Well, technically mine didn't leave Colorado, LOL!

Thank you for all of your hard work, Deb!!!

My apologies to Bonnie and George -

It's been a LONG day with these seeds!! Nothing like the host waiting until the last moment...

Happy Gardening All!

Haha, just giving you a hard time. I can feel your pain though, having spent waaaay to much time sorting pepper seeds today.

All packages have been submitted for mailing.

Two are going to Canada. Since I didn't want either of these getting hung up in customs, I filled out the customs form. I have never done this before...I took the envies to the counter and asked if I had filled them out correctly.

I was told that bubble envies are now packages. I cannot see where this is specifically listed on the USPS website. I was told that if "anything protrudes" from the envelope, i.e. is not flat, the envie becomes a package - and thus jumps into the package rates.

I'm not sure what to think.

Perhaps the Postmaster General needs to clarify - AGAIN.

I stamped the bubble envies as they are large envelopes. I hope our entire swap doesn't get charged package rates.

Wow. Did you mean they said ALL bubble envelopes are now packages, or just ones going to Canada? Hopefully if the rates have gone up on all bubble envelopes, the envelopes will all get sent to us with ransom notes and not back to you as undeliverable!

If it means anything, I brought a bubble envelope to the post office counter last week and they charged me for it as an envelope...

Thanks for all your work! I can't wait to get my seeds!!

The man at my PO said ALL bubble envies. I asked the same thing - only to Canada?? He said no - all envelopes that are not flat.

What he was blah blahing at the counter made sense, so I looked it up when I got home and cannot see where his logic was/is. He couldn't determine the value of four forever stamps, so hopefully he is confused on the bubble envies.

I sent the USPS an email for clarification.

Nearly every envie that I mailed for this swap has the same send address as the return address - tee hee, so I'm not sure what they do if the ransom notes are not paid...deliver anyway??

Ooooo, thats a good trick! (same return address) ..very clever of you ;)

When postage went up recently I took a bubble envie to the PO counter at my local grocery store where I always mail. (the PO is several miles from my home). A young man I've not seen before told me the very light weight and less than 3/4 inch bubble envie would be nearly $2. He said it was due to the 1cent postal increase. hmmm... I asked to see his supervisor and she politely told me the cost would be 2 forever stamps. She explained he was new and needed more education.

I'm concerned that you've had to pay extra postage for the return of my package. Please let me know what they charged you so I can reimberse you.

Thanks for all the time and energy you put into this swap!

...excited to see what tomato varieties will arrive at my house :)

I just received a reply from my USPS inquiry and was told that a bubble envie is considered a package - parcel rate.

GW has some posts regarding this issue and I found one dating to 2008 that states that a bubble envie is a package - quoting a postal employee.

I'm not sure when this change was effected, but clearly some postal employees are better educated then others.

I'm going to cross my fingers that the US envies leave my town as large envies and no ransom notes are left. A few envies were right on the limit, and I rounded down (who knows how accurate my scale is). Most of these had stamps or cash inside, so hopefully the returned stamps/$$ covers the ransom - although you must pay the ransom to get the envie.

And, I'll keep mailing envies from my house, with the large envie pricing until more POs catch on.

Nancy - you may get a ransom. My scale said just over 2 stamps, but I put just two stamps on your envie. Either my PO or yours stamped the extra postage due - at the package rate. But the odd thing is that only your envie triggered that, so I am thinking it happened at your PO.

I just got off the phone with my local PO (not just the grocery store desk). Here is what they said re bubble envies...
90 cents postage (2 forever stamps) as long as it fits the following:
less than 15x12x3/4 inch
flexible
less than 1oz (each additional oz will cost 20cents)

In his opinion, the POs that are charging parcel rate are not reading the regulations correctly.
He said parcel rates start at $1.95
yikes. I could send 2 envies for that and still have a bit of change.

Got my seeds today. So very excited. Thank you all!

It cost me $1.95 to send my seed to Deb. So I put $2.00 in with the seed. Hope that covers the return shipping.

The various responses at both of the post offices nearby have frustrated me as I am a rule-follower, but haven't figured out the different interpretations.

I package the bubble envelopes carefully to be within regulations for large envelope, > 1/4", but less than 3/4" thick & specified H & L envelopes. Yet, sometimes price is large envelope & other times as parcel (the higher rate).

After much effort to figure out the "rules" I just package up carefully & hope for the best!

Our teen son who takes them to the post office has it figured out to just puts his own stamps on them & mails outside in the blue boxes when the worker says "parcel" = higher prices. He prefers certain employees over others because some always charge the parcel rates on small envies with 5 small packets. So far, none have come back postage due that I've heard back about.

If a kid can figure it out, why can't they?

Corrine

Yep, I'm with your son, Corrine, there are certain employees that always charge me the higher rate, and others that never do. For me, I usually mail mine in the next town over, since the overchargers all seem to work in my town, LOL.

Deb, I did receive mine today, and guess what? It was stamped with postage due $.60. Of course, the extra stamp was inside when I opened it, haha. Not sure how they expect to receive the money when they've already delivered the package.

Anyway, thank you for all of your hard work!!! I briefly looked through the seed packets (I'm still working on sorting pepper seeds), and I saw a nice selection, which I'll have to research later.

Bonnie

Got my seeds today! I'm so thrilled with all the varieties you sent Debbie - I can't believe you filled almost every tomato wish on my list! (And actually, a few of the others you sent were ones I wished I had added to my list after I already sent it). Thanks so much for all your hard work.

By the way, my envelope arrived in my mailbox with a "Postage due - 15 cents" note on it. I left the 15 cents in my mail box for the carrier (I guess that's what I should do). With that, the postage for my envelope totalled $1.95. It was a 6"x9" bubble mailer that was nowhere near 3/4" thick. On the other hand, they didn't cancel the stamps again...

What a mess the PO has created!

These were mailed from my house, on Tuesday: (The rest were mailed from the PO on Wed)

Corrine1
Fischer1611
Hibiscusfan
Highalttransplant
Janezee
Julia42
NancyPlants
Paintedmidnight
Susaninosceolamo

And a few so far had "extra postage due" on the return trip. In the past, I have never heard of envies from me having the extra postage required. Perhaps my PO had a staff meeting...

And perhaps this is what swappers have to look forward to - inconsistent postage...

Anyway, I hope that everyone receives useful seeds!

Thanks all!

Deb

I spoke with a rep on the national PO customer service line yesterday. She confirmed the dimentions and criteria for 'large letter' rates...as mentioned above.

She also added that there cant be more than 1/4 inch change in thickness. Meaning one end cant be 3/4 inch and the other end 1/4 inch...basically no lumps... taping down the packets like corrine mentioned.

She said that once a (sending) PO has accepted/approved postage, another (receiving) PO cant decide its not sufficient.

She recommended for anyone that is told by a PO that their bubble envie (meeting the criteria) is considered a 'parcel' and will be charged the $1.95 should take a copy of the guidelines with them and ask to speak with a supervisor. If the matter isnt corrected, report them.
Here is the #
800-275-8777
prompt 6
then prompt 4

I know other members have been on this bandwagon for a long time. Its just a shame that some POs cant get it right...according to their OWN guidelines.

Awesome detective work Nancy!

I think another thing to add is that once a bubble envie gets too thick, switch to a larger bubble envie, so the taped down packets can be more spread out.

I got my package today !!

Great job picking out varieties :)

No ransom note for mine...

Received my package today with some of my wants and others that I'll research ( I love to do that) Thanks Deb for all your work and to everyone in the swap for your contributions!

Oh Deb, thats a good idea to switch to a larger envie if it gets too thick. I tend to use 6x9s. Its amazing how many packets you can get in one if you layer them and tape them down. I've sent out more than 50 packets and kept it under the 3/4th inch limit. Granted, they were tiny seeds (tomato, pepper, mustard, etc).

Corrine, maybe your son could do seminars for POs and educate them on their own guidelines. Sounds like a smart kid :)

...excited to see what tomato varieties will arrive in our home :)

I received my package today. Thanks for all the great varieties Deb.
My envie was delivered and it says postage due $1.05. I should have
sent you more than 2 stamps, sorry. I will leave the $1.05 for the
mailman. It does seem a little high because there are already two
stamps on the envelope, plus $1.05 = $1.95, for a 4 x 7.
Did it say postage due when I sent it to you Deb? If so, let me know.

Thanks again
Linda

Linda - I don't recall if your envie required additional $$ from me or not. But if it did, there should be another postage due stamp on the envelope, as I reused nearly all of the envies, and should have returned yours to you.

It seems like my PO went nuts with the charging large envelopes as packages, whether legal or not.

I have tried to search the PO website and cannot find anything that says that a bubble envie, less then 3/4" thick and evenly distributed is a parcel (package). But I know that some POs do charge as mine did this week - which is new to me. I've been trading for years and have never experienced this, but I have read about it on GW.

If you have the time/patience, and if it's possible, I would take the envelopes to your own PO and ask if the extra charge is actually due. Of course, the envelopes have to be sealed and as they were received by you.

For example - if I sent the envelope uneven - 1/4" thick on one side and 3/4" thick on the other, or lumpy etc, and you empty the envie, and it looks like you emptied it, the PO will know something is up. But, if you bring it in and it's sealed and the contents are evenly distributed, perhaps they will disregard the request for extra postage.

I have taken envies to my PO to get clarification on the request for extra postage, and most of the time, the charge was dismissed. I can't speak for these envies, since I made all attempts to evenly distribute the packets and weighed each one, adding postage per the large envie fees (but not package rates - since they are large envies - IMO).

I'm not sure what to say about all of this except SORRY.

I hope there are seeds inside the envies that make up for this headache!

Nothing to be sorry about Deb. Even for 1.95, it was worth it. Good info
on this thread about postage.

I'm so excited, I'd even pay the extra $1.05 they say I owe, but I'll drop in on them on Monday to inquire, since I have 3 more bubble envelopes to mail then. More seed swaps! LOL
They gave me such a bad time when I said I was sending Canadian cash back to Canada, I had to go to another PO. They wanted $11.95 for me to send $11.00CAN. Duh! Do I look like I just fell off the turnip truck? I don't think so! Thanks again, Deb! This is the best ever!

My tomato seed pkg arrived Friday & had postage due. There were 3 stamps on there, so should have been enough. Someone must have considered it the $1.95 parcel rate.
Corrine

I received my seed pkg Friday. Thank you Deb for all your time and work you put into this round robin. Also thank you all that participated. I received some new varieties and now just need room to plant them. I have a 144 new to me stared now. I may have to wait till next year for some of these. LOL

I received my envelope on Friday. Thanks for a great swap, Deb. I got many varieties I didn't have :)

See you next year!
Andrea

SEEDS NOT YET HOME:
NancyPlants
Jay_NY
surburbangreen
clay_lady
Danielle
GretchensGarden
twopinenuts
glynis3
lisa831
sorellina
sunnyk

I got a 'ransom' note for mine $1.05
I havent made it to the postoffice yet to pick it up. Cant wait to see whats inside :)

Sorry I am late posting. My seeds arrived on Saturday. Nice selection there. Many off of my want list. Thank you so much for a job well done! :-D

SEEDS NOT YET HOME:
Jay_NY
surburbangreen
clay_lady
Danielle
GretchensGarden
twopinenuts
glynis3
lisa831
sorellina

SEEDS NOT YET HOME:
Jay_NY
surburbangreen
clay_lady
Danielle
GretchensGarden
twopinenuts
lisa831
sorellina

I got my seeds a week or two ago but have been delinquent in my thank you posting. Thanks so much for the incredible collection of seeds! This year's plants are already in the beds thanks to last year's swap, but I cant wait to try all these out next year!

Thanks to everyone for the seeds and especially to Debbie for all the hard work!!!!

Gretchen

I hope these other gardeners have received their envies are too busy to reply as well :-)

SEEDS NOT YET HOME:
Jay_NY
surburbangreen
clay_lady
Danielle
twopinenuts
lisa831
sorellina

SEEDS NOT YET HOME:
Jay_NY
clay_lady
Danielle - 2nd envie mailed 3/13
twopinenuts
lisa831
sorellina

SEEDS NOT YET HOME:
Jay_NY
clay_lady
Danielle - 2nd envie mailed 3/13
twopinenuts

SEEDS NOT YET HOME:
clay_lady
Danielle - 2nd envie mailed 3/13
twopinenuts

SEEDS NOT YET HOME:
clay_lady
Danielle - 2nd envie mailed 3/13

Hoping she's just busy digging in the clay!

SEEDS NOT YET HOME:
clay_lady