Stamps.com - Scam or Deal?

[Slainte Mhath]

So I run a little side business on FeEbay to support my gaming hobby. I assume they sold my name and address to Stamps.com as I received a mailer the other day that seems tailored to folks who sell on Ebay. It offers a free 30 day trial of their service, along with a free digital postal scale and $45 worth of free postage. Details are sketchy in the package, but it looks like you simply sign up for the service (using your credit card) and they send you the scale (but charge you S&H fees) and then credit you with $45 of postage at the site. It doesn't say if you have to buy $XX in postage to be able to use the $45 credit though.

My question for the hivemind : Has anyone used Stamps.com and if so what did they think of it? Is the offer a scam or a deal? I know you can purchase postage directly from the USPS.com website, at a discount to what the actual physical post office charge would be, so what makes Stamps.com so great?

[TheWombat]

We got one of those too, but didn't look at it, as we have no real need of it. I think we've sold two items on eBay in five years.

[RickH]

My wife uses stamps.com for all of the postage needs of her small law firm, likes it a lot.

If you don't use a lot of postage, it may not be worth your while.

[ydejin]

So I run a little side business on FeEbay to support my gaming hobby. I assume they sold my name and address to Stamps.com as I received a mailer the other day that seems tailored to folks who sell on Ebay. It offers a free 30 day trial of their service, along with a free digital postal scale and $45 worth of free postage. Details are sketchy in the package, but it looks like you simply sign up for the service (using your credit card) and they send you the scale (but charge you S&H fees) and then credit you with $45 of postage at the site. It doesn't say if you have to buy $XX in postage to be able to use the $45 credit though.

My question for the hivemind : Has anyone used Stamps.com and if so what did they think of it? Is the offer a scam or a deal? I know you can purchase postage directly from the USPS.com website, at a discount to what the actual physical post office charge would be, so what makes Stamps.com so great?
I've used Stamps.com's Photostamps (http://photo.stamps.com/Store/?source=si11014605) before. Basically you can take any image and turn it into an official US postal stamp. I took a photo of a friend's dog and turned it into a Stamp -- she was very happy. As advertised the stamps seemed to work just fine, and I have received letters using the custom stamp through US Postal Service without any problems. Another year I got official NCAA logo stamps from them.

I haven't used any of their other services, but the Photostamps definitely make for great gifts.

[Slainte Mhath]

Cool, thanks for the advice guys. I was wary because they require a credit card upfront when registering, but I may try it out anyway as I can always cancel within the initial month. After that they want like $18 a month to stay subscribed, which probably isn't worth my money as I only ship maybe $50-$75 a month worth of postage. Still, the service is attractive as it would streamline my shipping procerss somewhat, allowing me to prep everything at home or in the office then just drop off at the post office. I suppose I can do the same thing with the USPS.com online service too though, and it's free.