A friend of mine has a PO Box. and after listening to why she does I am thinking of doing the same. I would feel comfortable doing fabric or book swaps if I have a PO Box. I do not and will not give out my address, phone number or my last name. Sadly in this world of you have to be careful. She also uses her PO box for her address on her credit cards and bank statements and for just about everything. You also can get a PO Box in a different state if you work in another state other then where you live.

When we were living in the Midwest, we used a p.o. box for all our mail. My husband's job required a lot of travel and I went with him most of the time. The mail was safe in the post office when we returned.

It is good but there are certain things that can only be delivered to a physical address such as Fed.Ex and UPS.

I went to a PO Box because one year my xmas cards that I put in the mail box with the flag up was taken by someone else and tore open and threw all over somewhere and someone found them and turned them into the Post office and they called me and gave torn up, ran over, cards and pictures. They were looking for money i guess.

I'm not quite understanding why you are leary about giving out your address. Anyone can look up your address by doing a reverse lookup using your phone number. Also, I would not want to waste gas going to pick up mail at the post office. Mine is not exactly around the corner. A friend of mine had a Xmas card returned because she mailed it to a street address instead of the P.O. Box the recipient was using. I would not have any idea of who all I needed to notify if I switched to a P.O. Box & would not want to miss out on a relative, etc. trying to get in touch with me.

I would not give out my name. Just the PO Box and the first name to people I do not know for book swaps and fabric swaps. I do not have a house phone so that solves that issue...both my husband and I have cell phone. I also have rec'd mail all the time that does not belong to me in my mail box. Wonder how many Items that I do not receive.

We had to get a PO Box after some incidents. Plus we have had our phone number unlisted for years.

But their are some places/people that will only ship to a street address. We only purchase from those if we know the people or the site well.

Last time I applied for a credit card you could NOT have a PO box in your address. I notice other things have the same restriction.
I don't have any problems using my real address, the people on this board are so nice, as are 99.99% of the people we meet everyday. If the ax man wants to come and hack you up, there is not much you can do, short of getting a gun and a big dog.

I am not driving to the post office everyday, but that is just me...everyone can make the decision on what is best for them.

My sister has one too...she does both depending on what it is. She only goes to the post office once a week...same with my friend. You do not have to go everyday. Both have family send mail to the house. I just think it may be a good idea for sites like these. Not that there is anyone bad here....but you never know. I do know people have problems with people taking packages when delivered and they are not home. sad that there are people out there that steal from others.