Ever wondered if your mail was lost or stolen?

[dancingirl1]

Well 90% of the requests that I sent (thus far) came back to me with a signed photo. So no I dont think this BUT if one doesnt come back I just say to myself that "they didnt passthe fanmail on or the celeb does sign VV" LOL! I do think that when I send someone to a home address like (Britney Spears or Zac Efron) I think that MAYBE young people may write the address down...LOL!!

[goswannies]

I go under the assumption that there's such a massive amount of mail that goes around that the odds that anyone would steal mine are slim to none.

My assumption is that there is such a massive amount of mail handled by the postal service that something is bound to get lost. Or delivered to the wrong address - I sometimes get other people's mail, so it happens.

I also don't put the celebs name on the return address, sometimes I put the initials, most of the time I leave it off altogether.

I actually put my own address on the back so that if it is "returned to sender" after the celeb has signed and mailed it off... it will still come back to me!

[goswannies]

When we moved, we never heard back from the buyers and they never forwarded any mail after the first month from moving (to my knowledge)

When I used to rent, each time I moved I would print out a bunch of sticky labels with my new address and "please forward to:" so that the new tenants could attach it to the envelope and would only have to go as far as the nearest mailbox to forward my letters to me. Also if I was renting, I woul often use my parent address as the address where I would have the autograph sent to (parents move less) and then they would forward the mail to me.

[johnnylightninglives]

I have thought this like every collector at some point...That someone at the post office is stealing them but i have got back about 6 in the past 3 weeks so probably not. A simple thing you can do to test if a postal worker is stealing your autographs is make a envelope just how your usual sase looks and write photo do not bend on it to so they know foresure its a photo and put a unsigned photo inside and go to a near by town or city not in your postal code area and mail it to yourself and wait and see if it comes. Its not as hard as it seems and i have done it 3 times over the past year and got all 3 so i guess in my case i was just being paranoid.Its a good test though and keeps the postal workers honest,you can even put a note inside if you want saying if you just opened this its a federal crime lol so if they are stealing it they know you know and will at least stop out of fear of losing their job.

[goswannies]

I buy things all the time on Ebay and online in general. Never had anything I bought get lost by the mail.

I've had 2 eBay items lost in the mail. Seller kindly refunded for the first one (including postage) - it was an out of print book, so they couldn't simply replace it. And the second one they resent 2 jumpers instead of the one I won the auction of ... and they paid for the postage. Things do get lost! But given how much mail they deal with and the fact that letters cost relatively little to mail, they do an ok job. Don't want to lose an item? Use registered mail!

[Trilobite]

I go under the assumption that there's such a massive amount of mail that goes around that the odds that anyone would steal mine are slim to none.

My assumption is that there is such a massive amount of mail handled by the postal service that something is bound to get lost. Or delivered to the wrong address - I sometimes get other people's mail, so it happens.

Yeah, mail will get lost or misdirected, delivered to a neighbor sometimes, but those things are unavoidable... no sense worrying about it happening. I was just suggesting that it's highly unlikely that the postman is out to steal autographs. Not a good risk to reward ratio. Opening people's mail will get the postal worker jail time, not just fired. I think there was a problem a few years ago with postal workers stealing government issued income tax checks but those can be for several thousands of dollars each. The risk/reward ratio is much better there. I could be wrong about that story though... my memory isn't so good anymore and it's far too late to google it right now...

I also don't put the celebs name on the return address, sometimes I put the initials, most of the time I leave it off altogether.

I actually put my own address on the back so that if it is "returned to sender" after the celeb has signed and mailed it off... it will still come back to me!

I might start doing this Have you had a situation yet where this has worked?

[goswannies]

I might start doing this Have you had a situation yet where this has worked?

Nope BUT the postal service rules are:

1) deliver letter
2) wrong address? -> RTS
3) if there is an address on the back send it to that address
4) IF NO ADDRESS ON THE BACK -> open letter and look for address inside.
5) no address? -> dead letter office

Just because it hasn't worked (as such) doesn't meant it won't work...just means mail has been correctly delivered, which is how I like it!

The very second is works I'll let you all know!

But to me, the logic is sound

[gghi18]

I might start doing this Have you had a situation yet where this has worked?

Nope BUT the postal service rules are:

1) deliver letter
2) wrong address? -> RTS
3) if there is an address on the back send it to that address
4) IF NO ADDRESS ON THE BACK -> open letter and look for address inside.
5) no address? -> dead letter office

Just because it hasn't worked (as such) doesn't meant it won't work...just means mail has been correctly delivered, which is how I like it!

The very second is works I'll let you all know!

But to me, the logic is sound

What is dead letter office? Is that a thing where if they can't make out hand writing on the envelope or theirs not return address, it just sits there until its claimed?

[goswannies]

5) no address? -> "dead letter office"

What is dead letter office? Is that a thing where if they can't make out hand writing on the envelope or theirs not return address, it just sits there until its claimed?

Yup. Sits there for a little while, then they destroy it. And I'm not sure how you are supposed to claim it if you didn't know you were getting the letter in the first place!

[JonAQ]

I purchase things from Ebay alot. Depending on how much mail my mailman has to deliver, he'll sometimes wait until he's finished with my street to bring my other packages. That always messes with me because I almost always have delivery confirmation, so I know when my items are supposed to be here, and then he just walks by my house. It drives me crazy sometimes lol. I've only had one thing go completely missing though. Thankfully it was only a $5 Twilight card and I ended up getting my money back.

And don't even get me started on my stuff being bent...Apparently my mailman thinks that no matter what size the envelope, if it doesn't say "PLEASE DO NOT BEND!" then it's okay to shove it in my small mail box. I've had a few things come in damaged..my picture from UFC Fighter Mark Hominick was completely folded in half. Also yesterday, I got back a Psych autograph, and the envelope had been completely opened. It was only hanging shut by a thin strand of the remaining adhesive. When I saw the envelope I got SO nervous, because I knew who it was from. Thankfully it was still in there though, and only a little bend up lol.