"Fascinating" indeed... I've no problem with the general practice of selling lost or mis-directed packages that are reasonably never going to be claimed, but if the facts are as the columnist writes - with one box of 88 books x $28.95 being sold under the $25 threshold, the USPS should be worrying less about the PR damage and more about keeping its (dwindling) customers happy.
Dwindling customers - numerically speaking, sure. But volumes they seem to be ok on. Especially when you consider all of the last mile work they are doing for UPS & Fedex.