A combination of the Covid pandemic and the ease of online ordering has resulted in brick and mortar stores being a casualty over the past 18 months. Conversely, people staying at home have resulted in a resurgence in hobbies. That wasn’t lost on digital retailers who have been hawking everything from “rare” silver and gold coins to collector sets at sky-high prices.
Those “collectibles” could result in other problems. The first is whether or not they are a good deal. In most cases they are anything but. Many people don’t discover that until it’s too late. The one bright spot is because the items are received by mail, by law consumers have 30 days to return them for a full refund. It’s a buyer’s remorse clause afforded to most mail order products. That brings up one other problem – the return....
Along with restaurants and retailers, today’s worker shortage has somehow affected the union-heavy US Postal Service. Service is said to be endemically slow – even unreliable. That can be extra problematic when it concerns returns.
I experienced that first-hand some years ago. I had received a large number of rare stamps from a dealer in Connecticut for an investor who wanted to see them. The $15,000 worth of rare stamps the investor opted not to keep I returned to the dealer through the mail. I placed them in a padded envelope for Registered return shipping.
When I went to the post office I learned the rules for Registered Mail had changed. The USPS said padded envelopes could no longer be used for Registered Mail. I had already packaged the stamps so I instead sent them “Insured” with a return receipt.
A few weeks later, I received a call from the dealer saying he hadn’t received the package. That made no sense. I had gotten the return receipt. Then, I noticed it was unsigned. I tried to put a trace on the package but the USPS said they couldn’t find it. I showed them the return receipt. They said it wasn’t valid because it wasn’t signed. Wasn’t that their responsibility?! I told them the package had been insured for $15,000. They replied they could only reimburse me for the cost of the postage and the return receipt – about $10. The Postal Inspector’s office told me there wasn’t anything they could do. I panicked. I owed the dealer $15,000 out of my pocket.
Lo and behold, the following week, the dealer phoned saying he knew where the stamps were. I was elated believing the package had finally been delivered. Nope. My package had been stolen out of the mail in Connecticut. Now, the person who stole it wanted to sell the rare stamps and collect the proceeds.
As luck would have it, the thief contacted the one dealer in the area he shouldn’t have. It was the dealer who originally owned the stamps and had sent them to me – the one dealer who could identify them on sight.
I phoned the FBI who assisted in setting up a sting operation with the Connecticut dealer. They sprung the trap and retrieved the long-lost stamps along with other items the thief had taken. I was off the hook.
So, how did the thief get the loot? It turns out he was a postal worker himself. Call me Ben Matlock but had the Postal Inspector’s office done a modicum of investigation they would have discovered many other packages had been stolen from that post office where the thief worked in the Insured Mail Department!
This is not a blanket indictment of the Postal Service. Most of our mail goes through just fine. Add to that mail carriers deliver 41 pounds of junk mail to each of us every year. That’s a lot.
The takeaway is simple: just make sure all returns of collectible coins, stamps or other merchandise sent by mail is fully covered. For that, Registered Mail is the only way to go.
If you need proof, climb in the WayBack Machine to 1958. That’s when New York jeweler Harry Winston sent the coveted Hope Diamond, then worth $38 million ($350 million today), to the Smithsonian in Washington. He spent $145 to send it Registered Mail in a brown wrapper marked “FRAGILE.”
The money Winston spent on postage only covered one million dollars of insurance. But, he had confidence. Confidence is fine. But, today, it’s best to have a guarantee.
For more collecting advice, visit www.peterexford.blogspot.com