@mg152 wrote:
No. They are not media mail.
Welll... looking into this got kind of weird.
First, the USPS Media Mail Eligibility quick reference chart (here) gives a flat "Yes" for the Instruction Manuals category (near the bottom of the page, under "OTHER MISC"). You do need to be sending the manuals by themselves, not with any other item (such as the game itself) that doesn't qualify. So as far as that goes, I would think you'd be okay if they're as you described and not accompanied by any merchandise, although I agree with others here that First Class Package would be a better Shipping choice in general.
Here's where things got a little strange. The reference for their Yes ruling cites DMM 173.4.1.g (here), so off I went to read that. Paragraph 173.4.1.g turns out to be a big honking 14-line paragraph going on and on about "educational reference charts," and little else. Samples they cite are mainly reference charts and verb conjugation tables and similar, but nothing remotely close to "Instruction Manuals" at all.
If I was proofing their quick reference chart, I would have definitely queried that cite, because it looks wrong to me... I mean, it looks irrelevant, not an explanation that even comes close to discussing instruction manuals.
So on the basis of a general definition of what constitutes Media Mail, I would say that the instruction manuals by themselves in a package should qualify, and the Quick Reference chart backs me up on that, but the DMM does not (at least, not that paragraph). All that aside, I'd reserve Media Mail for hopelessly big and heavy publications, and send those game manuals by First Class Package, so that the recipient doesn't have to wait forever to receive them.
