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My DH is an EBay seller, so we have tons of priority boxes laying around. I was looking at one and thought 'I can alter that into a stationary holder!'...and so it came to be!
Sarah - This is *SO CUTE*!!! What a great idea!! Darn it, I think I made DH throw all his priority boxes away because they were cluttering up the place!!
Sarah - This is *SO CUTE*!!! What a great idea!! Darn it, I think I made DH throw all his priority boxes away because they were cluttering up the place!!
You can order a whole box of them for free from the usps website. They even deliver them!
Ouch!!! I hate to be "downer" on this clever idea, but I believe it is against the law (as in a felony) to use the USPS free boxes for anything other than mailing items through the US postal service....in fact the boxes I have say something to that effect right on the side of them.
I do know that one can purchase plain white small shipping boxes at places like Staples and Office Depot that would work just fine for this and wouldn't be a violation of the law.
(Please don't yell at me for this, but I thought you should be aware of it!)
I'm with Boss, I would stick to using used ones.
People complain about shipping prices all the time with the USPS and things like this will just hike the rates up even more.
EEEkkkk!! Don't need to go to jail! I thought it was just illegal to alter it and then mail it thru the usps. The inside just says priority mail. I think that's so you don't turn it inside out and mail it as something other than priority.
I took the pics down...don't need to get in trouble or have the site get in trouble for having the pics. Thanks for all the nice comments when it was up!
Glad I finally went through all the posts. I kept looking at your gallery and couldn't find it. At least I know I'm not crazy now that I know it is removed!
Friends are like the walls of a house. Sometimes they hold you up, sometimes you lean on them. But sometimes, it's enough to know they're just standing by.
I think you should put the pic back up but give it a new name -- altered shipping box or altered used cardboard box. Then add a comment that boxes may be purchased at an office supply store or use old boxes that have already been through the mail.
I wasn't trying to put a kybosh on your clever idea, just didn't anyone to get in trouble unknowingly. There's no reason that your lovely sample can't be up for everyone to enjoy, and it won't change the beauty of the piece to take the postal service reference out of the title.
A suggestion(?)--
Possibly see if you can change the thread title since "Priority" is mentioned and change it to "mailing box"?
I have not checked to see if you have reposted the pics but I did see them earlier and was just WOW'ed!!!! I would have not thought of doing that and you did a wonderful job. I also would have never thought of the "legality" of altering such an item-you were just exercising your creative freedoms, right?
Thanks for the wonderful idea!
__________________
Jackie G. (aka Jacquita) SCSmember #656
Write your sorrows in sand and your blessings in stone.
There was a guy on TV earlier this year....he made it onto the Today show. He had made himself furniture out of USED FedEx boxes and they were not happy. He thought he would be fine since they were used but it didn't matter to FedEx. I bet the same applies to USPS. Probably tougher rules since it's government. Very clever idea to use as a card holder, though!
Here's info I pulled from the Today show website when he was on the show:
Mr. Avila is a computer software engineer and self-taught home improvement dude. He has fashioned FedEx boxes into a couch, two chairs, a corner desk with wall shelves, and a bed strong enough that he can jump up and down on it. And, no, the place doesn�t look boxy particularly, but visitors do report a sense of anxiety about whether or not they should be at home waiting to sign for an overnight delivery of some sort.
Most bizarrely of all perhaps, in a world in which the struggle between advertisers and new ways to avoid advertisers is continuing, FedEx is unhappy with Mr. Avila, asking that he �stop using our name and our materials in his endeavors.�
Most bizarrely of all perhaps, in a world in which the struggle between advertisers and new ways to avoid advertisers is continuing, FedEx is unhappy with Mr. Avila, asking that he �stop using our name and our materials in his endeavors.�
I would think that the fact that he's showing how strong their boxes are would be a plus & good advertising for them.
Altered Priority mail box
