An alternative to UPS

USPS: Printed matter is defined as “paper on which words, letters, characters, figures, or images (or any combination thereof) not having the character of a bill or statement of account, or of actual or personal correspondence, have been reproduced by any process other than handwriting or typewriting.” Which is basicly a definition more or less directly taken Basicly Film/Photography or other Data Storage Media (BTW: Punch Tape and Cards are named explicit) are _NOT_ part of this definition (of the USPS), but if they are only a minor amount, and part of the major Material (read disks inside a manual), the PO may or may not accept it. At least for oversees shipment there's another 'book' class, the so called M-Bag. To be send as M-Bag (you don't have to use a real bag, althou it's still possible) you just pack all your 'Printed Matter' (Official Term) in one single container and attach a special M-Bag tag (PS Tag 158, available at the post office). And you get _incredible_ low rates: M-Bag, Surface to Europe is just USD 1.45 per pound, while regualr printed matter/small packets is about ~4.50. Well, Surface may take up to 6 weeks (average 2-3) until Europe, but we are not talking about high priority stuff - the actuality of our kind of books isn't measured in days or weeks or even month' :) I assume that they offer similar rates within the US. Gruss H. -- VCF Europa 2.0 am 28./29. April 2001 in Muenchen http://www.vintage.org/vcfe http://www.homecomputer.de/vcfe