Recognize Any of These Collectibles Lost in the Mail?

by: smallstuff

Not surprised at all.  A book distributor lost two successive shipments of books that he sent me.  A single title was involved, the general printing and a numbered limited edition.  My local post office notified me that empty boxes arrived at the station.  The boxes had broken open in transit.  Shortly afterwards, I noticed copies available on Amazon at a greatly reduced price.  I bought them all and asked the seller where he obtained them.  He admitted getting them at a Post Office sale of damaged shipments  as loose books in, I think it was Georgia.  The original distributor was in a neighboring state, so they didn't get very far.  I notified the distributor and he confirmed that the numbered books were indeed the ones he had shipped to me.  I had to suggest to the distributor that he needed stronger boxes for heavy books like these.  He felt they had made it all the way from the printer in Asia in the original boxes and they should have been good to use in the USPS, but I disagreed since the original shipment to him had been palletized and bound and possibly even shrink wrapped for an ocean shipment.  After a few incidents like this to me and other dealers, he started reinforcing all the corners and seams of these used boxes and there were no further losses.  He wanted me to report the salvage seller who hadn't done anything wrong.  

by: iheartjacksparrow

The lot linked at the bottom of the article was really tasty, with a whole lot of Pokemon cards. The auction closed at close to $20K.

I checked for the items (Disney) in the package I lost last year, but didn't see anything of mine. I still think a postal employee stole my package since it needed to be signed for. The package made it to the buyer's post office, but never to the delivery truck.  

by: Eagle

@ iheartjacksparrow I can top that one, unfortunately. Shipped $2200 of vintage Navajo jewelry to my best customer 6 yrs ago in December. Actually post office tracked it to the delivery driver in New Orleans loading package to deliver. Obvious as hell the postman took it. Package had signature conf, but I only put $500 insurance since we had 30+ previous orders delivered with no problem. Got the $500 no problem and would hope the postman lost his job. Customer split the difference with us on the rest of loss. We use to attach packing label on outside of box, but stopped that procedure after this incident.

by: ZZ

Wondering how often this happens: "If the successful buyer has reason to believe the item is counterfeit, he or she must notify someone at the facility prior to leaving the premises. The item in question will be immediately destroyed with no further investigation into the authenticity, and no adjustment will be made to the amount paid for the lot."

by: myfriendhenry

@Eagle  - Wait what?  Customer "split the rest of the loss with you?  customer gave you over ($2200 - $500 / 2)   $850 for a package they did not receive?    Who on this earth pays $850 when they didn't get anything?  Where do you get these customers!?   (sad) Truth is, bottom line is they received the package, delivery driver didn't get a signature due to Covid is my guess.  You got scammed.

by: iheartjacksparrow

@myfriendhenry - But the postal carrier would presumably have scanned the tracking number on Eagle's package even if the carrier didn't get a signature. I would imagine both Eagle and the buyer checked online to see if the package was scanned as "delivered." I also assume both Eagle and his buyer filed for a missing mail search.

I think it is plausible that Eagle's customer split the loss. Eagle states that the buyer was his best customer, so that buyer had probably spent a large amount of money on the jewelry. If the buyer knew he was getting some great deals, it would be worth it to "not rock the boat" so he could continue buying from Eagle.

by: TwistedThrifters

Nice of them to give us fictitious numbers for how much they're making off our "lost" packages. Pretty sure they made more than that in 2019 since the one auction linked in this article went for more than that by itself.  

by: topfloor233

The main problem with the usps is that for the most part you cant sue them since they have sovereign immunity. So, when they steal your stuff, that's it.