# USPS media mail **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [May 8, 2013, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-media-mail/657844 "2013-05-08T22:02:45Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 15\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-media-mail/657844/1 "2013-05-08T22:02:45Z")
Anyone know why media mail takes so much longer to get a book from point A to point B? I don’t really understand it. I guess if I ship a carton of books, the price savings can be substantial, since the media Rae is much cheaper. But for a few books? I’ll save a few bucks maybe (or maybe not, depending on shipping method), but media mail is ALWAYS slower. In my case, it usually takes up to a week or more longer than mailing it the regular way. Why? Where does the USPS stash these boxes for a week? If I mail a book across town it seems to take the same time as if I mail it across the state. I am sure they have a different process in place for media mail, but I dont understand why short distances cannot be covered in the same time as a regular item. It’s as if media mail gets sent to a central distribution center, and then is shipped out from there, sort of like fed ex, but without the rush on time. Instead of it being sorted at the post office I shipped it from and sending it locally, does the USPS ship it somewhere first before the destination address is ever looked at, and THEN it gets sorted? If so, how is this still more efficient for the USPS? ---
**Author:** ![Gary\_Robson](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gary_robson/32/3448_2.png) [@Gary\_Robson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Gary_Robson)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 10:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-media-mail/657844/2 "2013-05-08T22:39:12Z")
In my experience, sending a book media mail gets it to nearby towns the next day and pretty much anywhere in the state in two days. I believe (but don’t know for sure) that the longer-distance media mail shipments sit waiting for a full truck. ---
**Author:** ![campp](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/c5a1d2/32.png) [@campp](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/campp)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 11:10pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-media-mail/657844/3 "2013-05-08T23:10:57Z")
Yeah, since it is a discounted rate, the box might have to sit until they have resources to move it on. I’ve been using Media Mail for years, and find it is usually very fast, but not always. It’s a good value IMHO. ---
**Author:** ![drachillix](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/48db29/32.png) [@drachillix](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/drachillix)\ **Post date:** [May 8, 2013, 11:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-media-mail/657844/4 "2013-05-08T23:42:21Z")
[quote=“Gary “Wombat” Robson, post:2, topic:657844”] I believe (but don’t know for sure) that the longer-distance media mail shipments sit waiting for a full truck. [/quote] Or if the trucks are all full with higher priority stuff, it can wait for the next day ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 3:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-media-mail/657844/5 "2013-05-09T03:45:51Z")
> [@campp](#): > > Yeah, since it is a discounted rate, the box might have to sit until they have resources to move it on. I’ve been using Media Mail for years, and find it is usually very fast, but not always. > > It’s a good value IMHO. Are you obligated to mail only books and the like, or can you use it for anything? (Like a pair of shoes, for example)? Also, I’m surprised at the experiences that you folks have had with mail times. I will keep you all posted on something I bought on-line and it has beeen shipped to me via media mail. It is a book, so no problem there. Their estimate is 7-10 days, which has been my experience. NEVER one to two days. ---
**Author:** ![scr4](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/59ef9b/32.png) [@scr4](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/scr4)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 3:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-media-mail/657844/6 "2013-05-09T03:55:33Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > Are you obligated to mail only books and the like, or can you use it for anything? (Like a pair of shoes, for example)? Only [qualified items](http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/173.htm#1113509) are allowed. It’s intended to be only used for educational material. ---
**Author:** ![crypto](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/b3f665/32.png) [@crypto](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/crypto)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 1:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-media-mail/657844/7 "2013-05-09T13:43:42Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Only [qualified items](http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/173.htm#1113509) are allowed. It’s intended to be only used for educational material. I figured there was a list. But how would they know? Sounds like an honor system thing. Not that it’s worth cheating the USPS out of a couple of bucks on shipping, but if they can’t open a properly sealed package, I wonder if this gets abused? ---
**Author:** ![stpauler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/9d8465/32.png) [@stpauler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/stpauler)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 1:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-media-mail/657844/8 "2013-05-09T13:53:43Z")
IIRC, Media Mail is sent to hubs and then sent out from there. I had the misfortune of selling off a ton of songbooks on eBay and the packages somehow “blew up” when they got to the distribution hub in Iowa. So, the USPS repackaged a bunch of them into different boxes and the recipients were quite upset that I was “scamming” them. :rolleyes: Lucky for me, I had the receipt which showed the original weight of the package sent and that I normally didn’t haphazardly tape up broken boxes to ship. I ended up having about $500 worth of books that somehow just got lost. Grr. ---
**Author:** ![anson2995](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c77e96/32.png) [@anson2995](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/anson2995)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 2:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-media-mail/657844/9 "2013-05-09T14:00:27Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > But how would they know? Sounds like an honor system thing. Not that it’s worth cheating the USPS out of a couple of bucks on shipping, but if they can’t open a properly sealed package, I wonder if this gets abused? They _can_ inspect packages classified as media mail. They’re not likely to do this if you walk in with one item, but if you’re shipping, say, hundreds of copies of a magazine (which doesn’t qualify), they might get curious. > [@](#): > > I dont understand why short distances cannot be covered in the same time as a regular item. They could, of course, but it’s a trade off. You get a lower price and they make it a lower priority. That’s the deal. ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 8:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-media-mail/657844/10 "2013-05-09T20:48:04Z")
> [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > Anyone know why media mail takes so much longer to get a book from point A to point B? > > SNIP > > Instead of it being sorted at the post office I shipped it from and sending it locally, does the USPS ship it somewhere first before the destination address is ever looked at, and THEN it gets sorted? If so, how is this still more efficient for the USPS? I used to sell new and used books. I tracked quite a few of my packages. It seems to work like this: - Local post office - Semi-local hub, sometimes in your state, sometimes not - Truck goes to the semi-local hub for recipient’s post office - Smaller truck goes from semi-local hub to your post office - home delivery from local post office The item almost never goes on a plane. The trucks seem to move for 8 hours a day, averaging 45 MPH when considering fueling and time not on interstate superhighways. A small % of the time, Media Mail items wind up on the plane. My assumption is that in those cases there was extra room on the plane, or in a box that goes on the plane… or something. Not sure if that even happens 1% of the time, though. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 8:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-media-mail/657844/11 "2013-05-09T20:50:25Z")
> [@scr4](#): > > Only [qualified items](http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/173.htm#1113509) are allowed. It’s intended to be only used for educational material. And the PO has gotten very tight about it in recent years, since the eBay crowd took to abusing the category. ---
**Author:** ![Dewey\_Finn](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dewey_finn/32/4222_2.png) [@Dewey\_Finn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dewey_Finn)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 8:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-media-mail/657844/12 "2013-05-09T20:51:25Z")
> [@anson2995](#): > > > [@Stink Fish Pot](#): > > > > But how would they know? Sounds like an honor system thing. Not that it’s worth cheating the USPS out of a couple of bucks on shipping, but if they can’t open a properly sealed package, I wonder if this gets abused? > > They _can_ inspect packages classified as media mail. They’re not likely to do this if you walk in with one item, but if you’re shipping, say, hundreds of copies of a magazine (which doesn’t qualify), they might get curious. Specifically, the rules state, “Media Mail and Library Mail are not sealed against postal inspection. The mailing of articles at Media Mail or Library Mail prices constitutes consent by the mailer to postal inspection of the contents.” ---
**Author:** ![Mr.Slant](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/c57346/32.png) [@Mr.Slant](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mr.Slant)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-media-mail/657844/13 "2013-05-09T21:00:56Z")
> [@Amateur\_Barbarian](#): > > And the PO has gotten very tight about it in recent years, since the eBay crowd took to abusing the category. To expand on this, there have been unrelated seller forum members in multiple locations who indicated that their local USPS branches had indicated to them that ALL media mail packages were being opened. If you had professional sellers who were abusing the system, doing this for one week a year would put an end to that. ---
**Author:** ![Amateur\_Barbarian](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/59ef9b/32.png) [@Amateur\_Barbarian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Amateur_Barbarian)\ **Post date:** [May 9, 2013, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-media-mail/657844/14 "2013-05-09T22:21:54Z")
> [@Mr.Slant](#): > > To expand on this, there have been unrelated seller forum members in multiple locations who indicated that their local USPS branches had indicated to them that ALL media mail packages were being opened. When this crackdown came, maybe five years ago, I had an amusing exchange. I ship most books via Priority Mail, but larger orders and ones where libraries and foundations specify the shipping method or cost, I use MM. So I had a media mail package. The counter guy looks me in the eye and loudly announces that all Media Mail has to be inspected, so I wasted my time (and his, and the USPS’s, by implication) by sealing it. I looked him back. “I am a _publisher_,” (tapping on the return address) “shipping something that feels very much like a _book_,” (pick up package, flex trade paperback inside) “to a _library_,” (tap on sending address) “…and I have been sending books over this counter for at least ten years.” (drop package with resounding thump on counter) He put it in the bin behind him. “Anything else today?” [SIZE=2]But I fully understood, and got to smirk a lot when the plethora of eBay types threw fits because the PO wanted to inspect their extremely non-book-like packages. [/SIZE] ---
**Author:** ![gaffa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/e68b1a/32.png) [@gaffa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gaffa)\ **Post date:** [May 11, 2013, 12:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/usps-media-mail/657844/15 "2013-05-11T00:08:49Z")
I ship DVDs of the concerts I shoot, and have a good relationship with the folks at my local post office. And when I ship more than one DVD to the same address, they recommend that I ship Media Mail.