Potatoes and what else?

December 18, 2020 10:36 AM

In a world where potatoes can be sent through the mail with just an address, a return address, and postage: what else is possible with the USPS?

I plan to send potatoes through the mail but I'm looking for ideas of other enjoyable, odd things that can go in a blue mailbox without packaging. Other sturdy root vegetables such as turnips come to mind. Blocks of scrap lumber with messaging. Small books. Nothing sharp, breakable, or dangerous, of course.

posted by bunderful to Society & Culture (27 answers total)

Coconuts are a classic!
posted by babelfish at 10:48 AM on December 18, 2020 [3 favorites]

I don't think Potatograms just arrive sans envelope, at least not according to this photo on the Potatogram Instagram? But apparently Mail A Spud tubers arrive sans packaging.
posted by cooker girl at 10:51 AM on December 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

I have sent birch bark through the mail, direct off a tree with an address written in sharpie on the smooth side.
posted by Gray Duck at 10:54 AM on December 18, 2020 [6 favorites]

The Annals of Improbable Research has some data you can review.

Highlight: "The balloon was refused; reasons given: transportation of helium, not wrapped."
posted by JoeZydeco at 10:57 AM on December 18, 2020 [7 favorites]

Here's a fun list with one of the truest statements I've seen in a while:

Finding a hula hoop shaped box = complicated. Mailing a hula hoop = easy!
posted by jabes at 10:58 AM on December 18, 2020 [3 favorites]

Somewhat tangential, but:
I remember a story from TIME magazine from probably the late 1980s (and I'm sure I have some of the details incorrect) about a guy in, I think, New Hampshire who owned a property in Alaska and wanted to build a rock wall there. He did the math, and found that simply labeling and mailing all these New Hampshire rocks to Alaska was the cheapest option, and entirely within the bounds of existing postal codes.

Everyone from the local Alaskan mail carriers to the USPS higher-ups, as I remember, went apoplectic but couldn't do anything about it. But I seem to recall that the USPS changed its "allowables" code as a direct result of this event.

If anyone else remembers this or can find the reference, I'd love to see it again.
posted by Dr. Wu at 11:01 AM on December 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

odd things that can go in a blue mailbox without packaging

In and around NYC at least, the blue mailboxes now have narrow slits instead of those pull-open hopper door things (can't remember what they're called), so I'm not sure how you'd get a potato in there. Might I suggest a flattish potato chip or a single french fry?
posted by scratch at 11:01 AM on December 18, 2020 [2 favorites]

And, as with a hula hoop, you can ship a motorcycle tire via UPS with nothing but an address label on it.
posted by scratch at 11:03 AM on December 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

Frisbees are easy to address & mail.

I once mailed a half-eaten, burnt pancake in a clear ziplock bag. We stapled & then taped the bag shut & slapped an address label on it. Given how overloaded the postal system is right now, I'd probably wait to send weird stuff like this until after the holiday rush. I would also drop this off at the post office counter, rather than putting it into one of the blue mailboxes; I'm pretty sure the pancake required extra postage because it was thick & needed to be hand-cancelled.
posted by belladonna at 11:23 AM on December 18, 2020 [7 favorites]

QI: The man who posted himself.
posted by Paul Slade at 11:49 AM on December 18, 2020

My sister once mailed her friend a shower caddy, no package, with the address label and postage packing taped to it. I think she went to the counter at the post office for the postage sticker, though, rather than plain stamps.
posted by gideonfrog at 11:55 AM on December 18, 2020

People have mailed unwrapped pineapples.

Note that it is specifically not permitted to mail humans in the US anymore but it wasn't uncommon to mail kids around at one time.

not unwrapped but it is common to mail animals like chicks and bees. Or it used to be before the great Trump fuck'n and resulting mortality.
posted by Mitheral at 12:00 PM on December 18, 2020 [3 favorites]

Sounds fun! A friend of mine sent me (separately) a sweet potato and a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup. My address and postage only, no return address. Figuring out the sender was all part of the appeal.

I agree with belladonna in that this new venture should probably wait until after the holiday rush.
posted by Guess What at 12:39 PM on December 18, 2020 [2 favorites]

Years ago a friend mailed a one-foot-tall plastic toy giraffe complete with the address sewn on a fabric label attached around the neck.
posted by mcduff at 12:42 PM on December 18, 2020 [2 favorites]

You can mail a coconut! https://www.hawaiimagazine.com/blogs/hawaii_today/2010/3/23/Hawaii_mailing_a_coconut
posted by LadyOscar at 1:24 PM on December 18, 2020

automobile tires.
blacksmithing leg vise.
posted by the Real Dan at 3:26 PM on December 18, 2020

I plan to send potatoes through the mail but I'm looking for ideas of other enjoyable, odd things that can go in a blue mailbox without packaging.

Keep in mind that these will need to be a maximum of 10 ounces, otherwise they need to go to the USPS counter. Minimum dimensions are 3-1/2 inches high by 5 inches long. No thicker than half an inch. (cite) The things I enjoy are usually things roughly shaped like mail. Clear plastic folders with cool stuff inside. Candy bars. Cool looking record albums.
posted by jessamyn at 3:51 PM on December 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

No longer permitted of course but “For the first few years of the U.S. Parcel Post it was legal to mail children, as long as they were under 50 pounds.”
posted by XMLicious at 4:20 PM on December 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

I was at the PO on a day hundreds of chicks arrived for the local urban farm store. The boxes were stacked in the big canvas tubs waiting for pickup. They were very noisy with so many peeping away. Smelly, too.

I have mailed various non-standard things including a plastic container shaped like a fish & plastic pop bottles slit open and filled with stuff and then taped shut. I have mailed bolts of fabric with just plastic wrap around it to keep if from unfurling.
posted by Nosey Mrs. Rat at 4:53 PM on December 18, 2020 [2 favorites]

Pretty sure small hand tools can be mailed via usps with a sticker label and postage: (box wrench, smaller hammers, Allen wrenches, certain rasps, even things like screwdrivers and chisels as long as you properly tape or block the pointy bits.
posted by SaltySalticid at 5:55 PM on December 18, 2020

Beer mats/coasters can definitely be mailed as-is, from personal experience.
posted by DingoMutt at 6:32 PM on December 18, 2020

My friend once received a rubber chicken with her address written on it in sharpie.
posted by fancyoats at 6:51 PM on December 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

An old boyfriend would mail me those little perforated cardboard bits that come off Kleenex boxes. Space for a stamp, address, and a wee message!
posted by sucre at 9:46 PM on December 18, 2020 [1 favorite]

You can mail yourself a pinhole camera and capture the secret lives of packages
posted by Morpeth at 5:03 AM on December 19, 2020

Live adult geese. The USPS are heroes and never forget it.
posted by stet at 7:06 PM on December 19, 2020 [1 favorite]

I read the small print, they show you an adult goose but they will only mail you a baby one.
posted by jessamyn at 2:07 PM on December 20, 2020

Am I jerk for thinking that many of these suggestions sound unpleasant or annoying for very busy, underpaid, and abused postal workers to deal with?
posted by ElKevbo at 6:17 PM on December 21, 2020 [1 favorite]