Printing tracked envelopes

Envelope orders can carry a USPS Intelligent Mail barcode. Each one is unique to the order. As the envelope passes through USPS sorting machines, each scan shows on the order for you and the buyer. You don't need a USPS account; the barcode is ours.

Print it

• Open the order (Sell → Orders) and choose Print tracked envelope.
• Pick a size: #10 envelope, #6¾ envelope (fed sideways) or a 4 × 2 in label to stick on any envelope.
• Print, add an 82¢ Forever stamp (or a $1.31 nonmachinable stamp for thick cards and very rigid toploaders), and mail it.
• Back on the order, choose “Sent it in a stamped envelope”. The barcode becomes the order's tracking.

Reprinting gives the same barcode, so a smudged envelope can simply be printed again. Your ship-from address (Sell → Shipping) prints as the return address.

Print dialog settings

Browsers add their own margins, page titles and scaling, which move the address and can shrink the barcode until USPS can't read it. In Chrome's print dialog, open More settings and set these once; Chrome remembers them.

• Paper size: the envelope you're using (Envelope #10, Envelope #6¾, or a custom 3.625 × 6.5 in), or your label size.
• Margins: None.
• Scale: Default (100%), never “Fit to page”.
• Headers and footers: off. Otherwise the page title and page number print on the envelope.

Test on plain paper cut to the envelope's size first. If the text sits in the wrong place, the paper size in the dialog doesn't match the envelope.

#6¾ envelopes fed sideways

The #6¾ layout prints on a page the width of the envelope's short side, with the address turned a quarter turn, for printers that take envelopes short edge first. If the address comes out upside down, choose “turned left” on the print page and print again.

Getting scans

• Keep it flat: one thin card in a penny sleeve and a toploader. Thick or lumpy envelopes are more likely to be hand-sorted and get few or no scans.
• Keep the barcode clear: no tape, stickers or handwriting over it, and nothing within about ¼ inch of it.
• Scans usually start the evening it's mailed or the next morning. The order checks for new scans every hour.
• Letters don't get a delivery scan. The last scan is usually “Sorted for delivery”, when it's with the carrier's route.
• Some envelopes get few or no scans even when everything is right. That doesn't mean it's lost.