in following the usps discussion, I checked out their website. I had no idea you could order the flat rate mailers online and better yet, print the labels, pay for postage and arrange for home pick up of the packages...how cool is that! I may try it next week when I ship my pals package. I don't have a scale...would you need a scale if you use the flat rate boxes? oh, the website indicated there will be postal rate increases effective Jan 22nd and when I clicked that prompt it took me to a spreadsheet but I didn't see flat rate mailing rates...hopefully that is a good thing!