Lost with the snail

I just read the handful of "Going Postal" messages & responses. It made me think about one of my coins.

If you check out the description of my 1842 large cent (in my Late Dates and All Dates sets) you can read a brief story about my purchase of that coin. What's missing from the story, is about the shipping.

I purchased the coin from Heritage via Make an Offer in May of 2005. At the time, it was my most expensive coin. I save all emails associated with purchases. There wasn't a shipping notification from Heritage, and I don't recall whether the coin was sent via USPS or another carrier.

After I paid for the coin, I waited and waited for it to be delivered. It got to be so long that I contacted Heritage to verify a shipping date. That must have been by phone or their website because there's no email. I even recall notifying the Registry about the missing coin. (Having a Heritage photo of the slab, I put it in the Registry before I received it. I had to request a score correction for it too. Twice - another minor story.)

Several more days passed. Then, one day, my wife decided to take advantage of a nice warm June day to do some gardening. And what should appear around the side of our house, under the steps to our deck? Yes - a small package from Heritage. Fortunately, the packaging was pretty good. The outside was soggy, but the contents were dry. I had my coin at last!

I suspect that most missing deliveries are not simply hiding out in non-standard places around your home, but it might be worth a look.

Soon after that, I bought another Make an Offer coin from Heritage. That coin (my 1830 cent) got packed up in a delivery to some dealer, who returned it to Heritage. So I had back-to-back scares!

I'd prefer to think that packages simply get lost (but wouldn't ones lost in the system eventually turn up?), but there are less innocent possibilities. One already mentioned is that the delivery employees might be stealing them. Another is that, if signature of the named recipient is not required, a package could be misdelivered, and a neighbor kept it.

One thing I do, mainly to save a few bucks, is to submit coins for grading at the Baltimore shows. That eliminates the outbound shipping risk.

I hope those deliveries come to you soon...