FDC Reused????

Very recently I received an item that I won on ebay that was mailed to me in a Canadian FDC envelope that was issued in 1977 with the original block of 4 25c stamps still on the cover. The only postage on the envelope were the stamps issued in 1977. The stamps/envelope had not been re-cancelled, surprisingly. All of the unaddressed FDCs in my collection were sent to me from CP in a larger envelope and other than having the day of issue stamped on the stamps the stamps/envelope were never actually used in a postal sense to deliver mail. Was/is this a legitimate use of these FDCs or did this envelope just slip through/by CP's ever watchful eye. Might this be a large untapped source of envelope/postage for anybody getting rid of their FDC collection?

Definitely not a legit use. Yes - slipped through. Yes - maybe a way of getting some face value out of an FDC.

Assuming that the FDC was previously cancelled on day of issue (which is what makes it an FDC), then it would be no different than sending a letter that was already cancelled through the mail.

I guess it would depend on the PO worker that saw it going through the system to pull it. They either never noticed or didn't bother.

The fact that it has no additional cancel is not surprising either, as the cancelling machines now use scanners and would not recognize a 1977 stamp.

Now, having said all that, I recently sold some items on ebay and since I happened to have some older Canadian cachet envelopes lying around from the 70's, (never used/no stamps attached), I used some of them to send my items.

I was curious as to what the recipient would think. It was perfectly legit, because I used the proper postage amount. What else to do with these?

Coincidentally, that isn't what you received is it? In my case, the stamps did not match the cachet and were NOT cancelled on day of issue.

3Dadeo it was a FDC.
It would be nice to get more opinions on this because the more I think about it the less clear it becomes. These unaddressed FDC envelopes were stamped/marked with a combination of first day of issue slogan and the date. They were then placed inside of a covering envelope and mailed to the customer. At no time have they been used to deliver mail. The FDI slogan and the date have almost become part of the design of the attached stamp(s).

Never thought about this until I received an addressed one in the mail. The key being that it passed through the postal system without being yanked out. It had more than the required postage of 85c. Was it allowed to continue on it's way because postal employees were not sure what to do with this envelope.

Interesting.....

Most likely a Postal employee never saw the item. Most all mail is sorted mechanically now. For instance; I have a "Mailer's Postmark Permit" that allows me to cancel my own postage with my own cancel. The rule is that you must hand the item to a clerk. However, My PM has told me to just drop it in the box. "It all goes to Portland in the same box" (I live in Oregon, btw). With that I have this by placing items in the outgoing slot at our mailbox cluster.
Fact of the matter is, No one pays attention to an item that is properly assembled. ie. addressed, with proper postage, and return address.
Not having any inside knowledg I can only imagine that when the "Machine" kicks out a letter due to non-recognition, the postal clerk makes sure it "Appears" to be correct.
Just my 2 cents though.

I had this same thing happen a couple months ago.