Topic: CD Postage Pricing

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The notion that  MEDIA RATE is Very Slow is WRONG  for all cases.    For example if you are mailing to a  neighboring large/medium metropolitan area   within  300 miles,     it  should not be  any different  than  1st Class,    at least that has been my experience.    I've been  mailing  tapes/etc for 35 years or more ,   back when MEDIA RATE was Special 4th class Rate or whatever.

I agree with all of this, but this stuck out. If I'm mailing stuff within 700 miles of where I am, it doesn't matter, it's only after about 1000 or 1500 that I start to see a lag in media mail compared to first class, especially if it's a large box of dvds or textbooks.

[flipp]

Media mail is the lowest priority of any mailing class. Basically it only travels if there is room on the truck; if the truck is full with Express, Priority, or First Class, they take precedence and the media container sits in the PO until there is room on a truck. That info straight from a very good friend who works for the post office after I asked why it took over six weeks to get a padded envelope marked Media Mail from NYC to OKC that had cancellation stamps from WV, FL, TN, TX and AR on it. She was more surprised that it had been stamped at so many of its intermediate stops than the time it took to arrive.

< ETA don't be surprised if your media mail package takes a very long time to arrive; chances are good that it will arrive quickly but there is the possiblity of it taking many weeks >

[it-goes-to-eleven]

I asked why it took over six weeks to get a padded envelope marked Media Mail from NYC to OKC that had cancellation stamps from WV, FL, TN, TX and AR on it.

When did that happen?

Media Mail can be very slow to Alaska.  But in the lower 48 I've found it to be quite fast.  5 days coast to coast, 35 lbs box of books, etc.  Couple days to go between three states.  It is used heavily by ebay sellers, etc, though sometime in ways that violate the rules.

[flipp]

Several years ago; when Rhino took over distribution of the GD catalog from Arista. It was some GD back catalog material that arrived from Arista totally unexpected so the long shipping time wasn't a problem, just aroused curiosity on my part prompting the question to my friendly postal employee.