One of the biggest time wasters out there seems to be trekking to the post office to wait in line for a half hour (at least here in Philly). On top of that, the closest post office to me has some super grumpy people working for it. I often walk the extra 10 minutes to the other just to avoid having my mood soured. So when I got my Pitney Bowes mailing system a few years back, I was happy as can be.

With Pitney Bowes, however, the charges keep mounting. You rent the postage machine for approx. $40/month and then pay the cost of ink and postage on top of that.

That’s a bit expensive, given I don’t use the machine every day, but it does save me an hour trip to the post office when I do (thus paying for itself in one trip given what I can bill clients). And it’s nice to have something that will calculate exact postage, rather than using an extra $.39 stamp or mixing and matching combinations of $.10 and $.01 to get that exact number.

Still, I felt I could save a few bucks/month by switching.

I’m now trying out Stamps.com. There’s no equipment involved - just some computer software and you print via your printer. There’s a monthly $15 charge + you have to pay for their labels, which cost about $5 for a pack of 125 or about $.04 each if you factor in shipping on a few packs. They do give you a free scale and a couple sheets free when you sign up.

Obviously, after a certain number of mailings, Pitney Bowes is the better choice since you’re not stuck using their proprietary labeling system. But I don’t mail that much, so it suits me fine.

If you’re running a small business that requires mailings of any kind - like eBay, an online store, or simply mailing information kits to prospects, having a mailing service like either is well worth it.