The throw away money challenge.

[EVIL INC]

Its been 5+ years since it happened and I was inexperienced enough to not know what to do and accept it at face value. I am sure everything is long gone by now and I have years since resigned myself to it as a learning experience.

[Norseman]

TomGuadalupe wrote:
If i were only as badass as you this would have never happened, is this sufficient?

Poetry...Pure Poetry...lol

Awesome!!!

[kturock]

TomGuadalupe wrote:
If i were only as badass as you this would have never happened, is this sufficient?

Poetry...Pure Poetry...lol

Awesome!!!

Ahh. one of my unbiased fans...and a watchman no less.

[mrrshann618]

Actually the stairs/walkway were not unsafe to walk on, the postal carier merely felt that way. On top of that they have a request by me to deliver packages to an alternate location other than the stairs that were in question. kturock in addition to your "how were they supposed to deliver the notice" That's easy, the same way I did when running my rural route with hornets and bees and their mailbox.

As for the quote:

kturock wrote:

mrrshann618 wrote:
Bottom line about lost mail, if it's not worth the $2-5 to insure it, it's not worth the time it takes you to bitch about it here. $1300 insurance costs $14.70.
Penny wise, pound foolish.

I did not write that, please do not misquote me.

To the OP I'm sorry my suggestion has already been attempted, I just know from prior experience that these mixups sometimes happen.

[Norseman]

Hath not a Watchman eyes? Hath not a Watchman hands, organs,
dimensions, senses, affections, passions; fed with
the same food, hurt with the same weapons, subject
to the same diseases, heal'd by the same means,
warm'd and cool'd by the same winter and summer
as a Member is? If you prick us, do we not bleed?
If you tickle us, do we not laugh? If you poison us,
do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we not revenge?

And with that I take my leave... Sorry for the brief hyjack.

[reegsk]

Norseman, are you suggesting we implement a system of poisoning watchmen just to be sure they're human?

And yeah, that sucks about the roommate and the shop owner. We had something similar happen in my area, where a guy took a bunch of armies to paint them on commission. . .and then sold the armies on eBay.

The worst "It got broken" story I have is this -- I have a buddy of mine who worked at GW (before I did). I don't know how, but he got ahold of a Bugman's mug, and gave it to me. Well, needless to say it eventually got knocked off the kitchen table and cracked cleanly in half. Not as bad as an army's worth of models, but it still sucked hardcore.

Actually, speaking of those, do any of you gents from England know how hard/expensive it is to get ahold of one of those?

[adwyn]

One of the fellows in our group mailed some models to his brother earlier this week to use in a game yesterday. Should have been there fine, but haven't shown yet - here's the suspected reason;

http://www.missoulian.com/news/state-an ... 03286.html

[reegsk]

Now that SUCKS!

It would make a heck of a campaign add for insurance, though.

[kturock]

Yup, even though it was loaded on the plane by another company and the plane was flown by another company; USPS will end up paying for anything insured and take the grief for all of it.

[TomGuadalupe]

One of the fellows in our group mailed some models to his brother earlier this week to use in a game yesterday. Should have been there fine, but haven't shown yet - here's the suspected reason;

http://www.missoulian.com/news/state-an ... 03286.html

LOL now that is a nightmare scenario, you better hope those minis were bubble wrapped or something!

[JohnHwangBT]

i did not receive my end of the deal even though the USPS tracking number states the package has been delivered.

i am most likely out $1300

Obviously this is all my fault for
A. Trading so large
B. Not getting insurance

I challenge you to beat $1300

I'm in the hole for about $200 on an eBay sale gone bad, so that's as bad as it got for me. I tightened things up considerably after that happened, to avoid future hassle. So far, so good.

I can understand not insuring small trades <$50, but $1000+ doesn't warrant insurance & enhanced signature confirmation or something?

[kturock]

John's question got me thinking and I had to do my research before I posted.

There is more that you can do, besides insurance and d/c; but you must send it priority mail. [or 1st class if it's under 8 ounces]

It's called registered mail. It's a major PIA to package. It MUST have all seams and openings taped closed WITH paper tape. NOT masking tape, but a special paper packaging/packing tape that you can almost anywhere.

Registered mails stats at and additional $10.60 plus postage, but includes insurance. Now, it doesn't include d/c, but it does. !st anytime you buy postage online via the usps website, you get free d/c, with the availability of getting free email notification. It gets scanned and signed for EVERY time it gets handled. It goes under lock and key. Everybody and I mean everybody who touches it or is near it signs for it. This is how USPS handles our pay checks. This is how USPS makes it deposits cash, checks et c. [have you ever seen a bank truck pull up to a USPS location?] It's under even more camera survilance. [every USPS facility is under 24 hour camera and/or personal observation. not the place to work if you're paranoid.]

So on to the biggest $ loss listed here, I calculated postage for a 20 pound package going across the US; FL to CA. It's a box thats 12x12x12. It's shipped registered with $1200 insurance. It cost $67.05, that includes $51.25 for postage and $15.80 for registering [which includes insurance]. Transit time is about 2 days.
The same box sent the sent way with just insurance for $1200 is $64.95. $13.70 is the cost of the insurance. So for $2.10 more, and using special tape, you get special handling and care.

Wow. I didn't know it was that cheap. Yes, it actually costs more to send it registered for smaller $ amounts, but for big $ items, it's worth it.
SO, yes there is more you can do. $2 for it going under lock and key.

HOLY CRAP! I'M AN IDIOT. [I expect to see that in a couple sig lines, at least 1 watchman's.]
I just realised the best way for new and low/lower rated traders to sell items here. C.O.D.

You send the item and pay for postage when you mail it. When it gets delivered, the letter carrier ONLY gives it to the person when they receive the $ for it. They must get paid by cash, which is convereted into a USPS money order or a check made out to the shipper/sender. The sender has a choice if they want to accept a check or not. So I'd suggest you mark cash only.

If it doesn't get paid for, it gets returned. Yes, you lose the postage fees, but at least have you item.

i'll write up more details and start a new specific post topic.

[JohnHwangBT]

Now, that's a really good post.

Perhaps someone can extract it and sticky it.

[EVIL INC]

Done.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=106194

[aurak_merc]

A couple of years ago I decided to take up 40k. A friend had given me a bunch of his old Chaos Marines, so that was the army I was starting. I sold off some of my other gaming stuff and decided that I was going to get a coveted Chaos Warhound Titan from Forgeworld to have as the centerpiece of my army. After over 3 months of waiting, it arrived and I was stoked. However, a week or so later, my wife had some medical concerns (which of course incurs bills) and it was going to be financially tight for a time, so I decided to Ebay the titan and pay the bills quickly. Heck, I could get another one some other time.

Well, I sell the titan on ebay. Huzzah. The person pays with paypal, and I ship the next day with delivery confirmation. A couple weeks pass, and I get a paypal dispute opened up on me for the titan. I try to figure out what the heck is going on, as the money was pretty important to me at that time. I called the buyer, whom dodged my calls and then disconnected their phone altogether. Finally, I got ahold of some joker at Paypal, whom said they did an investigation and "thought" that the person may have had their account hacked.

Now, the glorious part: Even though the item was delivered to the person's address, paid for by their account, and they had a history of buying 40k stuff....THEY WON! Yep, they were able to keep my Titan and my medical bill money. A hair under $600 in cash, plus the model. The clincher to the deal was that I had not purchased signature on receipt as an option. The paypal rep admitted that it "looked like" a scam, but since their was no signature, I was S.O.L. I had not even thought about that, since I have sold stuff on ebay near that price range with no issues at all (and no signatures, ever).

I have since closed my paypal account, and will never, ever open another one. It allows scamming, and is really nothing more than a pimp service. They do nothing, and take a cut of the money.