One of the examples of “high touch” that John Naisbitt mentioned in his keynote speech at Pop!Tech was Canada Post’s Picture Postage service. He really seemed quite taken with the idea.

The service works like this: you take a picture, send it to Canada Post with $24.95, and they send you back 25 stamps — real, legal, stick-on-a-letter stamps — with the picture printed on them.

Actually, as I found out today when I called for more information, what they really send you is 25 little pictures and 25 frames. To make the stamps, you peel of the pictures and stick them in the frames.

Given that this all works out to about a dollar a stamp, I wondered if I could just purchase the stamp frames themselves, and print my own little pictures.

I cannot.

The reason I was given for this is that Canada Post wants to monitor what images I’m using on my custom stamps. Presumably this is where clause #5 of their agreement comes in: “We reserve the right to refuse, for any reason, the photograph you have submitted. In such a case you will be refunded.”

I guess they’re trying to protect us from naked stamps.

NOTE: Image of stamp above isn’t a real stamp. The pretend stamp uses the work Nude by artist Alex Cree. Inclusion of this image shouldn’t be taken as an endorsement by Canada Post of this artist, or of nakedness or nudity in general, nor by the artist of Canada Post.