Patent ID: 8315732

Claim:
A method for preparing mail pieces including reply items to be returned by addressees of the mail pieces, comprising: providing a plurality of address carriers; providing a plurality of reply items, each carrying a unique identification code; feeding the address carriers one by one from a first feeding station; scanning an address from each fed address carrier; storing address data sets each representing a scanned address; feeding the reply items one by one from a second feeding station; scanning the unique identification code from each fed reply item; storing reply code data sets each representing one of the scanned identification codes; and assembling mail pieces, wherein at least a plurality of the mail pieces each comprises at least one of the fed address carriers and at least one of the fed reply items; wherein, for each assembled mail piece comprising at least one of the address carriers and at least one of the reply items, an association between the reply code data set and the address data set of that mail piece is stored.