How this differs
Saturation mail is sold on two very different kinds of number presented in exactly the same typeface. The delivery count on a carrier route is measured. The income, age and household figures next to it are modelled from Census material and apportioned down to the route. Almost nothing in this market tells you which is which.
How it is usually presented
USPS operational records of deliverable addresses on the route. This part is a genuine measurement, and it is the strongest number in the whole category.
What we show
The same class of measured count — and we label it measured, so you can tell it apart from everything else on the card.
How it is usually presented
USPS states these figures are based on U.S. Census reports. They are model outputs apportioned down to a carrier route — not counts of the households on that route.
What we show
Modeled, and labeled modeled, with the confidence band and the covariates the estimate was conditioned on shown next to the number.
How it is usually presented
Not published alongside the figure. A buyer cannot tell whether a median income came from a five-year sample, how a block-group value was cut to a route, or how wide the error is.
What we show
Shown per field: the basis, the source string, the method, and what it was conditioned on. If the source omits any of it, we do not show the number.
How it is usually presented
No interval is shown. A median household income is printed as a single confident number even where the underlying sample for that small an area is thin.
What we show
A band, always. A modeled value that arrives without confidence_low and confidence_high is refused outright and the refusal is named on the card.
How it is usually presented
Commonly a blank, a dash, or a smoothed regional value with nothing marking it as different from a real one.
What we show
"Unavailable", with the reason. Never an estimate, never a zero, never a neighbouring value quietly borrowed.
How it is usually presented
Sometimes, without disclosure. A ZIP figure smeared across its routes looks identical to a route-level measurement.
What we show
Flagged as ZIP-smeared wherever it happens, and counted publicly on the honesty report.
How it is usually presented
One blended per-piece price. You cannot see which part is postage the Post Office receives and which part is the vendor's margin.
What we show
Three lines. Postage at the published rate, passed through at cost. Print at sourced trade rates, labeled sourced. Our fee at $0.045 per piece, stated as its own number.
Postage source: USPS Notice 123 (Price List) and Domestic Mail Manual 143, as of 2026-09-08. Print rates are shopped across 5 published rate cards (Taradel, PostcardMania, Cactus Mailing, Mail Shark, Trade print reference range), read 2026-09-08 — sourced list prices, not measured from our own invoices, and those sellers are named as sources of published prices, not as partners. "Every Door Direct Mail" and "EDDM" are registered trademarks of the United States Postal Service; we reference the service descriptively and are not affiliated with or endorsed by USPS.
