Problem eBay USPS printed postage tracking
Yankeefan320
Posts: 160 ✭✭
Yesterday I sold 5 Beatles collectors stamps on eBay. I put the stamps in a one top loader. I could have sent them In an eBay standard envelope for 0.60 because they weighed less than 1 ounce but eBay won’t allow me to buy one since the auction was in the wrong category so I sent them First Class in a 4x6 Bubble envelope and with the eBay discounted postage it cost me $3.81. Early this morning I placed the envelope in a USPS mailbox but the tracking hasn’t been updated yet! 😡 Have any of you ever experienced this when printing USPS postage from eBay and dropping it in a post office box?
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USPS misses scans often. My post office has a self service machine that lets me scan stuff in myself. I go in to the post office to use the machine. I believe USPS insurance kicks in when USPS receives the item. The machine gives me a receipt and never really has a line. Where I live if you need to talk to a live person at the post office it can take a good amount of time due to long lines.
My post office wont let me put things in the mail box after hours anymore. They started locking the mail boxes at night and putting strict size limitations on what you can fit in the slot. I guess mail was being stolen.
USPS does a good job considering the volume of packages they're dealing with. I have had very few problems with them.
Just to clarify a bit, USPS insurance kicks in once they scan it for the first time. If they haven't scanned it, they will deny possession.
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Not uncommon, especially if you dropped it off on a Saturday. I've also had packages not pick up a scan at all along the way until they reached the destination PO. I wouldn't worry about it but if something is high dollar you should drop it off inside the PO or even go to the clerk to have it scanned in.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
It was a low dollar item, only $10, or else I would have dropped it off at the Post Office.
i only lost one package my entire life and that was by dropping it in a post office box, no scans, no nothing
Have you ever dropped a package with prepaid postage which included tracking into a Post Office box for an inexpensive item which arrived at the destination with no problem but it didn’t get scanned into the system when it was picked up by the mail man?
Yes, this happened to be recently too. I dropped off ~5 packages at my local PO. None of them were scanned upon receipt. One was scanned during transit. The rest were scanned upon delivery.
One of my duties at USPS was picking up the collection box mail. Inside the collection box was 1 or 2 tubs we used to move mail. I was taught to take 2 empties, pick up the filled ones, leave the empties. This was usually only minutes before the truck came and there wasn't any time to go thru looking at the mail.
Packages should go inside, hand them to a clerk, ask for them to be scanned and for a receipt. If it's not worth that much time you don't really need for it to be scanned in.
On Saturdays the rush inside is worse. At most offices they don't have the time.
Well, I live in a huge retirement community and our mail boxes are at the postal station by the pool recreation area. There is a slot for Outgoing mail. I deposited my bubble mail with prepaid postage there at 5:00 AM Saturday morning. Based upon what you said for all I know the mail hasn’t even been picked up yet.
For a $10 item, I really wouldn't stress it. The postage cost half of the item's value. It should start tracking by tomorrow night in all likelihood or at least when it reaches the destination PO.
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
There should be a sign on the box saying when the mail is picked up. It WILL be picked up then. There's a barcode inside the box that needs scanned and it's a real big deal if it doesn't get scanned. It's something they take very seriously.
Well, at my end all I see is “Outgoing Mail” above the mail slot. Maybe the person inside the mailroom can see what you described.
Yours would be the first one I've ever seen without this, maybe yours is special or something and didn't need one.
I have seen those before on those typical blue USPS mailboxes but as I mentioned previously this is a mail station in a retirement community and there is no sign posted by the outgoing mail slot. I live in Florida so maybe we are backwards. LOL.
i don't know what a mail station is, if the mail slot goes thru a wall then it works the same as a blue box and the outgoing mail and packages go away when the new mail arrives. If it doesn't go thru a wall and you're nervous about your outgoing stuff you should go to the post office,
I had a retirement building and the slot did go thru the wall and everything was good. When I put the mail in their boxes the last box was the collection tub. it was only 50 boxes but no problems with outgoing mail.
I just looked on eBay recent transactions of "5 Beatles stamps" and they sold for $4-$15. You should just send them by plain white envelope. Chances are very strong they will get there. Very low risk item.
I just bought a lot of 40 unused forever stamps (cheaper than the post office) and I got them in a PWE two days later.
My 2nd auction I did put them in an eBay standard envelope (PWE). The problem with the 1st auction is that they were put in the wrong stamp category. Live and learn!
My takeaway here is that your original plan was to use a regular first class envelope to mail a toploader.
That seems to me to be an invitation for trouble. I know that they'll get through OK most of the time but an unevenly rigid envelope can get chewed up by the machines.
Card Saver I. Similar I suppose but less rigid. I never had a problem mailing one in an eBay standard envelope.
I send all my Standard Envelope for Trading Cards in a PWE with a top loader. No problems (knock on wood) - a single normal sized top loader goes through their automated sorters, belts etc. no problem. I wouldn’t try more than 1 and I certainly wouldn’t try the thicker top loaders meant for relics and thick cards.
Jim
I have never dropped of a package in box or left it on the counter and walked out of the post office. I don't mind waiting in line and having the worker scan the package and give me a receipt. I have yet to lose a package.
And were they real? Not to go off topic, but there apparently is a ton of fraud in "discounted" Forever stamps lately.
So I created the USPS label with postage on eBay Friday night 6/23 at 10:57 PM. I put it in the mail slot at the postal station in our retirement community Saturday morning 6/24 at 6:00 AM and according to this USPS Tracking there it sat until Tuesday night 6/27 at 11:16 PM. Geez Louise! I can not figure this one out because I dropped the same Beatle Stamps from another eBay auction in an eBay Standard Envelope Monday morning 6/26 at 7:00 AM at the same mail slot and that tracked on eBay Monday night. Go figure! And as I mentioned previously, the only freaking reason I didn’t buy an eBay Standard Envelope in the first place is that their system won’t allow it because I put it in the wrong stamp category. For many years I use to be a computer programmer at IBM. eBay’s software is so stupid and frustrating sometimes and leaves a lot to be desired. And when someone calls eBay’s help line one gets the run around. Anyway, it just dawned on me last night that if I drove 1 mere mile further than the postal station there is a Pack and Ship that accepts USPS, FedEx and UPS packages and I would get an acceptance scan. Live and learn!
So it took 3 days to get “accepted” by the USPS but it finally arrived at it’s destination. Now I have restored faith in our renowned government institution 🤪
Was there ever a doubt?
Collecting 1970s Topps baseball wax, rack and cello packs, as well as PCGS graded Half Cents, Large Cents, Two Cent pieces and Three Cent Silver pieces.
No really. Maybe once or twice in my life I have had a package which had tracking get lost and I am an old fart in my 60’s 😀