I'd love his email address. I've done some work with this myself. I'm a long time ebay seller and noticed that a certain size yellow bubble wrap container always gets lost. I've got a few - I started putting them in larger plastic bags to not lose them.

Also with the d/c - that's interesting. I've had several packages go into the Atlanta processing center never to be seen again - all media mail/heavier boxes of textbooks - WITH D/C.

I had some interesting experiences where I got everything right but the state abbreviation - IE I put the right zip, but MS instead of MI - those took a few weeks to get back to ME.

Every book I order from Canada comes with the package open and inspected. It makes me paranoid. lol

Also, I USED to know one of the senior developers that works on the sorting software. Interesting 'pillow' talk....

Now what I'd like to look at - more than rebates - is that goldkit.com. You might know the infomercial that THEY send you a kit out and you send your gold in. Last night I saw that, and started checking on reviews - and a lot of people MAIL their packages, and they GO MISSING. Why?

If you use metered mail - they won't scan in d/c at your drop off or pick up - I've watched d/c for years on my metered mail (indicia, stamps.com, and Paypal now - per indicia...)

Smearing D/C on a printer can be a real booger. It won't get scanned at all, or only at delivery.

Love to help out with the Gold kit one. I suspect it would be too easy to pray on people so disparate they'd sell their jewelry to a scraper through the mail that uses aggressive advertising.

skullaria wrote:
I'd love his email address. I've done some work with this myself.

Dude, its Cypherghost. You can msg him in memestreams!

I've also been meaning to watch this. I hear he mailed a sphere. :) I think I can take 45 minutes this morning....

One thing I forgot to mention in the presentation is that there is a "non-machinable" surcharge for unusual stuff. So, the post office gets compensated for dealing with my projects.

Also, a few goodies at http://www.alwaysusezipcode.com/ I'm way behind posting experiments. Maybe I'll get some up over the holiday...

Jello wrote:

PhreakNIC 0x0b presentation from CypherGhost on the funny rules surrounding what you can and can't ship via the USPS, as well as why some things take longer than others.

Totally amazing 'mail phreaking.'

I like the idea of making a D20 box, with postage and addresses on each side... and sending it out...

Could be a new way to "Win" a contest.

dc0de wrote:

Jello wrote:

PhreakNIC 0x0b presentation from CypherGhost on the funny rules surrounding what you can and can't ship via the USPS, as well as why some things take longer than others.

Totally amazing 'mail phreaking.'

I like the idea of making a D20 box, with postage and addresses on each side... and sending it out...

Could be a new way to "Win" a contest.

I once got burnt by a customer that gave me a 'confirmed' address that was actually WRONG - the zip code was not right, but the address was and the real zip and the fake one were both in the same city....but the post office routed the letter so that she got it and was able to confirm.

Consequently, she bought something FROM me - and I sent it to her CONFIRMED address - but of course the d/c was scanned in as delivered to a DIFFERENT zip code, hence it was NOT delivered to the confirmed address, and when she filed for non-receipt -which was an instant refund if not to a confirmed address - I was screwed.

I've sent out well over 3k packages and this was the ONE real scam that burned me up. This chick was doing this coming and going for a while.

Anyway, there's some more fodder to play with.

skullaria wrote:

I once got burnt by a customer that gave me a 'confirmed' address that was actually WRONG - the zip code was not right, but the address was and the real zip and the fake one were both in the same city....but the post office routed the letter so that she got it and was able to confirm.

Consequently, she bought something FROM me - and I sent it to her CONFIRMED address - but of course the d/c was scanned in as delivered to a DIFFERENT zip code, hence it was NOT delivered to the confirmed address, and when she filed for non-receipt -which was an instant refund if not to a confirmed address - I was screwed.

I've sent out well over 3k packages and this was the ONE real scam that burned me up. This chick was doing this coming and going for a while.

Anyway, there's some more fodder to play with.

There's a lot of fun with Forwarding as well. That can cause the package to be delivered to a different zipcode.

dc0de wrote:

Jello wrote:

PhreakNIC 0x0b presentation from CypherGhost on the funny rules surrounding what you can and can't ship via the USPS, as well as why some things take longer than others.

Totally amazing 'mail phreaking.'

I like the idea of making a D20 box, with postage and addresses on each side... and sending it out...

Could be a new way to "Win" a contest.

We settled a business dispute by having the post office "flip a postcard" that was addressed and stamped on both sides. Much cheaper than a lawsuit.