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[cajone5]

I can't get a PCB through as a letter either.  The USPS folks literally feel around and try to bend the thing if you hand them an envelope to be sure it's just paper.  Then when they find something rigid (the PCB) they ring it up as a package.  I actually just got a piece of mail that I have to pay "postage due" which I suspect is because of this.  It's crazy how specific they are about some of these rules.  I feel like if you meet the size and weight requirements, it should just end there.

/First world problems.

[gtr2]

Yes, the work arounds have ended in the US.

[m-Kresol]

I can't get a PCB through as a letter either.  The USPS folks literally feel around and try to bend the thing if you hand them an envelope to be sure it's just paper.  Then when they find something rigid (the PCB) they ring it up as a package.  I actually just got a piece of mail that I have to pay "postage due" which I suspect is because of this.  It's crazy how specific they are about some of these rules.  I feel like if you meet the size and weight requirements, it should just end there.

/First world problems.

So, if I'd send a pcb from Austria in a regular envelope, they would charge the recipient extra?

[dan.schumaker]

I can't get a PCB through as a letter either.  The USPS folks literally feel around and try to bend the thing if you hand them an envelope to be sure it's just paper.  Then when they find something rigid (the PCB) they ring it up as a package.  I actually just got a piece of mail that I have to pay "postage due" which I suspect is because of this.  It's crazy how specific they are about some of these rules.  I feel like if you meet the size and weight requirements, it should just end there.

/First world problems.

This is just international, right?  I can still get away with the non-machinable stamp in an envelope for domestic?

[reddesert]

(re "postage due")
So, if I'd send a pcb from Austria in a regular envelope, they would charge the recipient extra?

I've never heard of getting charged postage due for receiving international mail; the USPS doesn't get paid directly for delivering it, that is they wouldn't check if the sender paid their own service enough. In the US, postage due happens occasionally if someone mails a domestic letter with not enough postage.

I had never really understood how countries work out reciprocal mail charges until reading about it just now. It has to do with the UPU (universal postal union) and the countries settle up by total weight exchanged. There is more information about the UPU rules in the other thread on thi subject.

[blearyeyes]

Well I just dropped a PCB in the mail as a letter. Then I read this thread. Hope it gets through.

[daleykd]

Well I just dropped a PCB in the mail as a letter. Then I read this thread. Hope it gets through.

Let me know how this goes.

For so long, the lady at my USPS PO has been AWESOME.  She would let me pay the non-machinable surcharge and I never had an issue.  I wonder if that's the case anymore...

1. Print Invoice.
2. Tape PCB to invoice.
3. Put in regular envelope.
4. Red stamp that says "Non-Machinable."
5. Pay a LITTLE extra $$.  (What... like an extra butterfly stamp or something)
6. Customer happy.

How do people send gift cards now?

[jimilee]

Well I just dropped a PCB in the mail as a letter. Then I read this thread. Hope it gets through.

Let me know how this goes.

For so long, the lady at my USPS PO has been AWESOME.  She would let me pay the non-machinable surcharge and I never had an issue.  I wonder if that's the case anymore...

1. Print Invoice.
2. Tape PCB to invoice.
3. Put in regular envelope.
4. Red stamp that says "Non-Machinable."
5. Pay a LITTLE extra $$.  (What... like an extra butterfly stamp or something)
6. Customer happy.

How do people send gift cards now?

If you send them in a greeting card of some sort, thank you note, etc. that's how I get some of a.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

[Willybomb]

The last one I sent was inside a greeting card at xmas.  I marked it as "card only" (feeling very shifty at the post office doing so) and sent it off.  This is in Australia so we don't have the UPS hassles I guess.

[EBK]

I wonder if thin, flexible PCBs may be in our future.  You'd probably be hard pressed to find someone who would make a through-hole one though.

[pickdropper]

I wonder if thin, flexible PCBs may be in our future.  You'd probably be hard pressed to find someone who would make a through-hole one though.

Flex circuits are very useful, but expensive in low quantities and fragile compared to traditional PCBs.