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What are you doing about your P.O. Box Mail if in a state under lockdown?

CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 31,499 ✭✭✭✭✭

Any suggetions?

Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.

Comments

  • ashelandasheland Posts: 22,612 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I think you are allowed to check it. Like going to the grocery store...

  • Namvet69Namvet69 Posts: 8,620 ✭✭✭✭✭

    So when you roll up to the checkpoint, have your "papers" in order so you can prove you got one that needs emptying. Peace Roy

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  • SonorandesertratSonorandesertrat Posts: 5,695 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Good question. My home P.O. box is 0.2 miles from the house, grouped with those of my neighbors. Maybe I can creep down our private road, onto a public road and to the box in the middle of the night.

    For boxes inside post offices, that could be a problem. I assume the U.S.P.S. would just hold people's mail, but what if some items are time-sensitive (bills or checks)?

    Member: EAC, NBS, C4, CWTS, ANA

    RMR: 'Wer, wenn ich schriee, hörte mich denn aus der Engel Ordnungen?'

    CJ: 'No one!' [Ain't no angels in the coin biz]
  • LakesammmanLakesammman Posts: 17,282 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I've had no problem in WA state - received an ExpressMail package with coins on Tu. (shipped Mo. from MA) and went to the counter to pickup and sign for w/o difficulty.

    Best part of the lockdown is light traffic and no lines......

    "My friends who see my collection sometimes ask what something costs. I tell them and they are in awe at my stupidity." (Baccaruda, 12/03).I find it hard to believe that he (Trump) rushed to some hotel to meet girls of loose morals, although ours are undoubtedly the best in the world. (Putin 1/17) Gone but not forgotten. IGWT, Speedy, Bear, BigE, HokieFore, John Burns, Russ, TahoeDale, Dahlonega, Astrorat, Stewart Blay, Oldhoopster, Broadstruck, Ricko.
  • RABRAB Posts: 132 ✭✭✭✭

    PA is under both a stay at home order and non-essential business closure order...my local USPS is still open for business!

  • GRANDAMGRANDAM Posts: 8,353 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Call your Post Office and ask them to deliver your PO Box mail with your residential mail.

    Mine will do it.

    GrandAm :)
  • jt88jt88 Posts: 2,794 ✭✭✭✭✭

    USPS is still open so you can still go to your PO BOX in USPS.

  • SamByrdSamByrd Posts: 3,130 ✭✭✭✭

    for me even though we are under a stay at home order its normal at the post office. Picked up mail today in fact.

  • 2ndCharter2ndCharter Posts: 1,640 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Just combine it with a trip to the grocery store or the pharmacy.

    Member ANA, SPMC, SCNA, FUN, CONECA

  • MrEurekaMrEureka Posts: 23,891 ✭✭✭✭✭

    No problems here yet, and my best guess is that we won't have a problem. Mostly because I figure that if they reduce their hours, it will get busier when they're open. Which would be exactly the wrong outcome.

    Andy Lustig

    Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.

    Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
  • BillJonesBillJones Posts: 33,427 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 26, 2020 12:58PM

    It's like this. You are allowed to go the grocery store. If the PO box is along the way, you stop.

    I used to go to the PO box twice a week. Now I go once.

    Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
  • jwittenjwitten Posts: 5,072 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I've considered having coins shipped to my home address instead, just to limit my exposure at the PO

  • BillJonesBillJones Posts: 33,427 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @jwitten said:
    I've considered having coins shipped to my home address instead, just to limit my exposure at the PO

    I would be very careful about that one. Once the genie is out of the bottle, you can't put him back. All you need is for one crummy dealer to sell your home address, and your box will be full “invitations” for people you would never invite over for dinner nor anything else.

    Retired dealer and avid collector of U.S. type coins, 19th century presidential campaign medalets and selected medals. In recent years I have been working on a set of British coins - at least one coin from each king or queen who issued pieces that are collectible. I am also collecting at least one coin for each Roman emperor from Julius Caesar to ... ?
  • jwittenjwitten Posts: 5,072 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @BillJones said:

    @jwitten said:
    I've considered having coins shipped to my home address instead, just to limit my exposure at the PO

    I would be very careful about that one. Once the genie is out of the bottle, you can't put him back. All you need is for one crummy dealer to sell your home address, and your box will be full “invitations” for people you would never invite over for dinner nor anything else.

    Unfortunately I've had to have a few coins shipped here in the past, from ebay sellers that for whatever reason do not ship to PO Boxes. I haven't made the full switch yet, but I've considered. My buying has slowed way down, so I may just go to the PO Box once a week or so now.

  • ChangeInHistoryChangeInHistory Posts: 3,004 ✭✭✭✭✭

    My wife had her PO box mail forwarded to our home address, and did it on-line.

  • PerryHallPerryHall Posts: 45,296 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Suggest that you put on a hazmat suit and go to the Post Office and get your mail. ;)

    Worry is the interest you pay on a debt you may not owe.

  • ParadisefoundParadisefound Posts: 8,588 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 26, 2020 1:32PM

    I think you can still check unless the boxes are locked inside but BTW the line in our local post office was not been arranged to reflect "safe distancing" so I skip it and went ahead with self service kiosk.

  • rickoricko Posts: 98,724 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I do not have a P.O. box, however, I do take outgoing mail to the Post Office....Just out of the car, in the door, drop the mail, and back out. Usually no one there but the counter person... Hi & Bye.... ;) Cheers, RickO

  • amwldcoinamwldcoin Posts: 11,269 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Our post office has a sign on the door no more than 10 people at a time(don't know how or if they enforce it) and also says to keep 6 feet apart. The line to the counters has yellow tape on the floor every 6 feet.

  • ThePennyLadyThePennyLady Posts: 4,439 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited March 26, 2020 1:52PM

    I'm in California which is basically on lockdown, but I believe mail service is considered essential since all the post offices are still open, so I continue to retrieve my mail which is located outside (less often than usual) and ship coins. But I definitely take precautions when doing so.

    Charmy HarkerThe Penny Lady®
  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 31,499 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @ChangeInHistory ... Thanks, I'll try that!

    I did call them and ask that a couple of packages I knew were sitting there be delivered to my home address and they said no problem.

    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • bombtech25bombtech25 Posts: 209 ✭✭✭

    There is discussion of mail being shutdown, restricted, or requiring a bailout. Mail order prescriptions should keep the coins flowing though. Logistically it’d be near impossible to stop.

  • JBKJBK Posts: 14,637 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I go to the PO every day.

    There is a sign that no more than 2 people are allowed in the lobby at one time. Except for the Christmas rush I rarely see more than two people in there at the same time anyway.

  • BLUEJAYWAYBLUEJAYWAY Posts: 7,938 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Went to PO last Friday. Only one other person there in line. Today went to Fed Ex. 2 people in store. Was able to go right to counter to deal with the clerk. No distancing issue. The "limit of 10" notice in the store at one time was posted on the entrance door.

    Successful transactions:Tookybandit. "Everyone is equal, some are more equal than others".
  • CameonutCameonut Posts: 7,250 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Mail service is essential. Otherwise, they would have been shutdown already.
    I simply try to minimize trips.
    In our gated community, the PO only delivers parcels to parcel boxes in a central mail house. Never to a street address.
    So pickup at the PO is only for large packages that don't fit in the parcel lockers. If a signature is required, you are looking at a trip to the PO unless you catch the mail person loading all the lockers.

    “In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson

    My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!

  • BAJJERFANBAJJERFAN Posts: 30,977 ✭✭✭✭✭

    You can also sign up to have photos of your mail sent to an email address. If you do that and nothing of great import is in your mailbox just let it accumulate.

  • CWT1863CWT1863 Posts: 316 ✭✭✭✭

    Just went to my PO Box today and there was no problem. Tried to not touch too many things and keep separation from others.

    ANA-LM, CWTS-LM, NBS, TAMS, ANS

  • dbldie55dbldie55 Posts: 7,717 ✭✭✭✭✭

    they just enacted this in our state, hospitals are overwhelmed with the single patient state wide. I will go about my day has I have for the last 2 weeks.

    Collector and Researcher of Liberty Head Nickels. ANA LM-6053
  • derrybderryb Posts: 36,108 ✭✭✭✭✭

    "Papers Comrade?"

    The decline from democracy to tyranny is both a natural and inevitable one.

  • BryceMBryceM Posts: 11,721 ✭✭✭✭✭

    I read through my governor's notice. Access to PO boxes are specifically exempted from our stay-at-home order. More-or-less these sorts of laws are unenforceable, unless you're doing something really egregious.

  • messydeskmessydesk Posts: 19,640 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Google is your friend. Essential services in Illinois:

    "Mail, post, shipping, logistics, delivery and pick-up services"

    Your state may vary, but it probably doesn't.

  • daltexdaltex Posts: 3,477 ✭✭✭✭✭

    @Cameonut said:
    Mail service is essential. Otherwise, they would have been shutdown already.
    I simply try to minimize trips.
    In our gated community, the PO only delivers parcels to parcel boxes in a central mail house. Never to a street address.
    So pickup at the PO is only for large packages that don't fit in the parcel lockers. If a signature is required, you are looking at a trip to the PO unless you catch the mail person loading all the lockers.

    I think you can provide signatures online.

  • SaorAlbaSaorAlba Posts: 7,466 ✭✭✭✭✭

    My post office isn't going to miss me, it's just bills and junk mail anyway - not like I am when expecting some auction win coming in. :p

    In memory of my kitty Seryozha 14.2.1996 ~ 13.9.2016 and Shadow 3.4.2015 - 16.4.21
  • CaptHenwayCaptHenway Posts: 31,499 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Packages from P.O. dropped off at house today. All is well.

    Numismatist. 50 year member ANA. Winner of four ANA Heath Literary Awards; three Wayte and Olga Raymond Literary Awards; Numismatist of the Year Award 2009, and Lifetime Achievement Award 2020. Winner numerous NLG Literary Awards.
  • DBSTrader2DBSTrader2 Posts: 3,444 ✭✭✭✭

    Our P.O. has boxes on one side, postal materials in the middle, and the counter & sales items on the other side. After counter hours, they pull closed a locking gate to cordon-off that side. But the rest of the area is still accessible, including the boxes. So we can come & go as we please.

    I do go less frequently, and only after I get a notice via the USPS's "Informed Delivery" of something important delivered.

    The other day, the wife & I hiked the almost 5 miles there and back as part of our daily neighborhood walk (we all practice safe "social-distancing"). The oddest part of that and other recent hikes has been the relative quiet in all neighborhoods, lack of more than just a few cars, and the overall "we're-in-this-together" friendliness of people we pass by. Refreshing, but eerie. I keep thinking back to those post-apocalypse movies like "28 Days Later"............

  • Insider2Insider2 Posts: 14,452 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Picking up the mail as usual. :)

  • shorecollshorecoll Posts: 5,445 ✭✭✭✭✭

    Each state varies as to what's essential, for example a local company that builds small cruise ships is essential and still fully operational. :o

    ANA-LM, NBS, EAC
  • jessewvujessewvu Posts: 5,063 ✭✭✭✭✭

    MD is in lock-down, i don't see anything in our directive that says you can't go to the bank...

    If it's an issue, call your non-emergency number at the sherrif's office and ask them what they think...

  • GRANDAMGRANDAM Posts: 8,353 ✭✭✭✭✭
    edited April 2, 2020 11:54PM

    My Post Office installed a plastic barrier all the way across the counter with a opening at the bottom about a foot high to conduct business. They also put yellow tape on the floor 6' apart to show social distance space.

    I was surprised but it is a good idea. :o

    Heck my X-wife was 30 years ahead of the times,,,,,, she "Social Distanced" me over 30 years ago. :s

    GrandAm :)

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