A shipping scale ranked by how often it saves you from a USPS adjustment or an overpaid label, with the reason for each pick.
A shipping scale stops USPS from charging weight adjustments and keeps you from overpaying for postage. You need two types to cover most home sales: a platform scale for boxes and a pocket scale for envelopes.
The pocket scale costs about $8 to $15 and the 110 lb platform scale $18 to $30.
The criteria that set the order. Commission plays no part.
Weighs everything from an envelope to a boxed pair of boots, with a display you can read under a box.
Typical price
$18to $30
For cards and small items that sit within a fraction of an ounce of a rate break.
Typical price
$8to $15
A cheaper platform scale for lighter packages. Choose it if you want to spend less or the larger one is out of stock. Stay with the 110 lb model if you ship heavy boxes.
Typical price
$20to $35
Each step in the order you'll need it.
A platform scale handles boxed sneakers, bundles of clothes and anything up to its limit. A pocket scale reads to a tenth of a gram, so you can tell whether a card mailer sits a fraction under an ounce break.
Choose the platform size that fits your usual box, and keep the pocket scale within reach for mailers.
Weigh the packed package, with tape and packing slip inside, before you buy the label. Boxes and bubble wrap add more weight than the item alone suggests.
Round up to the next ounce when you enter the weight. USPS audits label weights, and Pirate Ship, eBay and Etsy pass any adjustment back to you.
Tare the scale on a flat surface and check it now and then with something of known weight, like an unopened 1 lb pack of butter or a 5 lb bag of flour.
Replace the batteries when the display dims, because the reading drifts on a weak battery.
Straight answers to what sellers ask about this.
If you buy labels by weight, yes. Guessing risks overpaying, or a USPS adjustment charged after the package ships.
For small items, often. A platform scale takes packages too big for a kitchen scale's bowl, and you can still read its display beside the box.
Check your heaviest package. A 66 or 110 lb scale covers more than most packages you ship from home.
Yes, or add an ounce for it. Tape, the label and the packing slip all count.
If you ship lots of card mailers near an ounce break, it helps. Otherwise the platform scale will do.
Weigh something with a known weight, like a sealed 5 lb bag of flour, and compare.
