Fed Up With Pen Cancellations!

What's wrong with letter carriers these days???
I know this peeve has been brought up before here..but why?..why?...if the stamps on an envelope have been properly cancelled then why the extra embellishment with a ballpoint or marker pen???
Maybe an issue the UPU can address?

That sucks! Woodstock, IL? Post Road Co.?

Possibly not the letter carrier, more likely the sorter at base.

Perhaps a signal of the decline in civility today.
Someone passing on their anger, or frustration.......

It is good for reflection, on perhaps how we all should choose our words /actions carefully, when we interact.

Also was there some additional stamps missing? $1.26 doesn't make sense for the current rates. 1oz and 2oz letters can be mailed at $1.15 and if they added the non-machineable surcharge (21 cents) for something rigid it would be $1.36. Is there 10 cents worth of stamps not seen? Otherwise the rate is kinda messed up and might have caused a worker along the line to take a second look.

Battlestamps....you get a cigar for guessing the Post Road Co. as the origin of sender.
The individual with the pen also gets a cigar...the exploding kind!

I figured that there was only one stamp dealer in that town and I've also been friends with them for over 30 years.

I AM A CIVIL PERSON!!!! #&*@.

The "Prevent Drug Abuse" stamp illustrates another peeve of mine. I don't know how many times I've seen stamps mangled by the post office machinery like this. Grrrr....

Whilst I use old stamps for posting things, I try to make life easy for the Post Office by using a small number of stamps whose total value can easily be calculated. If you plaster envelopes with large numbers of stamps with small denominations, you risk annoying those who have to waste time dealing with them,

GeoffHa..i would also prefer fewer stamps plastered on the mailing. Once the same dealer had affixed 17 stamps to the envelope which did not make the sorter at Canada Post happy...so it was sent off to be hand sorted which resulted in a delay of delivery of over 10 days. If a dealer wants to share his inventory of lower denomination stamps..toss them in the envelope and not use them for postage.

I'm going to have to have a talk with Aaron. He already knows about the pen cancel. 17 stamps is excessive and I can see how it can cause problems. Using one or just a few older denomination stamps should be fine and it also solves another issue - the lack of low value stamps at many post offices. It can be extremely difficult to find stamps less than the Forever (50 cent) stamps. Even the 21c. and 35c. (postcard rate) stamps are frequently out of stock. Anything 10 cents or less is really tough and the 4 cent stamps are practically non-existent. I had to recently buy some sheets of 1c. through 4c. stamps from a dealer because of the lack of stamps at the post office. High value stamps are also a pain too at some places. Usually anything over the $1.15 stamp is hard to find since the USPSP prefers meters. Unfortunately, there's one stamp that cover the international rates above the 1oz. rate so one has to have a certain amount of hodgepodge of stamps on the cover.

Battlestamps...thanks for offering to talk with Aaron but I already mentioned it to him and requested that he limit the number of stamps affixed to an envelope. If I am already paying a shipping fee why should the dealer just use stamps that are convenient
to use up...as much as I appreciate seeing some older issues if it impedes the delivery system to Canada...i rather see a few stamps. I am very happy with my transactions with the Post Road Company and hope Aaron understands in my case the fewer stamps used..the better. To be perfectly clear my post was about the needless vandalism of already cancelled stamps and not any issue I have with a stamp dealer.
ps...if some stamps are scarce..why not just use metered postage....in some of my mailings to Europe I will use meter over an assortment of colourful Canada issues to discourage any damage or theft.

I'm still going to give Aaron some grief, but in jest and more so for the weird rate of $1.26. I know you don't have any issues with any stamp dealer with the pen cancel issues - it's a postal services one. I've been friends with Aaron since we were in middle school and boy scouts. It's just friendly ribbing and I need to call him anyway. Actually, if you ever need an expert in U.S. Postal Stationery, his father Porter Venn is one to ask. You can find him through the UPSS.

As for meters, lots of buyers don't want it. To do it in large volumes at the post office would be dreadfully slow. A personal meter machine would work like stamps.com, but a lot of dealers still prefer older postage is they are only paying 35% to 80% of face. I prefer using the newer stamps from the post office when I can as it supports my local post office offices during this long period of cut backs and closures, many buyers also like the newer issues as they are hard to find used, and frankly I find placing stamps on the envelopes for shipment enjoyable. It makes for a nice presentation and the feedback I've received confirms it. I've only started using some older postage out of desperation as noted above.

If the sender asks the postal clerk also to hand stamp the stamps so the postmarks the left most stamp and also the bottom stamps are half on the envelope and half on the stamp it will better protect them from being penned as it is easy for the postal worker to notice during their quick glance at it.

The primary purpose of USPS workers canceling stamps isn't to cater to stamp collectors, as much as we would like it to be. The point is to prevent reuse of the stamps, and whether that's via machine cancels, handstamps, magic marker, pen, or crayon, it gets the job done.

If you want your stamps canceled prettily, then take them to the counter and request they be handstamped in your presence.

If you don't want to wait in line for it, then it's on you. Complaining that the postal workers are doing the job they are supposed to be doing is misdirected.

Remember, the percentage of letter/parcel mail that actually uses stamps rather than meters/labels is tiny compared to 10-20 years ago. I've encountered postal clerks that wonder why I use stamps on larger letters and parcels at all. And heaven forbid you put a nondenominated non-forever stamp on a parcel (A, B, C, D, etc.). They are completely flummoxed by them.

Stamps just aren't used in any major volume any more, so workers don't have any context or connection to the aesthetics of the stamp or the cancel.

We collectors are relics from a bygone era, and postal workers' primary duty isn't to cater to our fastidious whims.

If it's that important to you, than request the seller/shipper get them hand canceled, but don't be surprised if sellers, especially larger-volume sellers, balk at this.

rev: I understand your arguments, except this shipment was indeed hand-canceled by a clerk and the pen cancels were added later on by another one - U.S. or Canadian.