# Mailing junk

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mailing-junk/441471>\
**Category:** Cecil's Columns/Staff Reports\
**Created:** [March 15, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mailing-junk/441471 "2008-03-15T17:24:29Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 5\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![bil](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/f07891/32.png) [@bil](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bil)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2008, 5:24pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mailing-junk/441471/1 "2008-03-15T17:24:29Z")

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Just found your site,very nice.Just wanted to comment on the guy mailing the brick-did you know this is against Postal regulations? Old rule,in the 1880 or so,there was a guy in I believe it was Utah that wanted to build a brick house,but shipping from the railroad was too expensive.He figured out it was cheaper to have the bricks shipped by the Post Office at bulk rate.They did it,but made a regulation against it.Sourse-Ripleys Believe it or Not. —bil

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**Author:** ![Musicat](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/musicat/32/20189_2.png) [@Musicat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Musicat)\
**Post date:** [March 15, 2008, 8:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mailing-junk/441471/2 "2008-03-15T20:02:46Z")

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Since, without [a link to the column you are commenting about,](http://www.straightdope.com/classics/a2_356.html) we have to guess, it’s a good idea to link to one. Is that it?

Welcome to SDMB!

And, if you have a source, it’s also a good idea to provide a link to it as well. Just claiming to have read something somewhere, sometime isn’t nearly as good as a clickable link.

After all, we are committed to “fighting ignorance”.

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**Author:** ![samclem](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/a9a28c/32.png) [@samclem](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/samclem)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2008, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mailing-junk/441471/3 "2008-03-16T01:29:10Z")

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[QUOTE=—bil]  
Just found your site,very nice.Just wanted to comment on the guy mailing the brick-did you know this is against Postal regulations? Old rule,in the 1880 or so,there was a guy in I believe it was Utah that wanted to build a brick house,but shipping from the railroad was too expensive.He figured out it was cheaper to have the bricks shipped by the Post Office at bulk rate.They did it,but made a regulation against it.Sourse-Ripleys Believe it or Not. —bil  
[/QUOTE]

Actually, these kinds of incidents happened immediately after Jan. 1, 1913, when the P.O. decided to “invent” parcel post. You could ship up to 50 pounds, so it became economical to ship things such as bricks.  
[http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibits/2b2f\_parcel.html](http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibits/2b2f_parcel.html) It describes the Bank in question.

But, by far, the more interesting thing shipped by parcel post was one [May Pierstorff](http://www.postalmuseum.si.edu/exhibits/2b2f_parcel.html). She weighed only 48 lbs(packing included), at age 4, and went to visit her grandparents by parcel post, 53 cents in stamps attached to her coat. She travelled in the mail car on the train, and this was in February in Idaho. Damned tough little girl.

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**Author:** ![John\_W.Kennedy](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/john_w.kennedy/32/1031_2.png) [@John\_W.Kennedy](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/John_W.Kennedy)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2008, 1:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mailing-junk/441471/4 "2008-03-16T01:41:23Z")

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But I don’t quite see how this is supposed to work. Bricks are perfectly good commercial goods, and are not poisonous, explosive, or contraband. Why _would_ the USPO (as it was) have a regulation against shipping 'em?

(In the last few months, by the way, I’ve been seeing articles in _Believe It or Not_ that I remember reading in _Believe It or Not_ back in the 1950s, such as the case of William Kogut.)

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**Author:** ![guizot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guizot/32/3636_2.png) [@guizot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/guizot)\
**Post date:** [March 16, 2008, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/mailing-junk/441471/5 "2008-03-16T01:57:22Z")

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[QUOTE=—bil]  
Sourse-Ripleys Believe it or Not. —bil  
[/QUOTE]  
Do you know why they call it “Believe it or Not”?

Oh, forget it.