When did junk mail inundations start? (father-in-law, state, years, adult)

[pikabike]

I was adult when spam started, but when did junk mail become so floodacious?

When I was a kid (60s and 70s) it just wasn’t the huge portion of mail that it is now. If you bought something, you didn’t start receiving tons of crap trying to get you to buy something else in the same market.

It must have increased slowly enough over the years that I didn’t notice it until it was really bad.

[oddstray]

I'd guess that when you were a kid you just weren't noticing. Junk mail has always been far too plentiful.

One guy in San Diego saved all his junk mail for a year, and entered it as an 'art' piece in the local county Fair. It was appalling to see his bins of junk mail.

[Charlie&Rose]

We still get mail for my father-in-law, who died twenty years ago at the age of eighty-two, and he didn`t even live at our address! What a waste of money. You would think after twenty years, they would say hey, don`t think he is going to respond

[jiminnm]

Originally Posted by marcandme

We still get mail for my father-in-law, who died twenty years ago at the age of eighty-two, and he didn`t even live at our address! What a waste of money. You would think after twenty years, they would say hey, don`t think he is going to respond

Sames here, except my parents died 5 & 7 years ago. That's why I advise people to rent a p.o. box after a parent dies to accumulate whatever mail is coming and close the box without a forwarding address after the estate is closed.

I now simply refuse and mark all mail addressed to either of my parents return to sender.

[TRex2]

Originally Posted by jiminnm

...
I now simply refuse and mark all mail addressed to either of my parents return to sender.

It doesn't matter. They won't return it.

Mail that comes under "Presorted Standard" (formerly "Bulk Rate") isn't required to be returned, or (apparently) even delivered to the correct address. They just stuff it in as quickly as they can, without regards to accuracy. Probably, whatever you put back in the system, if they can't just trash it, they put it in some other poor guy's box.

Sad, really.

Bulk rate is one of two things that actually should have never been allowed to start in the first place. Advertisements belong in the newspapers and most of what goes as Parcel Post should be delivered by private companies.

I know Parcel Post started 1913, but I don't know when bulk rate started.
I did find an article that said it gained a lot of volume in the 60's due to automated mailing lists.

[yellowsnow]

Junk mail never stops. And OMG when you get close to medicare eligibility it increases exponentially. It continues after you die too. My grandma died in 1994 and she was still getting mail for her husband who died in 1964. I still get mail for my H who died in 2012. Sometimes he gets more mail than I do!

[Tallysmom]

I think when newspapers started to die is when it started to ramp up. No use spending money on newspaper advertising if no one is reading it.

I’ve heard a few people say they have successfully blocked it, but they never really say how.

[nybklyn]

I think it begin in the past 5-10 years ago. I just ignore all these junk mail and throw them in garbage can. Since they have all these money to spend on marketing, I don't mind help them throw out some of the marketing material.

[VA Yankee]

I was dealing with the flood of junk with my mother and spoke to the postman, he said "sorry but this garbage is what's keeping us in business there not going to stop it". Sometime when I was bored I would send the junk from sender to another in the pre paid envelopes especially to the charities that are preying on seniors..

[WVREDLEG]

Originally Posted by TRex2

Advertisements belong in the newspapers

What is a newspaper?