How to Ship a Poster
Think back to when you were a kid and imagine your room. Have you ever put a poster on the wall? Chances are, you answered “yes!” Posters are a time-honored tradition for kids around the world to hang in their rooms, but it’s not just kids doing it now.There are tons of fans and memorabilia collectors still buying posters, which means there’s a huge market for online sellers…and That Meaning there are plenty of poster shippers out there too. If you’re one of them and looking for some guidance, you’ve come to the right place. This article is about how to ship posters, including how to pack them properly and how to save the most money. come on!
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Roll up posters and pack them in cylindrical mailing tubes
When shipping posters, the first thing you need to consider is how to properly package them. As a general rule of thumb in the industry (and in life), you never want to fold a poster! Instead, roll it into the tightest possible cylinder and gently place it inside the cardboard mailing tube. Most of the tubes themselves are cylindrical, which makes them the perfect packaging choice for shipping posters.
If you’re looking for cardboard tubes, the ULINE website has plenty of options to suit your needs. You can also order a free Priority Mail tube on the USPS website and it will be delivered right to your door, FREE! We’ve linked below two different tube options offered by the USPS:
Weight-based Priority Mail is the cheapest service to mail posters
Most posters are at least a few feet wide once they’re inside the tube. Even the smaller option of the USPS tube we linked above is about 26 inches long. So, unfortunately, most tubes are not eligible for USPS First Class Package Service rates, even though they are technically lightweight cargo (the maximum length for a package eligible for First Class Package is 22 inches).So the cheapest poster shipping service is USPS Priority Mail.
Expert Tips: If you use the Priority Mail tube available from the USPS website, you must pay for Priority Mail service anyway!
USPS and other carriers treat test tubes as “irregular packages”
One disadvantage of using USPS to send posters in tubes is that you may incur additional surcharges on top of postage. Beginning April 3, 2022, USPS imposed a surcharge on most mailing channels as part of the new “non-standard fee” they introduced. Two of these fees may apply to your poster shipping, depending on the length of your tubes. We have listed these two non-standard fees below:
- $4 If your package is longer than 22 inches but less than 30 inches
- 15 dollars If your package is longer than 30 inches
Note: These fees add up optimal your postage.So, as a simple example, if your tube costs $10 to ship via Priority Mail, but it happens to be 25 inches long, you’ll pay a total of $14.
To learn more about these surcharges, check out our article on the new USPS non-standard fees.
Consider purchasing shipping insurance for your poster
Posters are not fragile items by any means…but sometimes if the tubes are punctured or bent, they can be damaged in transit. When this happens, the poster will not be salvageable and you may find yourself out of pocket to send another poster to the recipient. However, you can hedge against this possibility by protecting your package with shipping insurance.
When you purchase shipping insurance, you can file a claim for the full declared value of the package if it is lost or damaged in any way during the trip. Securing the full value of items like posters usually only costs a few dollars, so in our experience, it’s a well worth the investment.
Save money on priority mailing labels with online shipping software
While with the new USPS rate structure you’ll incur a surcharge almost 99% of the time when sending posters, there are still ways to put some money back in your pocket. Hands down, your best strategy is to use online shipping software to buy USPS labels at deep discounts.
When you use shipping software, you can get special levels of discounts that carriers like USPS typically only offer to large commercial shippers sending more than 50,000 packages per year. This level of discount from USPS is called commercial pricing…and with the best shipping software options, you can ship at these discounts without paying extra for postage.In some cases, these discounts can Save you 33% leave The fee for shipping the same package with Priority Mail at your local post office. If you’re an online seller who sends out lots of posters, these savings will end up in your pocket!
