data2318 · #1 04-30-2016

I notice the barcodes on Stamps.com/ShipStation is different from the ones printed from eBay's Shipping (Pitney Bowes).
Here is a picture showing the difference.

The one on the left is from Stamps.com/ShipStation, the one on the right is from eBay's Shipping (Pitney Bowes).

Any one know what are these bar-codes on the top-portion of the labels used for? Are they just different internal barcodes used by Stamps.com & Pitney Bowes? Does USPS ever scan these barcodes on top? Just wanna know if Post Office would ever use them so I can compare reliability in the long run.

phaz0rz · #2 04-30-2016

The label you show from Ebay shipping doesn't have an Intelligent Mail Barcode (IMb) under the destination address. So my guess would be Pitney Bowes incorporates the IMb into that square shaped barcode in the top right corner.

Either way though the barcode on top isn't used by your postage provider. They are used by USPS to help sort mail..

phaz0rz · #3 04-30-2016

I couldn't find a whole lot online about USPS's barcodes, but I did find a table showing the different types.

I'm still going to go with my first guess. It looks like the data matrix bar code format holds more info than the PDF417 format. So the IMb is probably incorporated into the data matrix bar code.

data2318 · #4 04-30-2016

After some more digging I found this:
The Meter Stamp Society - www.meterstampsociety.com ComputerPostGallery

It shows the square barcode on Pitney Bowes labels is some sort of APC postage label introduced in April 2004 ... The Stamps.com barcode on top is used before APC was introduced in 2004, USPS Click-N-Ship also has that barcode on top... If it's true then that's weird, why only Pitney Bowes uses the newest APC, the Post Office itself still uses old barcode on its Click-N-Ship priority mail labels..

phaz0rz · #5 04-30-2016

Ok, so it's a way for USPS to know you actually purchased unique postage for a parcel rather than photoshopping and reusing the same label over and over again.

But why is the IMb bar code missing from the 2nd label? My understanding is those became mandatory a few years back..

yankee · #6 04-30-2016

So this is a little interesting but all in all, what does it matter and who would care about this other than USPS?

Are you just curious? Or are you incredibly paranoid?

phaz0rz · #7 04-30-2016

Yeah I was thinking the same thing but I started getting curious. I've always wondered what the bar codes up top were used for.

data2318 · #8 04-30-2016

Quote:

Originally Posted by yankee

So this is a little interesting but all in all, what does it matter and who would care about this other than USPS?

Are you just curious? Or are you incredibly paranoid?

If USPS uses that barcode then I will stick with the more commonly accepted older version, since I notice some packages are not scanned at acceptance, or stuck in a location for many days without updates..(then annoying people will open a eBay case without contacting first..) I guessed not all USPS sorting locations have the newest bar code scanners to scan them..

yankee · #9 04-30-2016

It is policies of every post office, not bar codes.

Some facilities will NOT scan packages. Others scan every package.

yankee · #10 04-30-2016

If creating labels from Amazon, most of those wont be scanned because amazons system is hard to read and needs to be manually typed it. It is just how amazon labels print off.

phaz0rz · #11 04-30-2016

Quote:

Originally Posted by data2318

If USPS uses that barcode then I will stick with the more commonly accepted older version, since I notice some packages are not scanned at acceptance, or stuck in a location for many days without updates..(then annoying people will open a eBay case without contacting first..) I guessed not all USPS sorting locations have the newest bar code scanners to scan them..

I don't think it's going to make any difference since they only use the big bar code on the bottom for tracking. Or at least for the tracking your buyer sees.

yankee · #12 04-30-2016

The great thing with stamps is that if you hide postage, USPS has no idea if you shorted the postage.

That loophole will be fixed soon I bet.

phaz0rz · #13 04-30-2016

Why do you say that yankee? I use stamps and always hide the postage but the weight still shows. I've definitely had things sent back for short postage before, lol.

yankee · #14 04-30-2016

Quote:

Originally Posted by phaz0rz

Why do you say that yankee? I use stamps and always hide the postage but the weight still shows. I've definitely had things sent back for short postage before, lol.

I noticed with shipstaion, it does show the weight on first class that is a fixed price, but on priority, especially large packages, they have no idea what you paid in fees when stamps.com is used.

That may have changed in the last update though.

mjstallion · #15 09-18-2017

Quote:

Originally Posted by yankee

I noticed with shipstaion, it does show the weight on first class that is a fixed price, but on priority, especially large packages, they have no idea what you paid in fees when stamps.com is used.

That may have changed in the last update though.

Is this still the case, that they can't see the paid postage with stamps.com labels?

mpfteam · #16 09-17-2019

i want to use shipstation from stamps.com and link to my eBay Stealth account, however... do you all think ebay will track my real IP address when i use shipstation?
i have been using successfully my stealth account for a long time and i don't wish to mess it up.

any advise please. thank you