Cutting Apart USPS Priority Mail Supplies To Use For Packing

I buy a lot of mint sheets on ebay, and I don't remember the last time I received one that was not packed inside an unused Priority Mail flat-rate envelope, which was then placed inside a plain manilla envelope and mailed (more cheaply) as a First-Class Flat. Usually the envelopes have been sealed, had the flap cut off, and/or had one side slit open, rendering them unfit for reuse.

This really annoys me. Priority Mail shipping supplies are not free. They are property of the United States Postal Service, the costs of which are included in the price of Priority Mail service.

And this isn't a victimless crime, either. Whatever it costs to produce, print, and ship the envelopes — be it a nickel apiece, a quarter, whatever — gets distributed across the prices paid by people legitimately using the service when they're stolen. For every envelope cut apart, the cost of that envelope gets passed on to actual consumers. And I can't help but wonder how much of the recent massive rate hike in Priority Mail service can be attributed to this sort of theft.

Any rationalizations for this theft are just that: rationalizations. It doesn't matter that dealers are "supporting the stamp program" or have "paid thousands of dollars to the USPS already" or any other excuse they might muster. What they are doing is stealing and costing mailers money.

OK, rant over. What do you think?

We had a local retail stamp dealer who used the USPS shipping supplies to hold every sale they made! If I walked in a bought a single stamp he would put it into one the USPS cardboard mailers. Bigger purchases all went into USPS boxes. I thought this was lame, but I refrained from saying anything.

Obviously we all end up paying for this kind of behavior, I concur that there is no justification.
Don

It it OK to reuse used ones from such mailings for other mailings?

I suppose the obvious thing would be to stop giving the envelopes away. Does a free envelope really make all the difference to use or non-use of the post?

It annoys me, too. Cutting up *used* boxes and envelopes is no problem, but cutting up an unused one is tantamount to theft, in my opinion. I once had a seller (not in the stamps category) take a USPS Priority Mail box and literally turn it inside out and then tape it back up again so they could ship it via a cheaper method. I'd almost bet money the same person complains about the cost of mailing something and how wasteful and inefficient the USPS is.

I suppose the obvious thing would be to stop giving the envelopes away. Does a free envelope really make all the difference to use or non-use of the post? ~ GeoffHa

I've always assumed that it reduces processing cost (for this class of mailing) by standardizing dimensions, kind of like a (very) miniaturized version of an intermodal container.

A nominal cost wouldn't necessarily be a bad thing as it would likely cut back on waste by customers. In terms of use or non-use of the post, free boxes or envelopes may incent a customer to use the postal service instead of a competing carrier like UPS or FedEx, at least in some cases.

Or a 10¢ deposit, even, that is refunded when you mail.

It appears this has been discussed here before, at least once.

USPS got wise to this and now has printing on the inside of the boxes.
Don

As far as I can tell from the Domestic Mail Manual, the answer is "Yes, as long as it is used for the service printed on the envelope."

I once saw a picture of a coffee table made out of these boxes. It was surprisingly sturdy, I'm told.

As for any moral judgment, I will withhold my opinion except to ask, "Didn't the USPS expect this kind of behavior?"

Unfortunately, the world has changed. We used to be able to place a box of Halloween treats on the doorstep to spare us going to the door a million times. Children would take one treat and move on to the next home. Guess what happened the last year we tried this?

Are these really "free?" I get that if you use them the way the USPS intends for you to use them, you don't get charged. But I am surprised they do not stop people from taking them for their own use. At my local PO, some of the package materials and envelopes do cost the user something. I think it is the express or priority mail materials that are at issue here. It wouldn't be hard for the USPS to set a price for them, waived if they are used as intended. Hard, though, for me to get irritated at sellers who send me stuff using these as stiffeners if the USPS isn't actually doing anything about it.

my guess that nominal cost for supplies would not cover the accounting and labor costs to administer. I'm sure costs of manufacture are figured into mailing costs. Now if EVERYBODY did it, that would be a problem.

They are given away with the understanding and (I'm pretty sure) a legal obligation that they will be used only for their intended purpose. If you got some boxes and used them for storage in your house, for example, I believe you could actually be prosecuted or fined, etc. In reality, there isn't much of a way to police it and I doubt there would be many legal consequences unless the offense was egregious.



I'm sure that's correct. And do we really want to wait even longer in line at the post office, waiting for someone to pay 10 cents for an envelope or 50 cents for a box? In the grand scheme of things, it's probably not that big of a problem for the postal service, anyway. I'd guess that the number of boxes/envelopes taken for other than their intended puposes is pretty small, on a percentage basis.

UPS and FedEx both provide free boxes and supplies to their customers (at least the ones with accounts)