Doug, K1DG, relayed this story:
K1AR told me that when W1WY was in charge of the CQ contests, he was also in charge of mailing the certificates.
Frank used cardboard mailing tubes for the certificates. He brought a few hundred to the post office and when the first one was weighed, it was just barely over the weight limit and bumped the postage cost into the next increment.
He took it home and baked it for a few hours to drive out any moisture, then took it back to the post office. It “made weight”, and could be shipped cheaper. He then proceed to hand the post office clerk the rest of the batch “just like that one”, and got them all shipped for the cheaper rate.
Fast-forward to 2015…
If you receive a certificate from a CQ-sponsored contest, you may notice that your address is printed on the envelope, rather than on a label.
Turns out that a label adds just enough weight to bump the large envelope with a certificate in it (a “flat” in PO speak) to the next weight class, raising the cost significantly, especially on the 75% of certificates that are mailed overseas.
Some things never change.