In general we tend to over-pack and over-engineer a lot of our shipping and handling processes. Turns out many things just aren't that big of a deal (like shipping bees).
My friend was stationed in Hawaii. She mailed me a coconut. No box, just a stapled a first-class shipping label to it. Delivered without issue.
Wired magazine used to feature an odd mailed item each month, which included a coconut, among other things. Some of them were pretty cool and creative. Many would likely cause some kind of terror alert if attempted today:
Reminds me of a story I can’t find online at the moment: apparently when Games magazine still was published, people would address letters to them with the address encoded as a puzzle.
I guess the USPS finally just started sending them any mail with a sufficiently confusing destination address.
I don't understand.. where did the context for an etch-a-sketch getting mailed come from? Why does every day of travel decrease the chances of it getting to its destination?
I have to know.. :)
*EDIT: ahhh, non-linear commenting! I went to the wired article from the other comment and found what you're referring to. I thought maybe they mailed it with a picture... they mailed it with an address?! that's one hell of a stress test.
My friend was stationed in Hawaii. She mailed me a coconut. No box, just a stapled a first-class shipping label to it. Delivered without issue.