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USPS Shipping At Lowest Possible Prices

tbrockett1

May 02, 2020 20:28

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New! Pirate Ship USPS FREE Shipping Software

I recently discovered new software that is 100% FREE that makes it easier than ever to ship my packages via USPS. Called Pirate Ship and available at https://ship.pirateship.com/  they offer the lowest possible price whether you ship 1 or 100 packages at a time. They work on a simple economic model; they purchase postage from USPS for wholesale and then resell it for the lowest price allowed. There are no monthly fees or hidden charges. You will not find a lower price either; I have tried! Accounts are FREE and a credit card is not required until you are ready to purchase postage.

Pirate Ship offers all USPS services including Media Mail and international post. Information may be entered one address at a time or in batches via file or spreadsheet uploads. Last week I entered a batch file of 105 Media Mail addresses and printed 105 4x6 labels on my Zebra LP 2844. It took less than 10  minutes from start to finish.

Pirate Ship uses standard 4x6 peel and stick thermal labels which are supported by many printers. You can also print labels on 8 1/2 x 11 sheet of paper via an inkjet or laser printer. The Zebra 2844 is a long lived workhorse printer and can be purchased online at https://www.hippodeals.com/ . These folks sell labels too. They are exceptionally knowledgeable and have great prices with a warranty.

Pirate Ship sends every address to a USPS database where it is standardized, corrected and has a delivery point and carrier route added for quicker postal sorting and delivery. An accompanying endicia and tracking barcode is added for no charge. I have shipped using Amazon postage and their labels lack the endicia, address corrections, delivery point and carrier route features.

Labels are printed from a PDF file. Thus test prints, reprints and saving of the label file is simple. I always do a test print on the first label to make sure the printer preferences are correct.

Pirate Ship offers a full array of customizable reports which you can view on your monitor or download as files.

Pirate Ship customer support is by chat and it is awesome! Real people who speak and write American English and respond quickly! I asked lots of difficult questions and every one was answered promptly. I requested specific information like copies of sample input files. I received them within 10 minutes of asking. Most questions were answered in 2-4 minutes. The customer service folks are big on pirate jargon and images. My guess is they never want you to forget the name of their company.

Pirate Ship has a well written collection of very helpful and informative articles regarding their product and USPS services. I learned quite a bit about Pirate Ship from their articles. I also picked up a lot of knowledge about Priority Mail, cubic shipping and how to get the best deal. They even have links to USPS supplies.

Pirate Ship wants to save you money! They go out of their way to show you the cheapest methods to ship each package. They will recommend certain services over others and show you the amount of money you can save.

When I got stuck or had a problem I just clicked on the chat button. Even on Sunday morning I received a quick reply. I used to use Endicia and was used to waiting 5 to 8 days for a reply to my emails. Or I could wait on phone hold for hours for Endicia tech support.

Single entries can be cut and pasted from the AoB ship page. If there is sufficient interest, AoB may allow batch files to be submitted via their Bulk Shipping page. Respond to this post or contact AoB if you are interested.

I use Pirate Ship's batch processing to quickly validate addresses and print labels for my book shipments. I print invoices and pick lists from AoB. Then I pack 20-40 orders at a time. Then I print the same number of labels. At the end of the day I print a Scan Form from Pirate Ship and simply drop off my tubs of packages at the local Post Office. I do not have to wait in line and the postal clerks are always happy to see me! One scan and their job is done and my packages are on the way!

Check out https://ship.pirateship.com today and let AoB know what you think. You can start saving money immediately and get better labels than Amazon.

Post your comments below or contact Samantha via an AoB support ticket. If you have questions please post them below and I will try to answer them.

Good Luck Captain!

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10 comments

• 
  samantha March 28, 2022 18:06 Official comment

  If you login to beta.theartofbooks.com and navigate to History > Sales History Download you will now find a drop-menu at the bottom of the page, just above the 'Get File' button that allows you to select from a variety of formats, one of which being for Pirate Ship, so that you can download the file you need to import into your postage account allowing you to obtain postage for your orders.   Look for more details being released soon.  Come to Live Chat if you have questions over the next week. 

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  grinninglion November 22, 2020 20:22

  I wish AoB would link up with PirateShip to where we could ship all the day's orders in bulk. Their international rates are unbeatable, and if I could offer lower shipping charges, I know my sales would go up. 

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  samantha March 22, 2021 16:49

  Tim.. Have you had any luck with exporting their data into a file that you can work with to upload back to AoB for the confirmation processes to the venues?  

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  tbrockett1 March 23, 2021 23:38

  Samantha, Thanks for your question. Yes is the short answer.

  The Pirate Ship export file is robust and contains all the fields I need to update my files at AoB. I wrote code that takes their export file and changes it into an XML Dazzle output file. Then I simply upload that file to AoB and my shipped books are automatically updated via your Bulk Ship page. I think it would be helpful if AoB could write a routine that takes the Pirate Ship export file, converts it to a format AoB can use and then updates shipped books. Then everyone could save lots of money by using Pirate Ship and AoB!

  I am very pleased with my Pirate Ship experience and will continue to use them. Of course I LOVE AoB and will always use your wonderful services.

  Thanks,

  Tim

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  readingroomcle May 07, 2021 00:08

  Tim,
  
  Would you be wiling to share that code? I'm trying to get a macro going and I am apparently just not that great at Excel. I love PirateShip but we have got to get this automated or we'll have to quit using them. I can't keep doing all this copying and pasting!
  
  --Quinn
  
  
  

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  tbrockett1 May 07, 2021 01:31

  Here is a little more information that should help everyone. I will try to attach two files to this comment. If I cannot attach files here, I will try to upload them with a new post. The first file is an Excel type file. I created it by using the Pirate Ship EXPORT command. You can open it with Excel. The second file is an XML file that I created from the Pirate Ship Excel file. That is where my code comes in. My code simply reads the Pirate Ship export file and transforms it into an XML  file.

  The XML file can be opened with your browser or a simple word processor. The XML file is what AoB needs to mark your packages as shipped, update tracking numbers, etc.

  The file conversion can be done in two ways.

  1) Someone would need to write a small program that will work with your operating system, Windows, Mac, etc. The conversion would take place on your desktop computer. You would have to find someone who can write the program you need. I expect that it would cost around $200.00 total. The program would need to be updated if Pirate Ship and/or AoB changes their file structure. That happens about once every two years on average.

  Number one is what I did. I can share the code but it probably will not work for you. The code is written for Foxpro for DOS which was discontinued in the early 1990's. It still works fine but something written in a newer language would be much better. To use my code you would need a copy of Foxpro for DOS and run it on a DOS computer.

  2) The best way to mesh your Pirate Ship export file with AoB is to open a ticket with Samantha. She can put you in contact with AoB programmer Eric. He works for AoB most of the time but he does freelance a little. AoB has such a sophisticated interface that Eric can easily write a program for you. He is very good at programming and has assisted me many times. Pirate Ship already allows you to export your shipping information and save it to a folder. Eric could write a program were you would upload the Pirate Ship file to AoB. Then AoB can do the rest of the translating and update your shipped packages.

  Hope this helps and makes sense. I will try to upload the two files next.

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  tbrockett1 May 07, 2021 01:32

  I could not attach files. Will try to open a new post for those files.

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  tbrockett1 May 07, 2021 01:37

  I tried creating a new post to attach the files to. It did not work. My email is timbrockett@protonmail.com

  Send me an email and I can send you the files.

  Good Luck, Tim

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  grinninglion April 11, 2022 19:32

  I tried the upload to Pirate Ship and got an error message from them that says "File Extension txt not allowed"

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  samantha April 15, 2022 12:55

  @grinninglion .. please attach that file to a support request and send it to  my attention.  It would be helpful also to know when I can generate a new file without disrupting your workflow in shipping.