[Boatanchors] Medial Mail

[Bill Cotter]

I just returned from our local Post Office. The manager stated that 
"The intent of the Media Mail restriction on advertisements refers 
strictly to the bulk shipping of flyers, handbills, printed 
advertisements, catalogs, graphic art advertising and other 
print-shop jobs." In other words, media to be used to promote 
selling (present tense).

He also said "Magazines, manuals, CD's, DVD's, publications, 
journals, digests, etc are considered books or bound materials, and 
are shippable as media mail." He went on to say ".....The fact that 
a historical document contains an advertisement does not make it 
the dominant characteristic of the material......" It is a 
magazine, not a catalog.

He suggested printing on the package "Media Mail - Bound matter."

With respect to Pete's cry of "lying", it is clearly wrong to call 
a radio in a box "media mail", and truthful to call a bunch of QSTs 
a "books or bound matter."

73 Bill N4LG


At 10:56 PM 7/15/2011, you wrote:
>Probably only if you feel lying to a government agency is 
>justified and
>be willing to accept the circumstances. Actually, even the older ARRL
>Handbooks that had tons of advertising in the back section, would not
>qualify for media mail shipping under the current rules.
>
>Pete, wa2cwa
>
>On Fri, 15 Jul 2011 22:29:04 -0400 w8au at sssnet.com writes:
>
> > To me, the old QST mags are "history books."   And, they are, of
> > course.   Wonder if this innocent description would pass muster?
> >
> > Perry   w8au
>
> > At 01:19 PM 7/15/2011, Glen Zook wrote:
> > >Unfortunately, the Post Office will NOT accept magazines as media
> > >mail.  It has to do with the advertising in them even though the
> > ads
> > >may be 50, or more, years old.
> > >
> > >Post Office clerks are now required to ask what is in the package
> > >and if you say "magazines", they will not be accepted.  Also, the
> > >Post Office is now inspecting a large number of media mail 
> packages
> >
> > >to make sure that the contents are appropriate. If the 
> contents do
> >
> > >not meet the standards then the package is usually returned to 
> the
> > sender.
> >
>______________________________________________________________
>Boatanchors mailing list
>Home: http://mailman.qth.net/mailman/listinfo/boatanchors
>Help: http://mailman.qth.net/mmfaq.htm
>Post: mailto:Boatanchors at mailman.qth.net
>
>List Administrator: Duane Fischer, W8DBF
>** For Assistance: dfischer at usol.com **
>
>
>This list hosted by: http://www.qsl.net
>Please help support this email list: http://www.qsl.net/donate.html