How do you send outgoing mail (real mail, not email)?

Descartes

Lifer
Oct 10, 1999
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The wife was wanting to send some standard mail, so I told her just to throw it in the mailbox and put the flag up. We both paused for a second in surprise, and I realized that I haven't sent mail from my mailbox in years. The obvious concern is security.

So, do you send outgoing mail from your box or do you always drop it off at a post office controlled box?
 

Leros

Lifer
Jul 11, 2004
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I put it in the mailbox, but I don't raise the flag. I'm paranoid about somebody stealing the mail.
 

eplebnista

Lifer
Dec 3, 2001
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Bills-Put in drive-thru drop-box at post office
Personal Mail-Mail Box w/ raised red flag
 

soydios

Platinum Member
Mar 12, 2006
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Don't raise the flag. It's a calling card for identity thieves driving around. My grandmother had her mail stolen about a year ago, and she went through months of hassle to clean up the identity theft. Just take your mail to the post office, or one of them blue boxes.
 

mattocs

Platinum Member
Jan 25, 2005
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Originally posted by: soydios
Don't raise the flag. It's a calling card for identity thieves driving around. My grandmother had her mail stolen about a year ago, and she went through months of hassle to clean up the identity theft. Just take your mail to the post office, or one of them blue boxes.

Some kids in the town down the road pee in the blue mail bins and mess up all the mail. I take it to the post office when I check my PO Box.
 

nonameo

Diamond Member
Mar 13, 2006
5,902
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Originally posted by: mattocs
Originally posted by: soydios
Don't raise the flag. It's a calling card for identity thieves driving around. My grandmother had her mail stolen about a year ago, and she went through months of hassle to clean up the identity theft. Just take your mail to the post office, or one of them blue boxes.

Some kids in the town down the road pee in the blue mail bins and mess up all the mail. I take it to the post office when I check my PO Box.

You need tyvek envelopes.
 
Oct 25, 2006
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What the hell. Has society forgotten how to send paper mail?

I routinely send paper mail through the blue box outside my house every week.
 

GeekDrew

Diamond Member
Jun 7, 2000
9,099
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We in the country generally send mail by placing the item in the mailbox, and by raising the red flag.

I personally either hand deliver it to my mom and she takes it to the post office by her office, or I stamp it and send it out in my office's mail.
 

Gunslinger08

Lifer
Nov 18, 2001
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Originally posted by: GeekDrew
We in the country generally send mail by placing the item in the mailbox, and by raising the red flag.

Here, we can even leave the change for the stamp in the mailbox, if we don't have any.
 

anxi80

Lifer
Jul 7, 2002
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i walk down the street and drop it off in the outgoing mail slot. i have one of those community locked mail boxes where you need to use a key to get your mail. no flags or anything, only a key to worry about.
 

GeekDrew

Diamond Member
Jun 7, 2000
9,099
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Originally posted by: joshsquall
Originally posted by: GeekDrew
We in the country generally send mail by placing the item in the mailbox, and by raising the red flag.

Here, we can even leave the change for the stamp in the mailbox, if we don't have any.

That's *technically* possible on any rural route (unmounted carrier). Few people know that though, and it's not something that the carriers publicize very much. ;)
 

erub

Diamond Member
Jun 21, 2000
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take the elevator downstairs to the lobby of my condo building where all the mailboxes are, and drop it in the outgoing mail slot
 

Bateluer

Lifer
Jun 23, 2001
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I walk the short ways to the mail room at my apartment complex and drop it in the outgoing slot. Usually just Netflix DVDs going back though.
 

Cerpin Taxt

Lifer
Feb 23, 2005
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My mailbox is up my street a ways amongst a cluster of the other neighbors' mailboxes. There's a community out-going mailbox there with a lock on it for the mailman.
 

Captante

Lifer
Oct 20, 2003
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I very rarely send paper mail these days, but when I do it goes in one of the blue drop-boxs.
 

oboeguy

Diamond Member
Dec 7, 1999
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There a couple of blue mail boxes on our street in NYC. Plus there's the PO (which, BTW, stands for p*ssed off, which is how you feel whenever you go there) 5-10 minutes' walk away.
 

spacejamz

Lifer
Mar 31, 2003
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mail it from work...there is secure outgoing mail box I have used for the past 5 years with no problems...

it sucks that you can't even mail something from your own mailbox anymore...
 

MovingTarget

Diamond Member
Jun 22, 2003
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I'd say it depends on how well I trust my neighbors/neighborhood. Official business I send through a post office maildrop, but personal stuff goes with the red flag up outside my house.