DarrellP 0 Report post Posted April 6, 2022 I recently tried to send a package of flies for a swap (hopper dropper), and got a nasty surprise. The flies were mailed to go 30 miles, but were returned to me a month later, stamped as being a potential threat. You are not allowed to mail a package over one half inch thick without going into the post office and declaring that it doesn't contain unsafe items. They have to stamp it. This rule is inconsistently applied, but we need to mail our packages inside the post office. We are not allowed to just apply postage and drop it in the box. Otherwise, we must use a box inside less than 1/2 inch thick to mail flies. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Bryon Anderson 0 Report post Posted April 6, 2022 I got the same surprise yesterday! Luckily my small town Postmaster is a kind soul, and alerted me to the problem. I thought she said packages couldn't be more than 1/4" wide, but I must have remembered that wrong. I had to go to the P.O. and verify that all 13 packages for the Confidence fly swap (which I had dropped in the drop box the day before) did not contain unsafe materials. It was kind of them to let me do that--normally they just ship the offending >1/2" thick packages off to some postal black hole and no one ever receives them. Good to know! Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
J-Kno 0 Report post Posted April 6, 2022 I've always gone in to mail them out. I would have never known! Thanks for posting. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
caddis16 0 Report post Posted April 6, 2022 And don't try to ship flies in an envelope with no padding. p.s. and it was postage due so I had to pay extra for this empty envelope, Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gadabout 0 Report post Posted June 12, 2022 This rule is news to me. I’ve shipped many packages by dropping them in a bin at the post office. I never had to make a declaration of any kind. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vicrider 0 Report post Posted June 12, 2022 gadabout, are you well known to the PO that you're dealing with? I live in a small town and the ladies at the PO are either relatives or friends and they do a lot to keep me from getting messed up. I don't know for sure but think I could drop fly envelopes and get away with it too since they know how much of that I do. For those who participate in a lot of PO mailing I'm going to be putting a couple of posts on about Pirateship.com and the simplicity and savings you can get. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
gadabout 0 Report post Posted June 12, 2022 No, not really. I just drop it in a bin meant for leaving packages after hours. How could that bin even exist if you had to make a declaration for every package? Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vicrider 0 Report post Posted June 13, 2022 Aha! A bin for packages. Darrell is talking about those letter only metal bins outside of the PO. Thos are for letters only, no packages. Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
RickZieger 0 Report post Posted June 14, 2022 When I send packages now I try to make sure I have enough in them to get a tracking number. Twice I have sent a package that was not received in a month. Sent the second ones, heavier so they had tracking number and got delivered in 5 days. Three weeks after that each of the first packages showed up. Rick Quote Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
