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Postal Buddy

February 10, 2025 05:50PM
It has been about a year since I have mailed to a buddy. But there are many shops in my area that are now paying $10 for the shop.
I would like to find someone in Florida since the cost to mail would probably be less than the $15 reimbursement.
Feel free to PM me if interested.
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February 10, 2025 08:56PM
Why not just mail them to yourself?? I do that all the time and hit a route when the fees go up.
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February 11, 2025 01:58PM
I do mail them to myself from the surrounding towns. But in the town I live in there are lots of USPS that I cannot mail to myself.
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February 11, 2025 03:18PM
@Insight wrote:

I do mail them to myself from the surrounding towns. But in the town I live in there are lots of USPS that I cannot mail to myself.
Can you not find a church food pantry in a different part of the state? You could send cans of tuna fish or jars of peanut butter to them.
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February 12, 2025 03:56AM
For those of you who mail to yourselves--what return address do you use?
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February 12, 2025 04:01AM
Rho,

I don't do these shops, but previously I looked on realtor.com and found an empty house for sale in the post office's zip code. And put my name or my son's name with my address on the package. I also had a few good shipping buddies, and I kinda miss sending stuff back and forth. But I'm not willing to take a pay cut to do these shops. So I sent my last package of boxes back for a refund when they changed MSC.
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February 12, 2025 04:03PM
I had someone phone me last week to schedule these shops. They even suggested I mail something to myself. In the instructions, it's permitted to cover the sender's street address as long as you leave the zipcode exposed when you take the picture. Perhaps you could use the suggestion to find an empty house. Also, the hazmat shops have a good chance that the package won't be accepted. Gives me a chance to purchase packing tape or stamps instead.
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February 13, 2025 01:45AM
You might make sure those shops are actually available. They have a bunch of locations listed on ISS with a bonus, they they aren't actually available due to rotation. The MSC doesn't seem to know how to use ISS very well. Just pick one and try to pick a date on the calendar and it will show you if its actually available.
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February 13, 2025 01:29PM
FYI the company that does these shops now do not pay for the box if you have to buy one. I usually just mail a box to myself and with the beginning payment of 5 dollars and the cost of a box is 1.08. I will not accept these jobs. I know no one is making me take them but to me it is an insult.
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February 13, 2025 06:14PM
I do not understand the value added of mailing a box to yourself. The only way I will pick one of these up is if it benefits me in some way (I need to mail a package) AND a location that makes sense for me to travel to is available. The reimbusement offsets a price that I would pay otherwise. Please help me understand the thought process behind this. I have never seen any bonused over $15 (and the $15 was once). The most they get up to in my are is $8 shop pay.
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February 13, 2025 11:33PM
When they were bonused or fair priced with the other MSC, I would mail to myself when I did not want to buy anything to send and keep the OOP cost at the 60¢ for the shipping box from Walmart. Otherwise, if I had something to mail to family, I always would. Since I had way too many cans of beans from LIDL shops, I would send to the food pantry. I still have a few hundred cans of those various beans, but will not touch those cheap shops these days. I am working the cans into the dog food bowls, making hummus and other bean dips and soups. Now, the new potatoes and stewed tomato cans are taking over, from the current LIDL shops, not to mention the heads of cabbage I am giving to friends.
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February 14, 2025 12:03AM
I make one up or put one of my children's address
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February 14, 2025 12:23AM
I only do them if I have other things to do in the area and it is just a filler job.
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February 14, 2025 03:03AM
purpleicee--the LIDL cans you have sound like the start of a chili recipe add corn, spices, and cheese or ground beef!
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February 14, 2025 06:44AM
gigi, exactly why I won't do them with the current MSC. Previously I would wait until they paid $30 or more, then I would grab all I could that were North of the really big city South of me. I sent some boxes to my mailing partners and I sent some boxes home. Spread them out so no one gets suspicious.

I used the addresses of empty homes for sale in the zip code of the post office I was sending the packages from for ALL of the boxes I sent, unless I was sending from my local post office. I used a name I had planned to give my daughter, but I was never blessed with a daughter, for the return address on the ones that I sent back home, and about half of the boxes I sent back to my house had my son's name on them as the recipient.
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February 14, 2025 07:12AM
@Morledzep - What were you putting inside the boxes sent to the empty homes? I wonder if someone was running over there and grabbing those boxes.
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February 14, 2025 01:01PM
I use a friend's address as the return address and I stuff the packages with old brochures, catalogs, Chase Bank paperwork and when out of the above, a book or doggie treats.

*****************************************************************************
The more I learn about people...the more I like my dog..

Mark Twain
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February 14, 2025 02:22PM
I often use a free usps box and over wrap it with brown paper. I know it’s the right size.
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February 14, 2025 04:27PM
I keep a few Amazon boxes of appropriate size around and just invert them, they're fully blank on the inside. And, kids in college need care packages so they get the shipments I send occasionally.

But it's not enough $ to invent occasions to ship and I tell them that every opportunity I get. They beg and beg and I say pay me *fairly* and I will do it!
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February 15, 2025 06:13AM
Purple,

Nothing ever was addressed to the empty houses. I used the empty homes for sale as a return address, the boxes were addressed to my home. I sent 15 0z cans of beets or green beans, or 1 lb. bags of dried beans that my son found dumpster diving.

Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/15/2025 06:17AM by Morledzep.
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February 16, 2025 04:54PM
For lightly marked re usable boxes I cover the markings with brown tape that matches the box color. In my last Hazmat shop the post office was out of stamps, tape, you name it. The clerk said she would check the back to see if they had any of the brown tape left for sale if that was ok with me. It was a surprise to me that they sell brown tape as well. But alas they were out of that too.
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February 17, 2025 03:37AM
Sandyf if the markings are not all over the box I cut up brown paper bags and Elmer glue them over the markings.
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February 17, 2025 11:18PM
I haven't done any of these for awhile but I used to do routes of postal shops years ago. I had boxes with a book or something inside. I would wrap them and mail them to a sister and collect them back from her when I saw her. Then I put new wrap on them and send them out again. I still have two of those boxes floating around here somewhere. Or I'd mail them to myself from someone else's address so I didn't have to collect them.
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