zW2Ig~~60_7.JPG "brandeentertainment"){kind=avatar}
You also have to have just the right kind of blank labels, or the machine tends to jam. I don't remember whether they were free, but I'd doubt it.
Overall, considering the time I recall wasting on babying or fiddling with the machine, ripped or crumpled labels, waiting for techs to arrive, or downtime, licking stamps would have been almost as quick (and probably cheaper, according to Pierre) .
having this machine would stop me from making 20 km roundh trip everyday
I don't understand what you mean by this?
"I ship roughly 1000-1500 lettermail parcels a month and about 10-15 wholesale boxes a month and about 100 other expedited parcels so having this machine would stop me from making 20 km roundh trip everyday"
PayPal does not provide postage labels for lettermail/letterpost.
As stated so many times on these boards, Canadian sellers using mostly lettermail or letterpost should purchase and use postage stamps at discount from face value instead of going to the post office. More so if you have a postal pick up box nearby.
Renting a Pitney-Bowes (or similar) postage dispensing machine cost a monthly rental fee while postage is purchased electronically to refill the machine when needed. There are some savings from Canada Post with the new postage rates for lettermail/letterpost. However, one can get a much larger discount purchasing postage stamps below face value, available from most stamp dealers and auctioneers.
@brandeentertainment wrote:I mean the red box to drop mail off in is 1 minutes walk from my place the post office is 20km round trip ...
@brandeentertainment wrote:I mean the red box to drop mail off in is 1 minutes walk from my place the post office is 20km round trip ...
Postage stamps will do exactly the same thing for you and you won't have to pay a ridiculous monthly fee, sign a long term contract and deal with the bozo's at Pitney-Bowes (or Neopost or Postalia).
If you were sending thousands of regular letters it's convinient but if you are having to print labels on the meter it's no easier than using stamps.
The other situation where a meter is helpful is if you are needing lots of odd amounts (packages), for your O/S Lettermail you can buy stamps in the correct values so you only need one or possibly two stamps.
For the smaller number of packages you are shipping, PayPal shipping will be cheaper than a meter unless you have a direct Canada Post account and sufficient volume to get the bulk pricing.
A stand alone postage meter is pretty much a dinosaur, a mailing machine that you can load up 1000 envelopes and run them through printing directly on the envelope is about the only situation where a postage meter / mailing machine is of use.
"You can even buy them from canadapost.ca"
????
Why pay full price when you can buy at a deep discount?
To get an idea of the discounts available, take a look at a recent auction in Toronto:
http://www.mareschstamps.com/500/auction.php?Start-Lot=846&InLine=Yes
Many other Canadian sites offer discounted postage, including eBay from time to time.
"I also know that finding $2000-$4000 in random discounted stamps a month is not gonna happen unless someone knows a dealer"
Actually, you do not need to know a dealer. You need to find a dealer!
It is relatively easy. Using any major search engine, search for "Canada postage below face". You will get hundred of entries. And yet it may be worth an hour or two of your time to get the right source. With a postage volume of $2,000 a month, $24,000 a year, getting postage at 30% below face value will save you over $7,000 a year. Savings that PayPal cannot offer you, more so if most of your mail is lettermail/letterpost. where PayPal is not available
Your choice: use the savings to increase your profit or lower your prices resulting in more sales and/or faster turnover. Either way: win-win.
And yes, of course matching the stamps to get the denominations you need and affixing those stamps to your envelopes and parcels will take some time. How much is your time worth? If it takes you four hours a week (200 hours a year) to make $7,000+, that works out to $35.00 an hour. And you do not need to do it all by yourself. Possibly you may find a friend or family member to assist you. And think of the time you will save not having to travel to the post office!
Now that I am more or less retired, I can tell you how I did it.
Way back in the late 1980's I connected with a large stamp dealer who used a lot of high value postage to send parcels. I had a standing order: send lots of at least $1,000 face value in denominations of $1.00 and above at 15% discount from face value; payment was made within 48 hours. That was a great source of cash flow as it allowed me to buy those large lots $5,000/$10,000+ at the time, sort out the dollar values for quick reduction of my overall purchase costs.
While I sold a few large lots ($5,000 face value) on eBay, most lots were sold directly to repeat customers. The fees charged by eBay and PayPal made it difficult to compete and make money. Most Canadian stamp dealers do the same: sell directly to regular customers at a much lower price than advertising on eBay or elsewhere passing the fee savings to their buyers.
A few years ago when I started liquidating my inventory, I had a standing order from an eBay seller for $1,500 postage monthly, preferably in denominations of $0.30 and above. I also had regular orders from buyers willing to take smaller denominations (5c to 30c) at lower price (larger discount from face).
There are many reputable Canadian dealers out there. Canadian eBay sellers have choices: they can buy from these dealers and save money (increasing profit and/or saving money to their buyers) or, with a little bit more work and invested capital, buy from their suppliers - philatelic auction houses - at even greater discounts (and more work). I remember about six years ago, purchasing a large number of lots totalling over $53,000 face value at one time from the Maresch auction house in Toronto. It did not take long to break the lots down and make money. You can do the same.
@brandeentertainment wrote:
I should have made it clearer .. I am looking for people who know about meterermail machine... I want convience without to much expense ...
Things like are the machine reliable ..
Are there contract Sneaky...
Is there service reliable...
If I print and it doesn't work what happens with the spent funds..
Can you use non OEM ink
Hi brande -- All I can tell you from my experience in using these machines is that for a large office (say, 200 to 500 pieces of mail a day) it was probably worth the hassle, for a smaller office where the volume was more like 50 per day it was a pain. All of us who used it felt that the time wasted in either fiddling with the machine, re-doing labels that didn't work for one reason or another, refilling the ink and/or waiting for service, made it a rather annoying little machine, but it was the owner's decision to keep it, not the people who had to use it every day.
If you lived in a medium to large-sized city, I'd say that as long as you read the contract carefully and know who your service people will be and how your service will work, it might be worth it. But where you're located, I'd be surprised if you could get on-site service in any reasonable timeframe. And these machines, at least in my experience, are not outstandingly reliable. On a scale of 1 to 10, I'd score them a 7, maybe.
As for the ink, no, you have to use a particular ink (although you might be able to get it from Staples). You can't just throw any ink in these machines. And it's liquid, in a little plastic bottle, so it can get messy, and always runs out just at the wrong time, wasting both your labels and your postage money.
There is a provision to get credit for wasted postage (machine jamming, labels crumpling, etc. etc.), but it's not immediate -- if I recall, the credit requests (including ruined labels) had to be submitted when you called for servicing or on a monthly basis, then would be credited on the next billing cycle.
I wasn't involved in paying office accounts, but our bookkeeper used to complain a lot about the rental cost being high and the service slow -- and that was in downtown Victoria, BC!
With respect to the contracts, I would just assume they are "sneaky" (especially Pitney-Bowes) and read them carefully. I'm sure you could get a salesperson to send you a sample contract, even by email. I would just beware of any such machine sold over the internet that isn't backed by a company that can provide service.
I do have another suggestion -- sort of a compromise -- that you could consider: Looking at the problem the other way around, you say you make a trip to the P.O. (20 km) every day, but you have a postal drop-box within walking distance of your house.
Would you be able to save some of those vehicle trips to the P.O. by using discount stamps (either as Pierre suggests, or by using rolls of stamps from the P.O.) for Canadian lettermail shipments and Paypal labels to send your US and international items by Light Packet? I'm thinking especially of items up to the new 150gm weight class. Would that allow you to put most of your items directly into the CP drop-box, rather than going to the P.O. every day?
The reason I mention this is that if you add up the gasoline you use every time you make a 20km trip (not to mention your time driving there and back), you're probably spending more on gas in a week than you're saving by using lettermail through the P.O. for everything but larger parcels. I'm assuming the reason you go personally to the P.O. is to get them to run your lettermail items through their label machine? If so, then you could eliminate most of the reason for those trips.
I don't know what your proportion of Canadian vs. US/int'l buyers is, but this might alleviate some of the time and hassle.
I understand your concern about time spent sorting through hundreds of discount stamps to get the right denominations, but that sounds to me like a great rainy-day game for the kids! Give them a dozen envelopes, each with a denomination, and let them loose with a stack of stamps. 
@brandeentertainment wrote:I should have made it clearer .. I am looking for people who know about meterermail machine... I want convience without to much expense ...
Things like are the machine reliable ..
Are there contract Sneaky...
Is there service reliable...
If I print and it doesn't work what happens with the spent funds..
Can you use non OEM ink
- Machine are generally reliable
- The contract have tons of fine print, an early cancel will be painful
- For a simple meter they would rarely need service
- a screwed up print is your loss
- non OEM ink, probably but the ink is cheap and last a long time
In all my years in business I only had a bailiff visit me once.....on behalf of Pitney-Bowes. I had cancelled my service, PB cancelled the service but never gave any instruction on what to do with the meter. It sat in a corner until 4 years later when the bailiff showed up demanding a ridiculous amount of money (monthly rental for those 4 years).
It was a crazy situation.
I understand the discounted postage thing might not be workable for you but regular new postage for Lettermail (when they are O/S and you need to print a tape and apply to the item) is quick and easy.
