ARTICLE – Arrrg. I can’t stand having to wait in line at our post office to have them weigh and print a shipping label for my packages. “I could do all of this at home.” I would grumble to myself while standing in line. “I know businesses have a way to print their own shipping labels, but what about private individuals? There’s got to be something out there for this.” And lo-and-behold, there is! In my searches, I stumbled upon pirateship.com.
As an official partner of the USPS, this service only works with them and is therefore free and is sufficient for all my personal shipping needs (mostly media mail shipping). The service also works well for start-up companies and small businesses too, which I imagine is what it is used for most. I signed up for a free account and have created my labels manually. However, it supports uploading an address list or importing orders from your e-commerce website.
As I create the label, I enter the recipient’s address, my home address, measure and weigh my own packages using my own scale which has been accurate for previously sent packages, select the type of packaging (box, large envelope, etc.), select the service (media mail, priority mail, etc.) enter my credit card number, and then print the label from my printer (any printer will do). I then go and drop off the package at our nearest USPS branch (most of my packages fit in the large wall-drop inside the foyer of the building which is open 24 hours), but you can also leave it in your mailbox or drop it off in any USPS blue dropbox. That’s it!
What a huge time saver and I’m not limited by USPS business hours when dropping items off unless I have a very large package that needs to be dropped off at the counter. I’ve been using it for a few months now and it works well. There are no fees or hidden costs, nor does it require me to transfer money into my Pirate Ship account to print labels. It charges my credit card exactly what the postal service charges for shipping my package.
Visit the pirateship.com website to see more details about how it works and its features.
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pirateship.com is a fast an easy to use way of printing shipping labels. Thanks. I am hooked on it.
Fred – I’m hooked on it too!
I just use Click-N-Ship at usps.com. They take credit card or PayPal for payment.
Why use a third-party?
Sunhawk – I ship mainly media mail. Click-n-Ship looks like it is mainly for Priority Mail or Priority Express which is why I did not use it.
That does appear to be true, now, but it didn’t use to be. I have shipped first class and media, previously, but the choices are gone, now.
Sunhawk – What a shame that USPS has gotten rid of those other services in Click-n-Ship (other shipping services like media mail). I would have preferred to use it.
I was just going to ask the same thing as Sunhawk – I use USPS Click-N-Ship when I need to ship a package, print the label at home, tape it on and I’m good to go. I can create an address book for frequently used addresses as well. I’m missing what additional value PirateShip brings to the table, but would be interested to learn if I’m missing something I could benefit from.
Garry – I ship mostly media mail items which is much cheaper than Priority Mail to send media (Click-n-Ship is for Priority Mail or Priority Mail Express shipping). I’ve seen that you can print a label in Paypal for Media Mail when someone pays for the item using Paypal. Is there a way to create a shipping label in Paypal if people do not pay me via Paypal? Paypal has not made this readily obvious to me. Maybe I’m missing something.
Pirateship.com makes it really easy for me to print any USPS label.
Kathleen:
That’s the part I was missing! Thanks for clearing that up for me. Makes perfect sense.
Garry – I wasn’t sure if maybe you knew something that I was missing in Paypal or USPS’s websites too. I’m always open to finding easier ways to ship things or do anything for that matter!
Kathleen, thanks for the review of the site. I’m a user now.
Tony Aluknavich
Tony – I’m so glad to have helped! I hope you like it as much as I do and I hope you save lots of time and money! 🙂
Use this link and you can use PayPal to ship anyone.
https://www.paypal.com/shiplabel/create/
Tim – I clicked on your link and was able to see how to print a label. Do I always have to use this link or is there a way to get to the “Create a shipping label” area from my Paypal account’s default webpage?
Not that I know of. I made it into a Chrome bookmark and after I log into my PayPal account I click the link in another tab. That way I can copy and paste information from my PayPal account if I need to grab info from there.
I love using the PayPal shipping for other shipping because of the discount.
Tim – Thanks for the info! Do you get discounts on shipping labels if you don’t have a business and just print labels off a few times per year?
And do you receive discounts if you do your financial transactions outside of Paypal?
I have a free PayPal business account so I’m not sure about discounts if you don’t have one. I do know that I do get discounts even though I’m making mailing labels for sales I made outside of PayPal.
I swear that there was another ‘to’ in that reply :^) ‘to ship TO anyone.’
Tim – Thanks for the info!