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by amccollum 430 days ago
The story of the bank built from bricks sent through the mail reminds me of the time I completed a move from Austin to Boston by packing all my possessions into rubber tubs and sending them by parcel post.

The delivery date was a range, and I wasn't there on the day of the first attempted delivery. When I called the post office about it, their response (in a thick Boston accent) was, "oh, so you're the tub guy, huh?"

All in all, it was a really convenient way to execute a cross-country move, assuming you don't have a lot of stuff!

4 comments

Back in that brief window when Amazon was bribing USPS to deliver on Sundays and I could get 50-75lbs of bird seed for $12 shipped I had lots of fascinating Sunday mornings watching postal service workers swear at me and heave bags at my front door.
I don't think that stopped: my neighborhood gets lots of USPS deliveries from Amazon on Sundays.
That's how a lot of military personal move their belongings. Just slap an address on their suitcase or duffle bag and mail it.
Or a TON of checked bags. Ran in to a guy in the airport once checking 10 bags. He bought the cheapest suitcase sets he could find, packed what he could, and sold the rest.
My cross-country move was

* Sell all furniture

* Shove everything in my car

* Put all my books in boxes and send media mail

When I moved internationally, I found out about the ‘M-Bag’ service. The post office gives you real mail sacks (hefty, expensive seeming things!), which you can directly fill with books and printer matter (and nothing else!). They’re then tagged after sealing the drawstring, and shipped internationally!

I’m sure the USPS wants those sacks back, but the post office in the UK, where I had them sent, was just perplexed by them and told me to keep them.

https://faq.usps.com/s/article/What-is-M-bag-Service

> I wasn't there on the day of the first attempted delivery.

oooh, ouch!

I wonder if they have to unload and reload the truck.