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I sent a ball and pen along with a SASE (bubble mailer) and long LOR. Today, about a week later, I received my ball back unsigned, in my SASE with all of my postage uncancelled and a stamp that says "POSTAGE DUE (21 cents)". All of which I understand, this was my first ball and came up one stamp short on my envelope, but why would I get the ball back, and why are my stamps uncancelled? Odd. If anybody can help, thanks.

I think you got the ball back because even though he wouldn't sign the ball he still returned it to you instead of keeping it.

To try and answer your questions..

As for the ball, he didn't sign it because he charges for his autograph. I sent a photo about a year ago to his home and it came back signed about a month later, so I decided to try my luck about 2 months ago (his wife passed away as it was in the mail) and it was returned with a pricelist. I tried it a month later and I received another price list from his home. As of late, thats what everyone is getting back is the pricelist. They want $100 for a signed photo.

As for the stamps not being cancelled, consider it a gift. If the post office doesn't cancel them you can reuse them. I send out lots of 8x10's and on average 1-2 times a week I get my photos back signed, and the stamps aren't canceled, so I cut around them and then tape them to another envelope for the next time I send a photo out. Its free postage. Here is a trick though so you can do this... when you put the stamps on the envelope for the first time, put them in a straight line and make sure the groves on the stamps interlock. It makes for a much cleaner cut and it wont get noticed as easily. My post office as of late tries to draw a line through the stamps so I can't reuse them, that is if they notice it but they sure miss alot of them. LOL.

As for the "postage due" its probably a mistake. I always have the exact same things in my envelope when I send them out, so I know what the postage is for it, but a few months ago I received a "postage due" on one of mine for 21 cents as well, so I took it to the post office and they weighed it and it was ok. I knew it was ok since its the same thing as the other 100 times. Someone somewhere just made a mistake, or maybe something was leaning against the scale to throw it off. Who knows. Hope this helps answers some of your questions...

chadallen985 wrote:To try and answer your questions..

. If the post office doesn't cancel them you can reuse them.

Don't listen to that advice.

Reusing stamps that were not canceled is a FEDERAL CRIME in which you can be fined lots of money and go to jail!!!

Title 18, Section 471and 1720 of the Postal Code of the United States states... it is illegal to "Reuse a postage stamp whether cancelled or not". It is also a crime to attempt to remove cancellation marks from postage stamps

Well thats funny because I have probably used 50-60 sets of $1.65 sets of stamps that were on previous envelopes and have had no issue with using them. How does the PO know if it wasnt on an envelope and then you made a mistake on the writing so you had to use a new envelope. As long as the stamp is not marked, it CAN be reused. I think as much mail as I get, 10-15 10x13 envelopes per week, the PO would have said something to me. Besides, I'm on here and not in jail, so it must not be a federal crime, because the PO knows what I do. Why would I get on here and say it can be done if I don't do it myself?