[Milsurplus] Golden years of collecting?

[Michael Bittner]

Oops, In my last email I said Thursday when I meant Wednesday.  Other trivia:  I weigh and measure my packages before listing. Thus far, the charges rung up by the Post Office clerk have exactly agreed with the eBay USPS calculator.  Also, I got bids from buyers in Australia, Hong Kong and Japan and was amazed at how cheap it is to ship to these places by 1st Class mail.

Mike W6MAB
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: WA5CAB at cs.com 
  To: mmab at cox.net ; RAFANTINI at salisbury.edu 
  Cc: milsurplus at mailman.qth.net 
  Sent: Wednesday, March 10, 2010 7:22 PM
  Subject: Re: [Milsurplus] Golden years of collecting?


  First Class is cheap, but it can be slow.  USPS relatively seldom meet their three-day claim.  And for all practical purposes, you can't put Delivery Confirmation on it (which eBay and PayPal pretend is a tracking system).  Since the recent rate change, Parcel Post is worth considering only for packages over about 4 pounds.  Below that, the cost savings varies between about -$0.23 and +$0.45 depending upon weight and Zone.  And delivery times run out to 16 days for CONUS and longer to AK and HI.  For packages between 14 ounces and 4 pounds, PriMail is the best all around bargain.  If you allow Partial Post, you may save the buyer a quarter and they will thank you for it by giving you one or two stars for shipping time, which they all think means transit time, because they never read anything past the first paragraph.

  The above comments are based on roughly 3000 packages shipped per year for the past 8 years.

  In a message dated 3/10/2010 5:06:47 PM Central Standard Time, mmab at cox.net writes: 

    5. Small packages, under 13 ounces, can be sent from the Post Office by 1st 
    Class Mail.  It's cheap, fast and the best deal for both the buyer and the 
    seller.  Even Parcel Post is a relatively good deal for bigger items, but it 
    just takes longer.  Unless you need it yesterday, forget about Express Mail 
    or Priority Mail.  They are not worth the extra cost which can be 
    considerable.  Many sellers only list Priority Mail.  Either request them to 
    ship cheaper or don't bid on their items.  On really heavy items, such as an 
    SCR-284, I use UPS and let them professionally pack it.



  Robert & Susan Downs - Houston
  wa5cab dot com (Web Store)
  MVPA 9480