I enjoy sending small, softcover zines (or booklets) as a regular letter with the US Postal Service. It keeps the shipping price low, so I can ship them for free, and 99% of the time they make it to the far flung corners of the world without a hitch. Letters don't have tracking numbers, which isn't ideal, but it costs $1.29 cents to mail a 3 ounce zine to a US address in this way instead of $5 plus dollars.
| Country | Price | Global | Three Oz | One Oz | Addtl Oz | Five Cent | Stamp Value | Over |
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Click on the tabs to see prices and recommended stamp combinations for different weights.
Additional Info
This page was last updated January 3rd, 2025.
- How to read the table: If you want to send a zine as a letter to Canada from the United States, and the letter weighs 3 ounces, it will cost $2.36. You can pay that postage using these stamps:
- 1 Global stamp
- 2 Additional ounce stamps
- 3 5 cent stamps
- There are always tradeoffs. It is possible to use different combinations of stamps to achieve similar results, or to pay the exact amounts for postage, but I wanted to minimize the number of stamp types needed to keep on hand, and also minimize the amount I have to overpay for postage. I found the following 5 stamps to be the best at accomplishing this:
- Global Stamps
- Three Ounce Stamps
- One Ounce Stamps
- Additional Ounce Stamps
- Five Cent Stamps
- The "over" column shows you how much you're overpaying by using these stamp combinations. The highest amount is .04 cents for a 3.5oz letter to Mexico. I have found this to be an incredibly rare occurance.
- Your zines MUST fit in a 6 x 9 or smaller envelope. If you use anything larger (e.g., 6.25 x 9.25) the rate will change from "letter" to "flat" and essentially double in price.
- Similarly, the weight of the 6 x 9 envelope MUST not exceed 3.5 ounces in weight. If it's 3.6 or higher the postage rate will change to "flat" and essentially double in price.
- Shipping zines as letters is especailly useful for international shipping due to pricing structures.
- Be careful if you want to include extra stuff, or irregular items in the package. This can cause the letter to be "non-machinable". The post office may apply additional fees and try to claim them from the recipient, or (more likely) they'll void the postage you paid and return the letter to you. Try to use an envelope as close in size to the item you're mailing as possible. If you want to mail something like a cloth map, be sure to wrap it around something rigid like a piece of cardboard or chipboard so the postal machines don't reject it.