What I can do to ensure that people have fewer "Postal Moments"!

I think we have all had our own ?postal moments? at one time or another, and I am no exception. Some time ago, I bought a Britannia on E-Bay and the parcel arrived at my house in a timely manner. The only problem is it arrived empty! Stamped on the empty packaging was the following, ?received unsealed and received empty?. Whether my parcel was damaged on the post offices? sorting machines or the coin was stolen, I could only conjecture. All I knew was that my coin was lost. Fortunately, the seller refunded my money when I sent a picture of the package back to him. In my case, the incident turned out OK, albeit disappointing, however I felt bad for the seller.

Often when things of this nature occur, I try to find the ?teachable moments? in them. While I cannot control how people package items they send to me, I can control how I package coins I sell.

Because of the human element, I try to do what I can to protect myself. My first rule of thumb is that I try to avoid using bubble packaging. Have you ever noticed how flimsy the paper flap is on those things? If I use bubble packaging, I always reinforce that flap with nylon reinforced paper tape. In the case of my empty parcel, this had not been done. Instead of bubble packaging, I prefer to use a paper cushioned rugged mailer manufactured by a company called ?Caremail?. This envelope has no plastic in it and is manufactured with 95% recycled paper. A package of 25, 6 by 8 ?-inch ?Caremail? mailers can be purchased at Amazon.com for $14.49. Even with these, I paper tape seal the openings.

If the parcel is not insured or registered, I seal the address with clear tape so that if the package gets wet, the ink does not run. Clear tape is prohibited on registered mail, so I make sure the address is bold and will not run. When I use mailing labels, I do not trust the adhesive on the labels, but reinforce it with clear tape. I always use labels on bubble packaging because if you ever noticed the ball point pen pokes through the paper. I also like to put an invoice with the recipients address inside the package with the coin to ensure the address is in more than one place.

I always use delivery confirmation and insurance on items valued over $50. If an item is lost, tracking numbers such as these go a long way in located the lost item. For items under $50, I usually send them with delivery confirmation only.

Had these steps to secure my purchase been followed, I may have my coin today. In the end, there is no way to eliminate the risk; however, you can minimize it. May all your coin purchases be delivered to you safe and secure!

Gary