Can I get a discount on postage for mailing 300 postcards to 1 address?

January 11, 2010 8:48 AM

Can I get a discount on postage for mailing 300 postcards to 1 address?

I need to mail nearly 300 postcards to every apartment in a large apartment building. For legal reasons, it has to be done through USPS – it can’t be personally delivered or done through a private courier service. Since they are oversized postcards, I’m looking at a postage bill of nearly $150 bucks for a single stop on the mailman’s itinerary. Is there any way to convince the post office to cut me a deal? I’ve looked into bulk mail, but the annual permit is $185, which wipes out any savings. Any other ideas?

posted by boots to Law & Government (7 answers total)

If you are sending one postcard to every apartment in the building, the addresses are not the same on all the cards because the apartment number is also part of the address. Now if it's all right to just mail all the cards to the front desk/office/whatever of the apartment and have residents pick up their own copy, you could send them all in one package and that would definitely cost much less than $150. But as far as I know, each different address needs its own postage.
posted by LolaGeek at 8:57 AM on January 11, 2010

if this is the only time you will do this, you might just have to eat the postage. if you plan to do it again, you first need some kind of bulk permit (nonprofit, for profit, whatever). you can get additional savings by presorting the mail yourself (like grouping all the cards going to the one building).
posted by cubby at 9:00 AM on January 11, 2010

Yes. Contact a mailing house in your area that handles bulk mailings for non-profits and marketers, and see what they charge for simply presenting your mailing to the post office for you and filling out the paperwork. Be sure to tell them it's all going to one address - this means they'll have to almost nothing except verify it and clear it with the postal inspector.
posted by nangar at 9:12 AM on January 11, 2010

Uhm. I left out the critical part for you, which is - presenting your mailing to the post office under their bulk mail permit. Hopefully they'll charge less for this than it would cost you to get one.

(I used to work for a mailing house, and we did occasionally do small jobs like this, although I don't know what the terms were. Call a couple of them and ask.)
posted by nangar at 9:22 AM on January 11, 2010

Is it at all possible to use to use standard postcards? That'll save $50.
posted by 6550 at 9:45 AM on January 11, 2010

seconding nangar
posted by toodleydoodley at 10:15 AM on January 11, 2010

You said "For legal reasons, it has to be done through USPS" - so that might well mean that it can't be done under a bulk mail permit or standard mail or third class. First class mail includes other services (not just the delivery of them), things like forwarding and 'holding' mail. Which maybe your 'legal reasons' need.

The delivery of legal notices often specifies 'first class USPS' (or recorded or whatever) and to use some other USPS service might invalidate them.
posted by Xhris at 10:39 AM on January 11, 2010