Thank you! That makes me feel a little better. And stay safe out there!

WildChild, I had to go to an Army mail handlers course because one of my many duties is company mail orderly. We got training from regular post office mail people. Tampering with mail is a big deal and they let us know how serious it was. If you get caught stealing or opening mail you go to prison. To steal a line from Office Space "you go to federal pound me in the @$$ prison" so I wouldn't worry about your mail person stealing your mail.

Ryco11757 wrote:If you used valid addresses, and provided a SASE.

I did.

And thanks for the helpful advice, you guys! I guess I just need to learn to be a little more patient.

More than 2 weeks can be considered a dry spell if you often get something a couple of times a week. Of course, you would like an autograph everyday but the key is to be patient.
If you used valid addresses, and provided a SASE. I wouldnt worry

Just be patient I guess... recently I tried obtaining an autograph through a website of Michael Muhney, an assistant e-mailed me back to tell me I had to send a SASE...

Since I'm not allowed to send big enveloped with SASE's from my parents, I asked if it was ok for me to send 5 euros with my letter.
It was ok, so I wrote my letter, put in my 5 euros and send it on its way...

Time passed, nothing came back and I got worried a bit... I e-mailed the assistant and got an instant reply... the reply was strange within it self because she informed me of something I never heard of before.
Every mail that comes in for Michael Muhney is in shipments, it isn't letter per letter, once every 2 or 3 months they'll receive the whole amount at once, and then they'll be answered, and send back to the fans... So I guess thats why some of them can take longer then normal ..??

(ok sorry if this sounded a bit newbie-ish I'm haven't been collecting autographs ttm that long, but I guess my point is be patient)

I wouldn't worry. This happened to me too practically all summer. I sent out about 50 requests and got like, 14 back. It's just the luck of the draw. We no longer have control over our request once it's sent out. Who knows who handles it when it gets to its destination, IF it even gets to its destination with all the mail that gets lost in transit, etc. I'd say its just a coincidence that you haven't been getting any letters back.
Considering it seems to happen to so many of us, I don't think ALL of our mailmen are stealing!

My mailman knows I bet autographs through the mail. He used to keep bending the 8x10s in half so one day I told him that they were signed pics and appreciated if he would not bend them. Since then every now and then one gets bent for the most part they arrive intact. But yeah I get worried since now he knows what they are, and hopefully he won't steal them. It's alot of hard work, time and money involved in this hobby and would hate to think that my mailman is ripping me off, though it has crossed my mind before, especially since I told him what I was doing, Right now about 80 requests out and about 10 of them are record LPs to be signed. And some of those records are quite expensive but as with this hobby you have to be willing to risk everything to be rewarded.

Ah,that's right. Sorry if I mis-represented your story mate.

Yes my stuff was being stolen, however it was baseballs; an item that is very easy to identify. Being stolen by a kid who was part time and knew what I was doing because he worked in the post office sorting packages, so he saw me there daily and knew what I was doing. Even so, it's a VERY RARE occurance. And if it were 2.5 weeks I would NEVER even think twice about it.

I have 268 letter out from July 17th to September 30th, and in the past 2 weeks I've only gotten back 3. Is it theft, the autograph monster, international conspiracy to steal chriscollectors stuff? Not likely to be any of those things, most likely just a dry spell.

As I said, not trying to be a jerk; but enough is enough. There is absolutely no need for a thread asking where my replies are. And if there is, just read one of the thousand already on here. Every single one gets the same exact replies from the same exact people. Why would someone in England know where your mail in the USA is? Why would someone in California know where someone who lives on the east Coast, mail is at? It's just plain silly. If I have a problem with something on Fanmail.biz would I call the USPS to ask why it's happening????????? It dosen't make sense!!!!

Let me guess: "If I don't like it then don't bother reading my thread. Just skip over it". Right? NO!!!!!!!!!!! These nonsense threads push down other threads of actual relevance. You know........threads about actual autograph topics.

Jaffer wrote:The main way to know is when people write the celebs name o the SASE in the return address. I don't think it happens very often at all, but it does happen. A member on here recently recounted a story about it in fact.

I always write 'SAME' in the upper left-hand corner of the return envelope - never the person's name, for obvious reasons.