General Forum

2022 has been an interesting year for mailing for and to me. Here's a taste from over the past week.

That last one was addressed to another TCDB member and was delivered to me to start 2022. In all cases no cards were damaged surprisingly, but it sure looked like we were tempting fate in a few cases.

I've had a few come in this way also. No damage to the cards either on my end. Hopefully the postal service will get better

Looks like some mail carriers might benefit from a brief "conditioning assignment" in the minor leagues.

And, you still haven't received the cards I mailed you several weeks ago.  I appreciate your patience.

I think I found your mail person.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rl-PdZ_Qdt8

Trade On!

It doesn't appear that any of the envelopes were stamped "Non-Machinable". They all look like they went through the sorting machine. For me, its worth the extra 20 cents for the hand sorting. Those machine sorters have sharp teeth!

https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-is-the-Non-Machinable-Surcharge-for-First-Class-Mail

BTW, marking them as "photos" or "handle with care" does not prevent them from machine sorting your mail pieces. They must be stamped or marked "Non-Machinable" on both the front and back of the envelope. You can buy a cheap stamper off of Amazon.

Had some cards arrive recently where it looks like the envelpoe got caught in the postal machine which overheated and melted a corner of the toploader and warped the cards  The trader was kind enought to replace the cards even thought it wasn't his fault.

Just saying when I was at the post office (here in Canada) asked about non-machinable stamp and her responce was they all go through the machines. Don't know if she was telling the truth or not but I have recieved cards with non-machine stamped  on them and they appeared to have gone through the rollers.

Michael, even marking them as non-machinable doesn't keep them off the machines. I notice too many "skid" marks on those marked non-machinable to have been hand sorted. My best friend retired from the post office and he mentioned that those in his office ignored and sometimes chuckled when they'd see non-machinable as he said with the pressure to clear out bins they don't have time to hand sort.

And everyone, just so you know. I'm not blaming the postal worker because ultimately they delivered, but I'm wondering if they've installed new machines or need to service the old ones as the probability of so many coming to me in one week seems odd to me. The majority of the time they just come with the aforementioned skid marks. The package probably had a box laying on top of it, though, so that's not on the machines.

Really the only curious one to me is the one that was addressed to San Antonio but was delivered instead to me in Katy. There was no yellow sticker or stamp stating a reason for return.