A First Class Mail Greeting Card For 28 Cents?!

I suppose this happens a lot, but I found it interesting that in today's mail a family member received an oversized greeting card (7-7/8" W x 5-3/4" H) as per the scan below (address info. deleted for privacy).

Anyway, you will note that the sender placed a 28-cent polar bear coil stamp on it, and it went through the mails and the cancellation equipment without any question whatsoever as it being 16 cents under the required first class postage for such an item. No postage due. No underpaid postal markings. No mention of it by a postal carrier. Just landed in our mailbox as if the correct postage was used.



I wonder how many of these slip through and how much revenue the US Postal Service is losing by not paying attention to these pieces? I think it was mentioned in another thread that the USPS doesn't deal with these isolated pieces all that much, as the labor cost to request any postage due would exceed the value of just delivering the piece as if the correct postage was used.

On the other hand, just remember sometimes we receive overpaid mail. Often times I see one oz. envelopes with two first class stamps. People think the envelopes are heavier and do not want to go to the PO and just apply two stamps. I don't bother keeping them. Perhaps I should and make them a collectible.

Not that it's a "collectible", just a curious thing that the post office didn't have reason to question the underpayment of postage. Overpayments are made all the time (especially by us stamp collectors who will put more than one stamp on a cover for a special postmark.

It just seems to me that the "underpayments" if not spit out by the USPS sorting equipment, means that a lot of folks can get away with underpaying for postage. I've never done it, but I've been tempted to send some mail to myself with all kinds of underpayment postage on it, and see if it gets delivered or not. With all of the recently issued stamps for the new postcard rate, second ounce rate, etc., it would be a curious exercise to see what may or may not go through the system.

Don't even need to be a stamp to trigger the canceler.

I've seen that one happen before. After seeing these examples, maybe with a little more diligence, the USPS wouldn't be in such a financial crisis.

Self-inflicting injury seems to be a favorite pastime of the USPS. I received this yesterday.



The contents weighed over 2 ounces so they were correct in flagging that the postage was insufficient but they forgot to indicate how much was due so my letter carrier just left it in the box with the rest of the day's mail.

I also find it interesting that the ink from the handstamp didn't appear to adhere to the Celebrate stamp.


On a positive note, the difficulty associated with removing used but uncancelled self-adhesive stamps has probably put a damper on glue stick usage.

I decided to try one isolated example and here's the result. I got the cover delivered to me in one business day with payment by an old non-denominated 34-cent postage stamp ... no special markings or questions asked, even though the cover was underpaid by 10 cents.



One curious thing is that I know from experience that the mailbox where I sent the cover would have normally received a cancellation from the Brockton, MA postal facility, however, in this case you'll note it went through Boston. Possibly the underpayment resulted in the cover being redirected before delivery. No delay on my part as the recipient, though.