Since August 29, 2021, the regular first-class rate for stamps increased to 58 cents. Depending on what you’re mailing, there will be plenty of times when you’ll wonder if you need one stamp or two. It’s inevitable! However, if you often make the mistake of overestimating the postage you need to send a letter, you are essentially throwing money out the window. While it might not feel like much when it’s “just a few cents”, these cents do add up over time.
Currently, most letters weighing less than an ounce can be shipped first-class stamped for 58 cents. adding a second stamp (when you don’t know the true postage rate for your letter), results in a very generous donation to the post office. In this article, we’ll look at some other methods you can use to determine the correct postage and make sure your letter arrives safe and sound.
weight rules
If you’re sending a two-ounce letter, you’re obviously over the one-ounce weight limit rule for a 58-cent stamp. sending a two-ounce letter costs $0.78 ($0.58 for the first ounce and $0.20 for the additional ounce, based on the August 29, 2021 price increase). if you put two 58-cent stamps on a two-ounce letter, you’re overpaying $0.38 (and you’ll never get that money back). you can imagine how quickly that can add up over time.
How many pages (or sheets of paper) can you send with a stamp?
When it comes to how many pages you can mail in a one-ounce letter, the answer is usually between four and six standard sheets of paper. keep in mind that you should also take into account the weight of your envelope. As long as it’s under an ounce (all inclusive), you’ll only need a 58-cent stamp. if you use heavy paper or larger envelopes, the cost of postage will increase.
If you’re anticipating the two-ounce fee, then you’re thinking about being able to mail about ten pages of standard paper with your envelope. If you are unsure of the weight of your envelope, please note that all US Post Offices have a scale available. experiment with the paper and envelopes you are using and take them with you to the post office. here, you can play around with different numbers of pages and combinations of envelopes. this is a sure way to learn how to maximize the efficiency of your mail.
does it lack scale?
While the solutions we suggested above should work just fine if you have access to a scale, what if you don’t? If you can’t make a trip to your local post office (due to time constraints, for example), there are other strategies available to estimate your letter weight.
One way to do this is to understand how letterhead is traditionally sold. letterhead comes in reams, which means there are typically five hundred sheets in each ream. most reams of paper reveal a weight on your ream. Please note that the weight of the ream can be a bit misleading as it does not refer to the total weight of the package. instead, the weight tells customers the total weight of the paper before it was reduced to letter size.
When letterhead is packaged, it is 8 ½ by 11 inches in size. however, it is standard procedure for manufacturers to weigh letterhead while it is still at its uncut 17-by-22-inch size. Here’s how it breaks down:
each uncut sheet creates four cut sheets once the process is complete. therefore, the weight you see in a ream of paper is actually four times what you physically have. the most frequent letter paperweight you will see is twenty pounds (20 # or 20 lb). that means a ream of that same type of paper weighs five pounds when cut.
If your head is spinning after reading all that, trust us, you’re not the only one! Picking up a personal scale will always remain the most convenient method of preparing letters/packages for shipping. however, with the information above, you should be able to figure out how to calculate paperweights if you’re in a pinch (so you know how many stamps to use). It’ll take some math (and a lot of patience), but it’s definitely worth it in the long run, to keep your hard-earned money.
paper weight calculations
If you can assess how much a ream of paper weighs, then you can calculate the weight of an individual sheet of paper (by dividing by five hundred, since there are 500 sheets in a ream). For example, if your ream of #20 paper physically weighs five pounds, then each sheet of paper would weigh a total of 0.01 pounds. from there, for postal reasons, we’ll want to convert to ounces.
One pound of weight contains sixteen ounces. If you want to know how much one sheet weighs from a twenty pound ream, you would multiply the weight of the individual sheet (0.01 lb) by sixteen (0.01 × 16 = 0.16). that means a single sheet would weigh 0.16 ounces.
If you buy photocopy paper frequently, you know that it usually comes in reams of twenty pounds of paper. however, if you’re not sure what type of paper you’re using (but it looks like it’s a standard size), you can most likely estimate that your paper weighs five physical pounds per five hundred sheets of paper.
postage estimate
After you know how much each sheet of paper will weigh, you need to go one step further. you’ll need to multiply that weight by the total number of pieces of paper you plan to use. So if you have ten sheets of paper and each piece weighs 0.16 ounces, then your total paper will weigh 1.6 ounces. Leaving a little room for the weight of your envelope, that means you’ll need two 58-cent stamps (just like we discussed earlier).
once you know the total weight, you can check and confirm the total weight of us. uu. letter from the postal service regarding current rates. With USPS, you’ll be fine with a 58-cent stamp for any letter weighing up to an ounce.