Does Anyone Have A Mailer's Postmark Permit?

Here's another old timer from out there ... Cyrus, Massachusetts:



Regardless of whether it's Cyrus or Rowe or Zoar or East Charlemont, I suspect the USPS would take a dim view of reviving the name of a discontinued post office for the purpose of a Mailer's Postmark Permit.

Of course, I'm no expert on the subject, but I suspect that the USPS would have to abide by strict rules on the subject. Of course, there may be a way to incorporate one or more of those names into the MPP design, but the main postmark would have to clearly read the post office name where the mail would be taken for entry into the mailstream.

There seems to be a lot of mis-information on this post.
First, yes I have a MPP, first and last one to be issued at my PO.



I received this MPP in 2004. Was fun to use, but haven't been innundated by requests for it. Probably less than 50 total of these out there.

The MPP can be gotten at your local PO(or any other postoffice that has them - They all must do so if requested, it's in the postal manual). You can only get one pattern per permit, as the pattern must be put on the application, which kind of makes it perminent in the PO records.

I thought of others at different PO's, but decided not to do so, as, yes you do have to hand the cover to the postal clerk at the PO of your device, with the current date (you hand it to him) on the cancel and driving all over would defeat the fun of it.

I do not understand how this (filling out paperwork) can inconvience you. If you want to do something different, then you gotta do a little extra work. I hear the same whine about not getting a Precancel Use Permit at you PO. It is just a matter of filling out a form (no money needed) and doing what they tell you.

The MPPC is a good group, never have been a member but know a lot of folks that belong.

A new problem that surfaced since I got the device, is that the mail sorting centers run your cancelled envelope through the spray-on cancel and destroy the purpose of the thing. Very annoying. The solution is to cancel on a separate cover and enclose it within a mailing envelope. This does not get the spray Router ID on your cover, but, since the stamp is cancelled by you, it would likely count as a real postmark, similar to when you take a letter into a PO for a local PO Box delivery. The PM just hand cancels it and drops it in the box, no spray ID router on that either.

Anyway, if any questions, ask...

TOME, NM - I can see why you get requests for that!

Thank you for offering to answer questions! You mentioned that there's a lot of misinformation in this thread, but I'm not sure from reading your post what we've gotten wrong.

Can you clarify something for me? Your post says that the cancel pattern has to be "put on the application" - I assume that means after you purchase your rubber stamp, you have to provide a sample to the PO to add to your application, which would happen after you've received your permit number??

The inconvenience I was speaking of earlier was having to deliver the mailings in person at the PO. In my later post, I was referring not only to filling out the application (which, frankly, would be an inconvenience for me, but that's neither here nor there) but also to getting approval for the cancellation design and the possibility of dealing with less-than-helpful PO personnel. (Just because someone is required to do something doesn't mean they won't be a pain about it.)

ETA: I think I read something on the mppclub site about requesting that the mail you present at the PO be placed with the registered mail to possibly avoid having the pieces overcancelled by the spray-ons. (Which made me wonder if I could ask them to do that with the postcards etc. I bring in to have hand cancelled. That sprayed-over cancellation junk is annoying!)

Two questions for those familiar with the MPP:

1. Do you have to be a resident of the community where you seeking a MPP? In other words, if my local post office is inconvenient to get to, is there anything to stop me from getting a MPP through a neighboring town's post office? Or is there a residency requirement?

2. If a community has more than one post office, does the MPP extend to presenting the items to only one branch of that post office or could one use any or all of the post offices in that town?

WT1-

1- No, according to the website you simply need to mail the items at that post office, it doesn't matter if you live in the town or not (so if I wanted to mail lots of stuff in say Scotia, New York or Mempis, Tennesee when visiting relatives I could get a MPP for those cities and use it there, but I don't have to be a resident.)

ZULU: You fill out the form, a number is assigned, you send off and get a cancel device, and return to the PO , give them a sample on the form, and you are in business.
I guess if you live in a larger town, there is some (more) inconvience of getting the mail to the clerk. In small towns, the problem doesn't exist, other than maybe a few minutes wait.
My PM tried putting the letter into a different stack (Registered). Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't. With the newer "mail volume" counting that the sorting center, they run pretty much everything through.
My cancel date stamp ran out (they only put a 10 year date choice), so I had to take the date info out and purchase a new date rubber stamp (Still cheaper than getting a totally new divice).
I collected all of the PO postmarks from New Mexico and California via mail in requests. I always put in a SASE to cover the cost of returning the items to me. I also requested they hand cancel the return envelope. Every now and then they came thru clear (no spray). It is just a matter of how you want to play the game. I had 2 postal cards and 2 prestamped postal stationery enevelopes hand cancelled. Glad I did it before they cut back all the PO's.

WT1: (1)As far as I remember, you do NOT need to be a resident of the community you get the permit at any PO. Just be nice to the postal people and most of them are friendly enough to help you out. If I ever had any problems, a call to the postmaster at that PO generally fixed it. If not satisfied I sent a follow up letter to the District manager (Did this many times when some clerk said he wouldn't precancel stamps for me because I wasn't a bulk mailer (read the blasted postal manual).
(2) No, you have to take the device to issuing PO to mail.

Hope that answers some of your questions.

Thank you, PoStat4evR!

Our population is just under 50,000, and we do have a main PO as well as a "satellite" (not exactly sure of the actual term they use). The main PO is a few blocks from my office, but I can usually only stop in over my lunch hour. I work until 5, and that's when they close. I don't think there's ever been less than 2 people in line whenever I've gone in.

Thanks for the additional information.

I imagine it would just depend on the local postmaster and what they will allow. I actually have an MPP that reads "Highland, UT" although there is no post office in Highland. We're served by the "American Fork, UT" post office. Both cities share the same zip code.

Matt

Thanks for jumping in, Matt. "American Fork" is a pretty cool name, though... ;)

While looking up the subject I came across this

http://www.sossi.org/postmark/mpermit.htm

Seems someone was allowed to run s slogan postmark for an MPP

**Added Note: USPS now only recognizes the two official forms for MPP postmark

Wow, vacuum man, I wonder if that was something that wasn't really supposed to have been approved but slipped through. It does say it was only allowed for a short time. Very cool, though.

Vacuum Man-

So I can't get one that looks like this?



And thus ends my quest for a permit, then..

New12, I guess anything is possible if the postmaster at your post office accepts the format. I was just going off off the MPPC website.

http://www.mppclub.org/WhatIs.htm.

I was sort of researching the use of the postmark to pre cancel the mailings coming from our church. So the mailing did not have to spend the extra day or so traveling to the regional facility before coming back to our Post Office before being delivered.

Here's an update for this thread. I stopped at the main (downtown) post office this afternoon with my PS Form 3615 Mailing Permit Application and the Procedure and FAQ recommended by the MPP Club.

I spoke with a supervisor who was very helpful but hadn't ever seen the application before. She made a couple of calls and told me that she had to leave a message with someone and would call me when she heard back. She actually called me within 15 minutes and said that with my type of application, I needed to go to the processing plant (which is clear on the other side of town).

Luckily I was able to get the name and number of the person I supposedly needed to talk to at the plant, and I left a message for her. This person also called me back fairly quickly, and I explained to her that I wanted to check with her about the application before I drove clear the heck out there. :P

I've e-mailed copies of my application and the FAQ to her and further explained that I would prefer to have the permit issued from the downtown PO since I will have to present any cancelled mail to a window clerk. (And the processing plant is not even open to the public.)

So at this point, I'm just waiting to hear back.