The Cheapest Way To Ship Holiday Gifts - Ups, Fedex Or USPS?

A positive article on the US Postal Service both in terms of fees and speed of shipping holiday gifts this season:

http://shine.yahoo.com/work-money/c...5300786.html

I recently had to ship an oversized item that weighed a bit. I got online quotes from all three major shippers. ALL had some little hard-to-find additional charge that I found out about the hard way... after hauling the box into the store. The box in question got shipped via Fed Ex, for more than I was quoted. But normally the Post Office is the best bet. You can decide to use stamps or online shipping labels, and it is easier to try and find a drop off location or packing supply source.

Just my opinion...

With USPS you can either use discount postage (average 30% off) or use current stamps and ask for them to be returned (which gives you some nice postally used recent stamps)

I recently sold some coins on ebay and printed out the shipping labels with delivery confirmation. I dropped them of at the post office Saturday morning and checked on them Monday. Most of them were out for delivery. I live in Houston and they were sent to Washington, Illinois,and New York. I was shocked by how fast the service was and USPS/eBay price is discounted.