Info on shipping books and printed materials via USPS M-bag to Italy

Here are the links on shipping books and printed materials via USPS M-bags to Italy:

INFORMATION

• Airmail M-Bags – "Airmail M-Bags deliver a large amount of mail to a single addressee." – Source: International Delivery Options section of USPS (United States Postal Service)
  
• US Postal Service M-bags shipping – "M-bags is a special service to send books or printed matter to an international address at a reduced postage rate." – Source: Iosart.com - Alex Sirota – Please note: There has been a subsequent USPS update regarding M-Bags and portions of this web site are now out of date.
  

USPS (UNITED STATES POSTAL SERVICE)

• IMM Issue 34 - International Mail Manual – "May 14, 2007, Updated With Revisions Through (Edit revision date variable.) PSN 7610-02-000-9904"
• 260 Direct Sacks of Printed Matter to One Addressee (M–Bags)

COMMENTS/OBSERVATIONS

• FORUM/DISCUSSION
• Source: Forums section of Italy Magazine – "THE NO.1 MAGAZINE FOR LOVERS OF ALL THINGS ITALIAN"
  
• Tracking M-Bag Shipment
• Source: Bureaucratic Situations forum under Moving to/Living in Italy section of Expats in Italy Forum of Expats in Italy
  
• Third-Class Shipping?!? – Please scroll down a few entries to the start of the M-bag discussion initiated by DarlaVitaSogno on 29 May 2007.
• Source: Daily Life forum under Moving to/Living in Italy section of Expats in Italy Forum of Expats in Italy
• USPS - M Bags for shipping books to Italy
• Source: Daily Life forum under Moving to/Living in Italy section of Expats in Italy Forum of Expats in Italy
• Boxes mailed in June NO ARRIVO!

The above links are current. If anyone has any suggestions for other sites, please feel free to post your comment and I'll update this blog entry. For your specific interest, please search the web for further information using .

As quoted above, "M-bags is a special service to send books or printed matter to an international address at a reduced postage rate.". As noted by some of the discussions above, sometimes they don't show up at all and there is no way to track them. However, the price is right to send books and printed material to Italy or an international address.

M-bags are now going by air as of May 14, 2007. The days of low cost, surface shipping of book and printed material via M-bags and USPS are gone. The current rates are listed in Country Conditions for Mailing — Italy section of the IMM Issue 34 - International Mail Manual. However, M-bags are a bargain in comparison to commercial shipping, e.g., FedEx, UPS, etc.

That's it for Friday, 29 June 2007: venerdì, 29 giugno 2007.

Ciao, Ben

Moving2Italy2 – #1 source of links About, For or On Italy for those individuals moving, traveling or already living in Italy.

Today’s quote is an Italian proverb, author unknown.

"Mal comune, mezzo gaudio."
"Trouble shared is trouble halved."