I Love Junk Mail.. the Secret is Out

I have had a Post Office Box for some years. It's set up to handle most of the junk mail that I love to get. Many years ago, my house mailbox was inundated with massive amounts of mail each day. When my wife threatened to leave me if I didn't get rid of it, I decided to start using a post offiice box. I began changing my address for the welcome junk mail to the post office box in 1980 or so, and since then it has worked out very well. Over the years, some junk has penetrated my system and comes to my current address, but in the main, only a small amount makes it through.

Most of my junk mail shows a code letter as my middle name.. I'll explain that in a minute.. And over the years mis-spellings and flat-out errors have contributed sometimes weird and unusual names. To illustrate this, let me give you a look at my post office box mail for today, June 9th, 2009:

Mail for J.R. Vaughan (The R normally shows mail offers for "adventures", trips, tours, etc)
01. A booklet from National Geographic about expeditions that they are trying to fill with people with a few dollars.
02. A survey from the Republican party. (I guess they think they know what the R stands for.)

Mail for J.T. Vaughan (The T was set up when I took a subscription to Time magazine.)
01. An offer for a subscription to AFAR magazine. (Travel)
02. An offer for Fast Company magazine.
03. An offer for Inc. magazine.
04. An offer for Fortune magazine.
05. An issue of Fortune magazine.

Do you see how the magazines stick together and pass on address information to each other? And note that these magazines are geared to upper income customers.

That is all of the coded items I got today, but let me tell you my secret: Many years ago, before I set up the post office box, I decided that I would like to learn how mailing lists are developed and passed around. At the time, I subscribed to Advertising Age (I can't afford it right now.. their subscription rates are obscene).. and learned a bit, but I decided to find out first hand. So, I began seeking junk mail.. Whenever I sent for something, I would give my name a middle initial (I was not given a middle initial at birth so I am free to make up my own.)

The first item I sent for, I gave the initial A; the second B; etc., you get the picture. Sometimes the letter was closely related to the item sent for, as in the case of T above. One of my most active mailing initial is M.. I had sent for something about Mozart. That was long ago, and I still get mail with that initial for all kinds of musical offers or information.

So now you know my secret. The rest of my mail today was rather mundane:

Mail to Joe Voughan: (Misspelled years ago and still people are using the address today): Information about the Cumberland County, Maryland Playhouse.

Mail to our Neighbors (at the PO Box).. Not much thought there : Money Mailer and of course, Bed, Bath and Beyond. How could your neighbors live squeezed into a little POBox?

All the rest of today's mail is sent to me either as Joe, Joseph, J.,.. with no initial. Somehow, the address providers must have cleaned up the files. This mail offers shoreline rentals in New Jersey, free vacations if you buy a certain hearing aid, opportunity to give a gift annuity to the Arthritis Foundation, group travel opportunities (it even mentions the Charles W. Morgan whaling ship that I played on as a kid), a free wallet and stick-up lights if I buy some clothing, a book about false diabetic information, and a bunch of other stuff of a similar nature.

Once, I gave a Toastmasters speech, the title of which was: I Love Junk Mail. I told everyone about my mail coding system and talked about mailing lists and gave them examples of the mail I get every day. On the next Toastmasters meeting day, I was greeted by my fellow members with bags of their junk mail, which they took great pleasure in giving to me. (I didn't let them know it, but they could not have given me a gift I enjoyed more.