USPS Only Cancelling About Half Of The Stamps On Incoming Mail. Why?

Indeed, people do reuse uncanceled stamps. This abuse includes both regular stamps and "precancel" stamps. These are examples from 2022. One cover confused the postal machines, causing the envelope to receive two postmarks, though neither in the correct location, yet it was still delivered.


Back to this thread's original questions:

1) Does anyone know why this (lack of cancellation) happens? I think a variety of reasons have been stated above, including imperfection of the fast-paced processing system.

2) How do folks handle the uncanelled-but-used stamps in their collection? I personally prefer a light cancellation on my collection's regular stamps, as that demonstrates that the stamp is indeed postally used. However, for "precancel" stamps, I prefer no cancellation as that is how they were intended to be utilized. Each person probably collects to his or her preference.

Callen,
Your father is correct. I have been reusing uncancelled stamps for over 30 years and have never had mail returned to me. In fact, I did this a few weeks ago when a bill returned as undeliverable. The stamp was uncancelled and I cut it off and glued it onto another envelope. It went through even though the envelopes were different colors.

My theory is this. There are uncancelled stamps and unused stamps and the post office can't tell one from the other. Say I start to use a stamp on an envelope but decide not to send it. The stamp is unused and still good. Since stamps never expire I have the rest of my life to use it. I can legally cut it off and stick it on another envelope. Since the USPS can't prove that I didn't originally buy the stamp unused they have to accept it.

Sorry, your "theory" is not legal, whether you slip a stamp through or not. Take a good look at the quotes in Don's post on page 5 of this thread:
https://goscf.com/t/80479&whichpage=5

I see reusing uncanceled stamps as being no different than using counterfeit stamps. It is intended to cheat the postal service and effects rate increase decisions to some degree. Eventually everyone pays.

Reusing stamps is the same as stealing a loose candy from the bin at the grocery store. Nobody gets hurt and not everybody does it. It's really not a big deal

Well, somebody gets hurt, which is the person who uses the postal system - all of these little pieces of dishonesty add up. ***Removed by Mod, no longer applicable with other removed posts***

I looked at my stack of ( more recent ) mail, and yes there are many stamps the USPS does not cancel.
Most noticeable are non-profit & presort mail. Some organizations who are utilizing significantly discounted postage rates, sometimes use "make-up" stamps as their primary postage - which are not canceled.
There is also the occasional cancelation marks that do not hit the stamp, but those seem to be very uncommon now-a-days.
.

Precanceled stamps do not need to be canceled (again). That is why the USPS does not cancel them!


Peter