Have you ever thought about sending a postal package to someone, and wished you could send it for free? The hassle of having to go to a post office, wait in line, and pay x-amount of money. Blerg. I want to just set the package outside my door, have it picked up, and sent.
I just want to put the package into one spot and have it be done. Kinda like how the internet works. You just drag a file into a box, and send it. Done. Whether it’s through an email attachment. Or via dropbox. You just send it off. All for free.
Imagine if mail was free. Would we mail more stuff?
And besides, the internet really isn’t free. Most people pay $20-$50/month to an Internet Service Provider like Comcast or AT&T.
What if before the internet came around, the Post Office had a monthly deal where you pay $5/month to send as much mail as you want. I bet people would have sent lots of mail.
Actually, what would happen if the Post Office made that deal today? As much mail for $5/month. People love getting mail. I would start a little exchange where I send random stuff to people. Fun printouts. Little sculptures.
During Christmas, I send about 120 Christmas cards, about $50 in stamps. If the Post Office charged me $60 for unlimited mail during the year… hmmm. Wow. I would probably double or triple my Christmas card list. Christmas cards for everyone!!!
What would you do with unlimited postal mail?
(image from Elena Ferrer of Jalón, Spain)
Maybe there would be some sort of limit, because eBay sellers would blow the system up. When you send something, there’s a tracking code on your package. Everything you send gets entered into a database. When you hit a limit, you start getting charged.
That would perfectly mirror capped “unlimited” internet access plans (Unlimited *up to 200gb).
What if it was like old landline phones? Pay a monthly fee and local shipments are free, but long-distance get an additional surcharge.
Or if it excluded packages. Or possibly different plans, like an unlimited postcard plan.
I like the comparison with the landline phones–long distance would cost more. Wasn’t there a time when you would call out of the state, that would be long distance? Or something like that.
Would the post office save money by limiting people to their geographic area? You’d imagine so, but maybe it’s basically the same cost to scan, sort, and hand delivery the letter to local address vs one in another state. But the implications of limiting the local mail to a certain area would create interesting results. Users of this service would have to become more locally based. Is this calling on the strength of postal mail–the local factor. Or would this hurt the Post Office, because it’s not trying to be like the internet and be more global.
The packages point is good. Yeah, you’d think this plan would be limited to letters, or as you pointed out, postcards. I’d love an unlimited postcard plan.
I’d probably rejoin Postcrossing
That would be fun! For me, why I haven’t participated in Postcrossing–it’s the expectation to do something completely creative and custom for each recipient. Maybe people don’t expect that. But when I read what the recipient prefers to get, I think I have to make something custom and awesome. And so then I freeze and don’t send anything.
Believe it or not, I was buying postcards for Postcrossing from artists over on etsy. Sometimes I’d buy vintage, but if I recall correctly I supported several artists by using postcards they made
Oh wow, that’s so cool. It’s like a postcard cycle! Bring those vintage postcards back to life!
And supporting local artists by buying their postcards to send via postcrossing is very cool too! You are a key part of the postcard eco-system!