Thanks, mud! You’re actually the person I’ll be mailing the stamp to (though not for a couple of weeks)!

I do that also, but usually sandwich the stamp between two pieces of rigid (but not necessarily thick) cardboard ... like two pieces of a cereal box type cardboard.

Thanks, Basset Mom! I’ve done that in the past, in a padded envelope.

You could use a bubble mailer/padded envelope and use stamps instead of a shipping label. It usually takes 3 stamps or so, same price as it would be in a reinforced envelope but much more secure.

If you have any mounting type foam you can cut some the general shape of the stamp, put a piece on each side and then put packing tape around it. That always works. You can use a regular unpadded envelope for that. They always arrive unscathed.

I no longer trust the PO and put the stamp in a small box.

My vote is with the people who mail using a padded envelope. If you really want it to get there, I wouldn't mail it in any way that would get run full speed through a machine with regular envelopes. If it's not going to go through the mail system as a regular envelope, then I feel like the padded envelopes are least fussy. I use PayPal shipping to get a discounted USPS postage rate for the padded envelopes. Lately it's been so dicey with micro postals in regular business envelopes that I wouldn't want to risk it with a regular-sized stamp.

This is exactly how we do it and haven't had any issues yet.

I save the cardboard from cereal boxes just for this purpose (we mail out a lot of stamps).

Fun fact: the material used for cereal boxes is called chipboard. It’s also used for bakery boxes, notebooks, and more.

Thank you, everyone, for the tips! My husband just got a package with some thin foam in it, so I snagged it and will sandwich the stamp in it before mailing in a small padded mailer. I don’t like to carve, so I want to give my stamp a good chance of survival to avoid recarving!

If a Kleenex box has a pretty design, I’ll reuse it for logbook covers.

I need to check out PayPal shipping!

Check out Pirate Shipping also. I just saved over $2 on a small package I sent.

A pirate walks into a bar and realizes he's wearing his eyepatch on the wrong eye.

On his 80th birthday, a pirate says, "Aye, Matey!".

A pirate brings a pencil to the ship in case he needs to draw his sword.

What is a pirate’s favorite letter? A: You’d think it be the "R," but his true love is the "C".

But you will no longer be able to blame shipping for . . .er . . .ah . . .never mind

;)

I already had my email planned:

“You never got the stamp/it arrived but was unrecognizable? Dang, that was the best stamp I ever carved—it looked like a nosox carve! Now I’ll have to do a quick replacement carve. Sorry!”

Thank you to my YOG 2026 Secret Pal(s)! I received a cozy throw, some yummy hot chocolate (Chocolate Sea Salt and Caramel flavored), and an interesting tiny hint to my YOG 2026 person's identity. hmm.... I am pondering this hint.

Your gifts are very much appreciated. We have been staying home a great deal this winter. Crazy weather! I hope you are staying warm too!

TeachJR

I'm new-ish and not sure if this is the right place to post, but...
I'm going to visit family in early March in Gargrave, England. I'd love to plant some boxes while I'm there. I'd need stamps by the end of February. My carving abilities are still very very newbie level. I'm going to try my hand anyhow and if anyone would like a plant/carver status in Gargrave, I'd be very glad to plant a box there!
Some ideas and info about the town in case anything catches inspiration-
-The church bell in town really does ring every half an hour. In this town of under 2,000 people, they hold bell ringing practice every Monday evening. Yes, every Monday evening. I'm not sure how everyone in the town isn't trained yet, but I love it! The church bell tower might be a good carve.
-My family lives in smelling distance of a dairy farm. A cow stamp, perhaps? The cows aren't Highland cows, but Highland cows are beloved. (or as they say...coos)
-Fish and chips!
-The local pub, Masons Arms, has a very sweet black lab who lives at the pub with her parents/pub owners. Her recent pups were adopted by folks in the town. Their logo is an outline of the historic building, which is already a pretty solid stamp design.
-A cuppa (cup of tea)

You may want to post a request on the https://www.atlasquest.com/toolbox/stamp-exchange/ page, and the "stamp swap" board. I bet someone will reply.

I am interested in seeing how Growing Boxes are listed. I would like to list one to get more visitors to visit the very first ‘DARK PARK’ in Illinois. If you have a Growing Box or read a post about Growing Boxes, please share.

Thank you! TeachJR

I've never planted a growing box myself, but here's one that I think can serve as a model for how to list one.

The parent box is listed as a traditional. In the clues, you're invited to carve a stamp to add to the box, and you're asked to let the planter know what you carved. She then listed the additional stamps in the clues for the parent box.

Then, for recording purposes, she created a box listed as an Other. This box lists every stamp contributed by the finders so that people can correctly log their finds as Others.

This is all fine and good, and one can certainly continue listing growing boxes like this, but this is also a fairly old listing and now that boxes allow you to list the individual stamps in a box, I'd suggest using that option instead.

It just seems simpler and easier that way. There's just one listing (the original growing box) that needs to be recorded as a find, it has information about all the stamps in the box and who carved what, it will only count as one towards one's P or F-counts, etc.

The system of adding new stamps as an "other" listing was more of a hack so the P and F-counts stayed accurate. It does work, though, and everyone is certainly welcome to keep doing that if they want. But listing the "other" stamps was always an optional thing anyhow, and now it just seems like an antiquated way listing multiple stamps within a single box now that there's a dedicated feature to do precisely that.

-- Ryan

I kind of figured that there would be something about a "growing box" in the help pages, but I found nothing. I seem to recall those boxes had a couple of different, competing names, but for the life of me, I can't remember any other names.

Anyhow, I figured it was time that the term got added to both the glossary and the help pages.

Happy trails! =)

-- Ryan

PS. If you're curious about the glossary entry, keep in mind that I did officially add it on Friday the 13th. ;o)

That's the devil's work, of course.

Ryan,

You are a nutjob .. but we love ya .. LOL

[Come back and see us some Monday night!]

I guess no good deed goes unpunished.

Speaking for myself, can confirm.

It’s been a few years since I’ve used my smart phone to look up letterboxes. Going on a trip soon and might want to grab a few boxes on the go. But on my i Phone, I’m now getting constant pop-ups to all sorts of junk to the point it’s impossible to even look up a box. How can I manage this?

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Two words: Clue Tracker