Parcel Post

[iiipopes]

The post office has made up a fancy new name for this, but still offers this service. It costs less than Priority Mail, could be a little slower, but might not be any slower.
Of course, I can’t ship many tubas this this way, but other not quite as large instruments.
My experience has generally been that the post office doesn’t throw my customers’ merchandise around as much as FedEx and UPS do, and - when the post office actually does damage something - unlike FedEx and UPS, they actually honor their insurance and pay up.

Last week, I mailed a couple of sets of bass strings to a person who purchased them from me off the electric bass player forum talkbass.com. When I asked the difference between parcel post and priority, the difference was $0.01. Yes, I typed that correctly: one penny. Of course I opted priority to send him a tracking number. I continue to be amazed at the USPS in both the charges for postage and the delivery times.

[iiipopes]

For parcel post and priority mail to become divergent their pricing, it’s necessary to get up in size and weight.

Indeed.

[WC8KCY]

I once had a customer request that I ship part of their order with Priority Mail, and the other part with Parcel Post, just to see what the difference in transit times would be.

Both parcels arrived at the same time.

In my experience, the Media Mail service can often take way longer than you'd reasonably expect to deliver something. I don't use it, even if a penny-pinching customer insists upon it.

[iiipopes]

sorta like the old 186 "professional" vs. the 186 "S" (student) model...
...In all important ways, they were identical...and how much more does it cost to make TWO models (offer TWO services) than to make ONE model (offer ONE service) and sell it for TWO prices...??
...unless a hastily stuck-together mock-up of it is made in Asia

I don't know - ask Fender guitars, with all of their "signature" models of Stratocasters that the only real difference is the paint job.

[MartyNeilan]

Having shipped numerous tubas different ways over the years, Parcel Post seemed to be the most reliable and least likely to cause any damage. Of course, some people would demand it go through another service with more detailed tracking, but those services were virtually guaranteed to induce damage.

[Greenbenches]

I received a Conn 22K fiberglass sousaphone last week that I bought on eBay. It was shipped USPS and it took 8 days to come from Michigan to Florida. There was no damage to the box that worried me before I unpacked it. The seller charged me $56 for the shipping.
And, I marched in the Martin Luther King Parade with it yesterday.