Give me an education about this "PIRATE SHIP" method that has been discussed here.

Argh... Been using Pirate Ship for a couple years now.
Consistently lower cost than going to UPS or USPS websites direct.

But then I recently signed up for a UPS shipping account and have on occasion gotten a better rate from UPS using my UPS account than using Pirate Ship.
That has only been the case one or two times and has only been a couple bucks... but a couple bucks is a couple bucks.

You can create your own Free UPS Shipping Account here: Open a UPS Shipping Account