Keep in mind that Sax’s friends are all godless commies who smoke thin black cigarettes. They’re also diseased and highly infectious as the result of sharing used saxophone reeds.
Good people, though.
Back off, man. I’m a scientist.
In Chicago they can’t even deliver the mail when you put the stamps on right.
But anyway I vote for Laverne & Shirley. I love you is the reason I heard.
I have tried that before, too and it worked for awhile. It was suggested in one of the “Big Secrets” books! But after a couple weeks of sending free letters, I finally got a notice back from the PO saying if I kept it up I could be prosecuted. How did they figure me out?? Could it be they are smarter than we give them credit for?
+++++
At USPS GMF (General Mail Facilities) the high speed sorting / canceling machinery “looks” for postage in the upper right hand corner.
It is actually looking for the phosphoresent coating applied to all postage stamps.
If after a certain number of tries, that particular envelope is diverted for human handling.
It is at this step that a human determines the fate of the letter.
That is how the USPS knew (became aware) of one’s defrauding the postal service by switching “to:” and “from;” and omitting proper postage.
Terence in Marietta, GA
Be someone’s hero
Years ago, I read an anecdote about a journalist in the Soviet Union who got a stern lecture at the post office when he tried to mail a letter with unside-down stamp featuring one of the country’s fearless letters. (The journalist claimed it was an accident).
I just bought some stamps which feature tropical fish. What kind of message would it send to mail a letter with a stamp that has three fish floating upside-down in an aquarium?
Umm, “fearless leaders”. Carry on…
Whiteho, it took you THIRTY-EIGHT MINUTES to proofread your post?
Uke
whitetho said…(snipped)
I just bought some stamps which feature tropical fish. What kind of message would it send to mail a letter with a stamp that has three fish floating upside-down in an aquarium?
Whatever message you want. As long as you paid the .33 for the transmission fee, no prob.
In the fish case,
Might even attract attention in a better way if you were fund raising for the local community aquarium. The upside down fish stamp would call attention to the letter, and on the inside, hey! we’re going belly up here without a little help from you! Send fish food! , or dollars to purchase same,some! Thanks!
Stamps on those letters, would be passed thru, sometimes uncancelled, with no problem.
Reuse the uncancelled ones, problem.
How do they spot them?
Anyone can tell a virgin dollar bill from a used one. Same principle, that simple.
You wanna fake? (In the verb sense.)
Your stuff better be as good as ours.
terence wrote:
At USPS GMF (General Mail Facilities) the high speed sorting / canceling machinery “looks” for postage in the upper right hand corner.
It is actually looking for the phosphoresent coating applied to all postage stamps.
Not quite right. The older cancelling machines looked for 4 corners. There are 8 possibles on a flat envelope, it looked for the most likely position first, and in this case, that’s the upper right. It made a quick machine decision, is it there, or is it not? Yes’es go one direction, no’s go another.
So, a sensor that reads ‘either, or’. Then one to read the front of the envelope, one, the back. Voila! The four most possible locations, identified and hit with the cancel stamp, the rest go to a skip bin.
That’s their first human contact. No stamps? Wrong corner? Too thick? Too thin?
All rejects, that is, machine rejects, nothing personal.
The phosphorescent coating? Hmmm, I’m pretty sure that the modern stuff uses magnetic trace ink, like printed checks do, but I’m not gonna rule it out.
However, now, they as much as possible throw everything thru an optical scanner first.
They don’t care so much at this stage if it’s got the correct postage, or a scannable address, correctly formatted.
That’s number one. A lot of papers gotta move, and fast.
They’ll make sure they collect the correct amount later.
If after a certain number of tries, that particular envelope is diverted for human handling.
It is at this step that a human determines the fate of the letter.
More or less correct, but the first number is expected to be zero.
The humans don’t really determine the fate, they just follow the regulations for the correct transmission, and delivery, to you.
No problem. You paid in advance when you purchased the postage.
But you know, fate is funny. As long as you don’t try to cheat too much, or too often, you might get cut some slack.
Make it amusing though, I’ve already seen all the others, and it’s my job to collect.
I’ll laugh, but you’ll still have to pay anyway. (If it’s a really good example, it’ll get passed around the office to the amusement of manny. There’s no higher postal honor than that!) {seriously, and make sure to send some of those really cool spring break ones; there’s nothing like sneering at your friends, ‘wish you were here’, or, ‘eat your hearts out! suckers!’
Only 20 cents to mail, a bargain.}
That is how the USPS knew (became aware) of one’s defrauding the postal service by switching “to:” and “from;” and omitting proper postage.
Well, actually,
You’ve seen (my comments) above.
At the lowly worker level, pretty easy to spot an envelope with no postage, don’t you think? Everything else in the freakin’ place has a stamp on it! Why not this?
And how cute, it has ‘returned for postage’ inked in the corner.
Hey look! It’s wierd bobs return address. Where’s he sending it to?
Whadda? No stamp?
Wierd bob was a pretty cool dude, so ya’ know what I did? I put a stamp on it for him, and told him later i’d covered his ass.
But don’t do it again? OK?
Ha! And they thought we couldn’t see thru that scheme!
(BZ is of course joking/partially telling the truth, and or, speculating.
That’s my disclaimer, and I’m stucking too it.)
I heard that it’s illegal in Great Britain to place a stamp upside-down on an envelope if the Queen is depicted on it?
British SDMBers: is this true?