I complained to the dealer about my damaged covers. The damage truly was not his fault, although I believe that if he had used somewhat tougher stiffeners the covers would have been fine. In any event, he promptly gave me a full refund and told me that he didn't want me to bother to return the covers.
I've always been impressed with the professionalism of the stamp dealers I've known. This is another case which preserves that impression. The dealer: Discount Cover Store.
Bob
The problem sellers face is postage charges. Adding another stiffener could put the package over the thickness and weight of the package, resulting in higher postage charges.
This determines whether you have to charge say $2.63 or $3.99.
Some buyers will accept this increase, others do not.
It places a seller in an impossible situation at times.
Would you pay the extra say for 20-30 approval stamps at 8 cents each?
"...Would you pay the extra, say for 20-30
approval stamps, at 8 cents each? ..."
I sure would, to get those rare pinhole stamps
or covers from J. W. Scott's first sales and
auctions that mysteriously turned up in Bob's
mail. Imagine what they would fetch on e-Bay ?
Bob, that's one of those odd "how the heck did that happen?" occurrences. A while back I received a package in an official Priority Mail box that had what looked like someone had stabbed a screwdriver straight through it. The model car kit box inside was also skewered, but it missed any parts. So I shrugged it off since I intended to build the model and didn't need the box.
And for your dealer that was the one in five hundred packages that got damaged, so it's worth paying you rather than paying extra postage and packaging on five hundred orders.
When I send out stamps, mostly covers, I use Staples brand Number 12 Kraft brown envelopes. Slightly larger than a number 11 business envelope. I place the covers or cards in the envelope, with an 8.5x11" sheet of 60 lb cardstock trifolded around it. I have yet to have a complaint. But one of these days...
Today I received seven covers I had ordered from a company in Texas. They were well packaged in a plastic bag and heavy manila envelope stiffened by a piece of cardboard from a soft-drink carton. Not the strongest packing, but far better than I often receive. However, somewhere in transit, the package was struck by an object that left pinholes and a "dimple" in the front of the shipping envelope, pinholes through the stiffener, and pinholes and dimples in six of the covers, and dimples only in the eighth cover.
Here's an image of the damage to the shipping envelope and the cardboard:
This is one of the covers I ordered:
The covers are far from valuable, fortunately — US$17.75 for the lot, including postage. But I don't buy covers because of their commercial value. I buy them because of their interesting provenance. Five of them are franked with the 1943 "Nations United" U.S. stamp, which was issued on my birthday, January 14. Three have clear wartime slogan cancels. One is franked with a nice American flag "slogan" cancel and a single Joseph Pulitzer commemorative stamp with selvedge and the quote, "Our republic and its press will rise or fall together".
As Yoda would say, disappointed I am! I wish that all stamp dealers would emulate the packaging used by Stamporama's sponsors, Roy and Debbie Lingen. Those packages mail might survive a nuclear blast!
In the greater scheme of things, I suppose it's not a big deal. I might have bought one or two of them even if they'd already had the pinholes, and I could still use them as illustrations in web pages. I have three expensive covers on the way from other dealers — I hope those survive the mails!
Bob
re: More damage in the mails
I complained to the dealer about my damaged covers. The damage truly was not his fault, although I believe that if he had used somewhat tougher stiffeners the covers would have been fine. In any event, he promptly gave me a full refund and told me that he didn't want me to bother to return the covers.
I've always been impressed with the professionalism of the stamp dealers I've known. This is another case which preserves that impression. The dealer: Discount Cover Store.
Bob
re: More damage in the mails
The problem sellers face is postage charges. Adding another stiffener could put the package over the thickness and weight of the package, resulting in higher postage charges.
This determines whether you have to charge say $2.63 or $3.99.
Some buyers will accept this increase, others do not.
It places a seller in an impossible situation at times.
Would you pay the extra say for 20-30 approval stamps at 8 cents each?
re: More damage in the mails
"...Would you pay the extra, say for 20-30
approval stamps, at 8 cents each? ..."
I sure would, to get those rare pinhole stamps
or covers from J. W. Scott's first sales and
auctions that mysteriously turned up in Bob's
mail. Imagine what they would fetch on e-Bay ?
re: More damage in the mails
Bob, that's one of those odd "how the heck did that happen?" occurrences. A while back I received a package in an official Priority Mail box that had what looked like someone had stabbed a screwdriver straight through it. The model car kit box inside was also skewered, but it missed any parts. So I shrugged it off since I intended to build the model and didn't need the box.
And for your dealer that was the one in five hundred packages that got damaged, so it's worth paying you rather than paying extra postage and packaging on five hundred orders.
When I send out stamps, mostly covers, I use Staples brand Number 12 Kraft brown envelopes. Slightly larger than a number 11 business envelope. I place the covers or cards in the envelope, with an 8.5x11" sheet of 60 lb cardstock trifolded around it. I have yet to have a complaint. But one of these days...