I think we should all be paying YOU (Judy/blue) for what is probably a better tutorial than the Pest Office could ever present.

I listed a thing tonight that will need a box larger than a cubic foot. I used the formula (which I already knew about, but for some reason, was just resisting -- resenting having to learn new stuff, I guess), and I got exactly the right result in the auction.

The main thing I learned from you, Judy, was that I needed to select the Oversize 1 and to enter the dimensions. I had thought that was only for UPS. I still hate that I have to predict the box size up front, and I need to do some more trial runs at the USPS calculator to see how varying the dimensions changes the cost (like, is there an impact if the size increases by an inch, a couple inches?), but it's gratifying to know the result in the auction was right on.

I wonder if anyone has come up with a chart (but it'd have to be three-dimensional -- some kind of geometric chart, like a CAD thing) where you can pick the width on one axis, the length on the other axis, then plug in the height, and where they all intersect, there's the DIM weight (the numbers at the intersections would already be divided by 194 and rounded up). You could do this with Excel, but you'd have to have a different chart (worksheet) for each height, or maybe you could just pick a few common heights and do all the most likely widths and lengths for each of them. Then you could "roam around" on the chart and see if you could get into the next lower weight increment by selecting a slightly smaller box, or vice-versa, stay in the same DIM weight with a slightly larger box.

I made a chart for all boxes 12" tall. You omit lengths/widths below, say, 6 inches, so the top row (x) and the left column (y) are numbered 7" through 20" (seldom ship boxes over 20" in any dimension). Then picking a box 15" x 18", you enter the following formula in the intersecting cell: =((J1*A13)*12)/194, where J is the location of 15" (because the number series begins with 7, not 1), and A13 is the location of 18". The result in the intersecting cell is 16.7 which is 15" x 18" x 12" divided by 194. Now, if I knew how to get Excel to round up the result of a calculation....... I also don't know how to copy a formula down a row and NOT have Excel raise the x-axis figure by one each time, so I'm changing the formula for each cell and copy-pasting it in, and then rounding the results "manually" (does the PO always round up, even if the result is something like 12.1?), but you can see that rounding creates clusters of results. For example, you pay the 13-pound rate for 12-inch boxes that are either 15 x 13, 16 x 13, 14 x 14, or 15 x 14. Have I put you to sleep yet? LOL. Anyway, someone should do this. I nominate anyone other than me.

Ok, now, the horses. You have horses?? How do you do so much stuff? And you cleaned the house, too? (I, uh, dust-busted a little. Groan). Are there actually three of you? Did you apply for and get granted some of those extra hours in the day I heard about?

Sue