How many coins are likely lost through eBay and USPS every year.

TwoSides2aCoin

Seems losses cost me hundreds (dollars), every year. Ever wonder where they end up ? Some coins, that is ? I would show photos, but is there a need, really ?
Sometimes I wonder why some (coins) never show up in the "tracking" system until after they're delivered or , they just stop tracking in some town and that's the end of them.... Is this glitch costing you ? Or is this just a freak thing that hits me more often than seems normal ?

Somebody somewhere is getting coins and I (or sellers) are paying for them, because the USPS and eBay are not liable, sellers are.

The woes of being a seller, on eBay. I cannot prove I sent it (barring across the counter exchange in the post office w/receipt) ... , so I pay the customer back (when these items are not delivered in a timely manner), and lose the items. Never to be seen again.

Okay, I'm done crying. Carry on.

BryceM

Most establishments call stuff like this "a cost of doing business." It's often cheaper and easier to tolerate a low level of this than run down each and every problem. Sad, but true.



Society only works if a baseline level of honesty and integrity exists among the active players in that society.

OPA

For properly addressed mail with a legible address, it is very very rare for it to get lost by the USPS. According to the United States Postal Service (USPS), the amount of mail that was undeliverable as addressed (UAA) was near 4.7 percent in 2010.

LanceNewmanOCC

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i dunno but this thread sends chills down my spine.



i have started having the local po scan virtually every item in so the record can be instantly seen online.



a lot of packages werent updating until delivery giving my customers mild strokes and therefore me until i caught on everything ended up ok.



waiting for items to show in the system is nervewracking.



have a monster in the system now and im losing sleep tonight vis-a-vis this thread!



had forgot about it due to so much going on too. dangit 2s2c!



i guess i can say 2 in the last year but it was after the recipients po scanned as received with signature but my buyer didnt sign. his po says en route back to sender. this was a couple/few months ago. ugh. $250 give/take.



biyer bough a low dollar item shrtly thereafter and it went through no prob. - wondered if i was being scammed or if the buyer thought i was scamming him. we both stayed professionsal and it was amazing to me. though all heck would break loose at any time. it didnt much to my pleasure.



----

once had a package traveling for 1.5 months whike i watched due to me transposing 2 digits due to the pp page refreshing and i didnt notice, or something to that effect. only time i let that one happen.



switched items doing multiple packing runs a few times. i stopped that one too but did get to see how understanding, patient and forgiving people can be. worth making those mistakes to see too.

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TwoSides2aCoin

A little off topic, but here is a "So Called Dollar" from Omaha that got lost in the post office in Kansas. Like Toto in a tornado

And if anyone sees this coin, consider it "stolen".





And this one has gone "missing" for the past week in College Station, Tx.

ctf_error_coins

I am sure it is an extremely small fraction of the coins that do get delivered.

People do not report good deliveries.

VanHalen

Originally posted by: OPA

For properly addressed mail with a legible address, it is very very rare for it to get lost by the USPS. According to the United States Postal Service (USPS), the amount of mail that was undeliverable as addressed (UAA) was near 4.7 percent in 2010.

This. I've never had a coin lost either shipped from me or to me and were talking at least a thousand shipments/deliveries for tens of thousands of coins.



When shipping high value items I purchase labels and insurance at home and have my packages scanned in by a local USPS employee for acceptance.



Sorry to hear of your bad luck. Wish we could do a 5Y root cause analysis.

TwoSides2aCoin

Have been shipping through the same post office and the greater part of 7500 packages have made it from here to Canada, Russia, England, Malaysia, China, Germany, France, Australia, and a few other places.... and to about every state in the union, including Minnesota
... I don't know why , of late, (past year) there have been so many "gone missing" in the system and some that NEVER show up in it when I physically put them in the box. On the rare occasion I need insurance or such, it's simple walking in and getting it "checked in", but THAT should not matter, especially when the package has tracking information and it's IN THE SYSTEM but never delivered. I don't understand this.

coindeuce

"I cannot prove I sent it " If you ship via a service counter, you should have a tape receipt for every article accepted. If you ship from online services, you should still get a paper receipt that is part and parcel of every label generated.



One small and maybe insignificant piece of advice: If you are generating shipping labels from eBay, when attaching the label to your package, never use clear packaging tape to cover the tracking bar code (not the QR code for postage value). The reflective nature of the packaging tape sometimes defeats the scanning equipment at sorting/distribution centers depending on the sensitivity setting of the scanners.

TopographicOceans

For the amount of mail they process I think the PO does a great job.

For me the biggest point of failure is my local PO.
I'll get mail in my PO box for somebody else and I've had them give my mail to others, but were able to track it down and get it back.

BAJJERFAN

Originally posted by: coindeuce

"I cannot prove I sent it " If you ship via a service counter, you should have a tape receipt for every article accepted. If you ship from online services, you should still get a paper receipt that is part and parcel of every label generated.



One small and maybe insignificant piece of advice: If you are generating shipping labels from eBay, when attaching the label to your package, never use clear packaging tape to cover the tracking bar code (not the QR code for postage value). The reflective nature of the packaging tape sometimes defeats the scanning equipment at sorting/distribution centers depending on the sensitivity setting of the scanners.

I always tape over the bar code with clear tape and have never had an issue with it not getting scanned. Just make sure that there are no wrinkles or creases in it. Beats having the bar code damaged by handling.

mbogoman

In all likelihood, many of these are not truly lost, but are stolen...

LindeDad

Originally posted by: BAJJERFAN

Originally posted by: coindeuce

"I cannot prove I sent it " If you ship via a service counter, you should have a tape receipt for every article accepted. If you ship from online services, you should still get a paper receipt that is part and parcel of every label generated.



One small and maybe insignificant piece of advice: If you are generating shipping labels from eBay, when attaching the label to your package, never use clear packaging tape to cover the tracking bar code (not the QR code for postage value). The reflective nature of the packaging tape sometimes defeats the scanning equipment at sorting/distribution centers depending on the sensitivity setting of the scanners.

I always tape over the bar code with clear tape and have never had an issue with it not getting scanned. Just make sure that there are no wrinkles or creases in it. Beats having the bar code damaged by handling.

I tape over also feel it's better than being blurred by our constant rain.

TwoSides2aCoin

I either use the adhesive labels or tape over . I don't typically tape over the bar code or pertinent data that is "scanned". The problems I am facing is that the packages are always received by the USPS, scanned, and get to another place where they go "poof". Now, someone is not getting their "delivery confirmation" which is paid for in every case through the associated shipping costs. Yet, I can't prove to eBay when it's dropped in the box, or that there is an item in the box. I get that. But I know I put them in the box and they get scanned and they leave home port.


A great mystery and I tend to believe they're NEVER lost; only stolen. If they're misplaced then someone got them and they don't belong there. They should be returned. It's not manna from Heaven, even though I TGIF.

ctf_error_coins

TS2C, if you feel they are getting stolen, I suggest you go talk with a postal inspector.

oih82w8

i have started having the local po scan virtually every item in so the record can be instantly seen online.



a lot of packages werent updating until delivery giving my customers mild strokes and therefore me until i caught on everything ended up ok.



waiting for items to show in the system is nervewracking.

I can certainly relate with Lance. I have posted a few times over the lack of updating the USPS Tracking System, especially with Registered Mail.

Wabbit2313

Knock on wood but I have never had one lost and that is out of more than 1000. Even the ones that come to me, when it looks like there is no way it should have made it with the ridiculous address labels or packaging, have all made it.

I insure my submissions and CAC packages, and in hindsight, should have self insured. The minute I do that though, they will all go missing!

Cougar1978

OP - You must be very unlucky or something.

I have had only 3 lost shipments in over 20 years of shipping. 1 outgoing and 2 incoming. The outgoing was paid by USPS insurance. The 2 incoming were refunded. So zero financial loss.

USPS is my shipping service of choice.

Jackthecat1

I had an e-Bay buyer once claim that they never received their coin. USPS tracking showed it as delivered. E-Bay gave them a refund at no cost to me. I have no idea if the person was a scammer, the item was stolen from their mailbox, or something else. That was my only issue with hundreds of packages both sending and receiving.

derryb

It's not like they get melted. Most aren't lost forever. They eventual get found by someone.

panexpoguy

Spotty to no tracking on registered items is wearing at times. I have never had a coin lost in the mail but I have had my mail delivery person swear they delivered packages to me that show delivered but I did not get, only to find that they put them in the mail box of the neighbor just before or after my house or delivered the package to a house with the same house number, but two streets over. What really irks me is when I have a package with signature confirmation and it is put in my box without me signing for it.

TwoSides2aCoin

Originally posted by: Cougar1978
OP - You must be very unlucky or something.

I have had only 3 lost shipments in over 20 years of shipping. 1 outgoing and 2 incoming. The outgoing was paid by USPS insurance. The 2 incoming were refunded. So zero financial loss.

USPS is my shipping service of choice.

Something tells me it's not USPS. There are some strange goings on. In a case of 4 items lost in one shipment, the buyer opened a case within 3 days of my mailing it. The buyer contacted me prior to bidding that he desired "combined" shipping. Even though the items showed to be out of my hands and in his state, he opened a case. Oddly, he escalated this and eBay ruled against me, took the money out and put a strike against me. This, even after he was reimbursed. Now , that's just one instance, but it's the loss of 4 coins.

And then the SCD above. That's peculiar. Or the ones that are "OUT FOR DELIVERY" and never updated. ? The tracking system at eBay is probably the problem and it's being gamed by a few players, I suspect.

TigersFan2

Coins aren't really lost by the USPS. Their ownership just changes to some USPS employee somewhere along the line.

LanceNewmanOCC

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fwiw,



i try to clear tape over 50% of the bar code so it is scannable if the top, unprotected is damaged however and if the reflective is a problem or wrinkle, then hopefully the top is scannable. i dont like the full self-adhesive as reusing the envelopes is a bear until yiu perfect the method of removing the label. clear tape is not environmentally friendly but works great and makes labels easier to remove. i wont say more as we are skirting ways to beat the system.



from my understanding, the hubs and major offices use QRF (is that what it is called?) in the top right.



my local po did politely ask me to not tape over the bar code as if it doesn't scan, the number is manually typed. this could cause errors? or sketchy tracking.



gotta find these happy mediums since they asked for their sake, mine and customers. i appreciated their feedback.



i asked if there was talk of customers being able to scan in their own packages. you know, only certain weights, type etc. it is nearly the equivalent of dropping in the box but getting scanned faster, more convenient or possibly 24/7.



ebay nailed me on 10 give/take packages out of 2-300? that were "late" (same day vs 1 day handling, tracking by midnight vs 24 hrs?? - even nailed me on trans with pos feedback. weird.). i've gone back to free shipping to get the dsr 5 star for items customers don't leave feedback for, which imo, is far too many and 1 day handling to work out the kink in the system. sporadic feedback makes the negatives (not feedback in this case) stick out much more as they don't get averaged out as easily unless you met all requirements to get auto 5 star.



ok, enough digressing.

.

epcjimi1

Originally posted by: mbogoman
In all likelihood, many of these are not truly lost, but are stolen...

Here ya go. Yepper. USPS tracking is a revenue generator, that your shipment got "lost", is baloney, otherwise why sell tracking to you at whatever level you choose? Tracking was supposed to ensure delivery, instead, it highlights theft.

In today's day and age, I sent my tax returns certified USPS mail. Oddly, sending a tax return to the IRS in Fesno, CA certified says to me, "steal my ssn by opening this envelope. I guarantee my ssn is in there. What a load of baloney.

Srsly.

Theft city. MHO.

TwoSides2aCoin

Thank you fellas. It's a lot clearer now and helps me with these anger and frustration issues for "unfinished business", which is costly.