Due to a dropout, I’ve reopened Winter Wonderland (#12211). It’s a microPLB ring that starts January 5. Come grab the spot!

I am looking for feedback on a proposal for future Mystery Postals.

The post office has been very slow and apparently unreliable. Mystery Postal 2504 has fallen victim on its maiden mailing.

My proposal is to conduct the mysteries as normal. However, instead of mailing the stamp, I will send the stamp image to everyone who is successful. This could be via postcard, card in an envelope, or email a picture.

Please vote for your preferences below:
Disagree - would not participate under any condition other than a real stamp.
Agree - prefer postcard image
Educational - prefer image mailed in an envelope
Huh? - prefer e-mailed
Hug - would still like to participate even without getting the stamp

So a Mystery LTC?

As someone who has joined and hosted many postcard swaps... postcards get damaged.

A postal or LTC, I'd join either. Envelope or postcard also not a big difference to me.
I have no interest in a "Virtual"

I've had stamps go missing more than I'd like to admit. Riggs Raven did a postal ring where you share the image with others by stamping it onto a label type paper that's adhesive, so you can peel off the image and log as you wish, and still have the traditional folio for people to log in.

In this was, you can also better reuse the actual stamp in a traditional box (if one so wishes) and it can still be sturdy since it's not shaved down!

Don't need to see the actual stamp; postcards get damaged in the mail and are too thick for my logbook anyway. Image mailed in an envelope seems like unnecessary work whereas an emailed image would be just as good after the printing, and at no cost. So I marked huh? and hug (a stamp is a nice reward, but I've also participated on several occasions without declaring it and without getting the stamp; it was still challenging and fun!)

I prefer getting actual stamps in the mail. I like stickers but not in lieu of stamps.

I've been out of the postal game for awhile now (I'm always sort of lurking incase I want to hop back in because I did love it so much, especially in the winter) so maybe it's not fair for me to put my input here, but I have to say that a stamped image on paper would be considered an LTC, by my standards, even if it's not a traditional size.

Part of what made postals so magical was receiving the personalized and inspired logbook with the handmade stamp and any other pieces of craft/information that the creator felt relevant. It was a true letterbox made with a unique effort that was made start to finish by an individual in a way that no other letterboxer could. Even if the tracker theme was something narrow, like "a rock", everyone would carve a rock differently and present it with a logbook in a way none of the other participants would. It had all the elements of a traditional letterbox, just made to fit in an envelope.

I've never visited a traditional letterbox where you collected a pre-stamped image and stuck it in your logbook. Part of the "special" of finding a letterbox is that it's a creation of the moment, and though you hope it's there forever, you never know when weather or a USPS mail-eating machine is going to take it away from you.

All this to say: it's letterboxing, and letterboxes going missing is part of the game, whether it's found on the trail or in your mailbox. :)

This sounds a lot like the Virtuals we used to do back in the early 2010s. It's still a listing in the AQ Glossary, but doesn't have its own category anymore.
https://www.atlasquest.com/about/glossary/v/

It was akin to Wordle--first thing every morning with coffee.

The U.S. Postal Service (USPS) updated its rules, effective late 2025, clarifying that postmarks now reflect the date mail is processed at a facility, not when dropped off, potentially causing delays for deadline-sensitive items like ballots or tax payments. This change, a result of consolidating mail processing, means the postmark date might be later than the drop-off date, so users should mail items very early, request a manual postmark at a retail counter, use online/drop box payments, or use Certified/Registered Mail for proof of mailing.

https://www.google.com/search?client=firefox-b-1-e&q=postmark+changes

^^^^THIS^^^^

Thank you Jabber - critical information, especially for tax payment and voting ballots.

So MPLB can drop off their folios and stamps 2 days before the mail date. LOL

. . . and they'll still be late . . .

If your PLB is:
too thick
too floppy
too lumpy
too stiff
has an illegible address
is obviously overweight
I could go on . . .

Hello!

I've carved a stamp for a postal, then went to shave the back and shaved it way too thin. The image will come out when stamped, but it is so incredibly floppy that it is not an enjoyable experience trying to get a clean print.

I've seen some postals where the back of the stamp is reinforced with a piece of cardstock or duck tape, and I was wondering if anyone that reinforces the back of their stamps would share their methods with me. Last time I tried to duck tape the back, the duck tape (Brand: LLPT) it melted the stamp beyond repair, similar to soaking the stamp in acetone.

Thanks for the tips!

What material melted? The fake pink on Amazon loves to melt when touching just about anything and I have no idea what would work for that. On real Speedy Pink I've used Duco Cement. https://a.co/d/6l4Nh5u

I've had success with a thin layer (very thin!) onto card stock for a micro postal and many onto magnets for stealth urban plants.

Welcome to the world of micro postals...🤪. You should see my inky fingers after I log in a micro postal, one would think I just finished a full day at a letterboxing event..😳

Most micros are hard to get a nice image because most stamps are usually very thin and floppy. It's kind of what's expected.

I will say, if my image didn't come out great, I take a 'sharpie' and then fill in the lines where the ink missed.

For the really thin stamps I will put a piece of double-sided tape on the back of it and use a piece of those thick postcard mailers that come. Then you can press down on all parts of the stamp. I tried once putting it on the stamping platform but that didn't give you an opportunity to press down in specific areas. Try that

If I get a stamp too thin, I take a blank address label (or any paper with permanent adhesive) stick the stamp on it and trim around the edges.

I also suggest people shave down the back before carving the front. Here’s a link from the AQ help pages:
https://www.atlasquest.com/about/wiki/browse.php?catId=33#q792

Duct tape gets gooey when it’s squeezed through the sorting machinery the PO uses.

I’ve both received and sent micro postals that have holes from front to back. It’s always in an area that doesn’t stamp, because I gouged out blank areas too deeply.

Not ideal, but still stampable.

I used this green material.

I will have to experiment with the Duco Cement and see how it works with the material. Thanks!

This might work better than trying to play with glue. When I stamped my copy into my book, I used plain scotch tape and a small piece of paper for grip and it worked really well.

Sometimes the simplest answer is the best answer!

Thank you for the link about ways of shaving down a stamp. It's so much easier to carve if the block is thicker, I never would have though of shaving it down first. You learn something new every day!

I'm finalizing my first singleton postal this weekend/beginning of next week and am thinking about how I want to go about organizing the tracker. I've gone through some of the previous trackers for inspiration and think I have wording/rules figured out, but was wondering about the tracker participant signups limit.

What determines how many people you let into your trackers? Is it estimated mail time? Management? Logbook space? Lack of postal interest? Something else I'm not thinking of?

It seems like the average singleton postal tracker for this past year is limited to 8 participants and I was just wondering why that is?

Thanks everyone!

1. Estimate about a week per person.

2. Estimate a 2% chance of the envelope going missing each time it is mailed.

3. Logbook space is something to consider. I like to give a 3x3 inch area for each person to stamp and write something

A 10 person limit will take about two months to make it back, not need a huge logbook area, and will most likely still make it home without going missing.

Some people like to rearrange the mailing order. For a ring that is fine, but for a singleton I hate being one of the first to sign up and ending up at the bottom of the list! I was 2nd or 3rd, and then become 15th so I don't see it for 3-4 months or it goes missing. Singletons should be First come, First served!

For me, it’s dependent on logbook space, estimated mail time, and the likelihood of the postal to get lost in the mail. The more participants, the longer it is in circulation, the more likely the postal system will end up eating it.

I try to keep them 10 and under because if the tracker is moving slow, I feel like it is more likely to stall out and people get lazy about mailing asap! If it is seasonal. I try to keep less participants so you aren't getting a Valentine in June! USPS seems very slow lately!

Especially agree re: season. I set up a Winter Wonderland tracker and limited it to 11, I think. Guesstimating one week per participant, 11 weeks wouldn’t push it too far into spring.

I’ve also participated in Valentine and St. Patrick’s trackers with just five or six participants.

Once it has made the circuit, you can reopen the tracker and add more. Maybe have it continue, or have it sent home and then send it again.

Thank you for saying all of these things. I will probably stick to a 10 person limit considering mailing time, logbook space, and the chances of it getting lost.

I hadn't thought about mailing order, but appreciate your comment about the frustrations of being moved to the bottom. That would upset me as well.

Oooh! A round two if there's still life in the postal once it's done. I will DEFINITELY be considering this depending on the state of the postal when it gets home. Thanks for this idea!

I always consider mailing order now. I believe adjusting geographically can cut down drastically on travel time.

Here's an example: I post a tracker. People sign up in the following order -
1. New York
2. Oregon
3. North Carolina
4. Washington State
5. Florida

Basically, sign up order is going from coast to coast in this scenario.
We will only consider travel time. Assume that it takes 10 days to travel from coast to coast, but only 3 days if it stays on the same coast.

Since I live in California, and if I don't adjust the list, the first mailing will take 10 days to NY. By the time it returns to me from Florida, the total travel time is 60 days.

But if I rearrange geographically, I can have:
CA -> OR 3 days
OR-> WA 3 days
WA -> NY 10 days
NY -> NC 3 days
NC -> FL 3 days
FL -> CA 10 days for a total of 32 days

I know it can be frustrating for someone to sign up and get moved down on the list, but as the person who is sending out the stamp, you decide how you want your stamp to travel. I've done a variety of other arrangements in the past - putting newbies in-between experienced, put the folks that re-mail quickly before unknown folk (this moves the stamp along quickly in the beginning, and the group is less frustrated) and so on.

What is personally frustrating for me, is that a postal can fill up before my "work day" is over. The east coast has a 3 hour advantage over us folks out west!

As an east coaster, I wouldn’t have thought of it from this perspective, since I would probably be listing things during west coast work hours (after work hours/end of work day for me).

This is a good thing for me to think about! As well as mailing time being shorter if you reorder the tracker a bit. I guess it’s just best to disclose how you’re ordering the tracker when you list the tracker so there’s clarity.