How to print online media mail postage labels without a subscription

It's that time of year again where I find myself trying to clean out some unwanted books, CDs, and electronics, so naturally I turn to Amazon Marketplace and eBay for selling my stuff.

One issue that comes up when you do a lot of online selling is how to minimize your shipping costs. For books, CD, and other media, the cheapest way is to use USPS Media Mail postage rates. The trouble is, unless you're willing to stand in long, long, lines at the post office, you can't easily find a service that you can print online shipping labels with the correct media mail postage rates. Most of the commercial vendors like Stamps.com, Endicia, Pitney Bowes, etc. have services where you can print your own postage online or via PC desktop software, but all of them charge you a monthly fee for the privilege (plus the hassle of setting up the software and your account). Even dowdy old USPS only allows you to print Priority or Express Mail labels online through their website. (Note: USPS does offer a downloadable free software program called Shipping Assistant which I've used successfully in the past, but even that doesn't allow you to actually print the postage, only the label).

Doing an internet search, I came across a tip about an undocumented call you can make to your Paypal account which will do the trick. You do need a Paypal account which you can set up quickly. You can't access this link via the regular Paypal menus, so just type the following URL into your address bar after you login to Paypal:

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now

You will see a screen that asks you for all the info needed to print the USPS approved label. The postage will be automatically deducted from your Paypal account. This Ship Now feature is normally displayed after you receive funds in Paypal, but by using the above link, you can invoke this functionality anytime. Pretty neat!

So in case you're looking for something cheap to read, check out my Amazon storefront.

Addendum: I just read about a new shipping site called RedRoller.com that allows you to compare prices across different carriers and print labels right from their site. Worth checking out.