there is a easy way to know if your mailman or a sorter is stealing your mail and well worth the effort for the peace of mind. You just send a envelope that looks like your usual autograph envelopes and put your address as the return as well and you can even do a little extra to make it more tempting like write photo do not bend and then you got to a diff city or town and mail it and see if it shows up. I have done this 2 times in the past 2 months and both times it showed up so think odds are if someone was stealing some of my autos at least one of the 2 would have been takin and i did get them. I even put a letter inside to the thief reminding them that what they were doing was a federal crime and they were going to get caught but like i said i got both back but its a really good test and only costs the postage one way and worth it for the peace of mind.

I wonder this sometimes too. Sometimes my envelopes ate rather showy..(like my jeopardy one from Alex Trebeck). I wonder what the mail carrier thinks haha.

I've had this feeling sometimes too (particularly when I've had a good week of successes followed by nothing for days). Two of my envelopes showed up this week, so it's probably just paranoia.

My autographs are easy to pick out, though, because I always put my address in the return spot.

Still, glad to hear I'm not the only one...my gf has got on my case about this before

Not to fuel your paranoia, but we just had a neighbor stop by with a package for us. The mail man delivered it to them, and thier house numbers are not even close to ours. Plus it was a priority mail box WITH delivery confirmation.

So I wouldn't think your postman is stealing aything but your neighbors might have one heck of an autograph collection.

See those are my feelings as well. I just get that temptation to open my neighbors box but whatever. Hopefully I am indeed just being paranoid.

Postal workers have made the news before for stealing mail. The guy who pinched 2220 Game Fly video game returns and the other postal worker who snagged over 3000 Netflix movies while on the job.

I once bought an autographed book from baseball great Milt Pappas. The envelope arrived ripped open and re-taped. Inside was (and I am not joking) a copy of the USPS workers rules and regulations hand book. I filed a claim and actually had a postal inspector take pictures of and collect my "evidence". Months later they contacted me to say they found the culprit who was, as in now fired, postal worker in the sorting area at the San Francisco hub.USPS never gave me back the book or offered to pay for it but Milt Pappas was super cool and sent me a replacement free of charge when I told him what happened.

So not to get anyone paranoid, but it can and has happened. I am not worried about it and still collect TTM. What DOES concern me is the number of times our slow witted mailman delivers our mail to the neighbors and vice versa.

That's good to know.

Actually most mail never touches human hands from the time it goes from the mailperson picking it up to the mailperson delivering it (If you know how to address a envelope right).

Edit: That does not include the people who have to pick up the boxes of mail and stuff like that to move it.

I always think this too,we are probably paranoid but i less think its the mailman and more think its the sorters at the post office ,lol Cant trust anyone!!!

I thought that, they don't. Why would they risk their job? If they really wanted a autograph they could

a. copy the return address
b. if there in no return address ask you how to start collecting.

Mailpeople have great jobs, mail fraud is serious crime and I doubt they want to be convicted of that.