Just an empty envelope ...

Recently I've been trying to avoid spending a lot of money, but I still wanted to work on my coin collection, so I decided to buy some common half dollar and dollar coins on ebay to complete the Whitman folders I have. One of the coins I bought was a 2000 D half dollar, nothing special about it. When I got the shipment, I could tell it seemed too light. I opened the envelope (just a regular letter envelope) and inside was the packing slip with a small plastic bag taped to it with nothing inside. I was confused, so I looked a little closer. I found the plastic bag was slit down one side, and there was a half-dollar sized slit at the bottom of one corner of the envelope. On the packing slip and the envelope, I could see about four or five half-dollar shaped impressions moving steadily in one direction. It seemed pretty clear that the coin had somehow broken free of the plastic bag, worked its way toward an edge, the torn another hole in the envelope and escaped.

I contacted the seller, who thinks the coin was stolen at the post office. He gave me my money back. I don't know that I agree with him though. It seems hard to believe someone at the post office could have removed the coin like that. I'd think if they were stealing it, they'd just tear it open and discard the rest. It's almost equally hard to understand how the coin could have escaped on it's own though. I'm glad it wasn't a big loss but it was strange either way.

As a side note, since I've been buying a lot of coins online in the last month or two, I'd been getting more shipments than usual, and besides this one, I had another coin that never arrived, and a third that showed up in a totally mangled envelope that the post office put in a special see-through envelope with a "we apologize" message on it. I don't know what to make of the job the post office is doing. Where do these lost packages go?

 

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Postal Employees have devices to know the EXACT contents of any package, and ability to pilfer. We had the same problem here once. $1000 of coins gone at the postal office distribution hub. The package was heavier when it arrived there than when it left, weifhed before & after at the hub. We were reimbursed the full value, quietly, by the post office. And by the way, they could not take the contents and then dispose of the envelope within the postal hub site. Can you say... Evidence?
If an envelope looks like a regular envelope but has something wider than the envelope inside that can jam the postal sorting machines, well then it will jam the postal sorting machine.

 

There was a member on one of the other forums that had had coin shipments disappearing (coins he was sending out) and realized that it began around the time a new postal employee had started at the postal outlet at the pharmacy that he had been using for years. He knew the owner quite well and told him of his suspicions.

One evening he took in some packages to be sent when the particular employee was on shift. After doing his business, the sender went and sat with the owner while the store was closing for the night. The employee came in, wearing his coat and carrying his backpack to say good night. The sender took out his cellphone and dialed a number and to the surprise of the employee, a ringing came from his backpack!

One of the packages contained the cellphone that the sender phoned and the kid was caught. He had been stealing any packages that contained valuables.

 

^what goes around comes around, I ALWAYS say

 

I think someones ghostin' ya Hiddendragon......

 

I had shipped a $30 to an ebay customer once. I had tracking that said the package was delivered. The customer denied he received the package (he had real good feedback, so I trusted him). So, most likely, USPS messed up real bad.

 

My son once bought an x-box on line and all he got was a box! turns out it was never
Shipped the seller got tripped up trying to pull a fast one but he forgot to give the
Box the proper weight and when he posted it, it was far less in weight then it was
Supposed to be he got his money back and the guy got a negative!

 

Sending a coin in a regular, unpadded envelope is a really bad idea.

Someone tried to send me an Allen wrench in a regular envelope once. I got an empty envelope with dark scuffs on the outside and a hole just about the size of an Allen wrench at one end. I was unhappy, but probably not nearly as unhappy as the high-speed mail-processing machine that ate the wrench.

 

That sounds a lot like how this looked. You could see the dark scuffs on the envelope and the hole the size of the coin. Generally though I like it when they use a regular envelope as long as they pass the savings along. If I'm buying a common half dollar the last thing I want is to pay $3 for shipping. I think one more piece of tape would have been enough to hold this coin in.

 

That's the problem with Delivery Confirmation. It confirms that the package was delivered somewhere, but not where it was delivered to. So if it gets dropped at the wrong place there is no way to tell where it was delivered. In my area many of the postmen will scan these delivery confirmation things before they start their routes. Then if they drop it off at the wrong place it still shows that it was delivered.

That's something else you have to watch for. Many people will offer the box that a popular item comes in on-line or on ebay and people who are looking for a good deal on one see the ad and think they are buying the product. They don't read the ad closely and then get upset when they receive exactly what they bought.

 

Proper packaging would have probably helped. When I ship coins, even inexpensive ones, thay all go the same way. Padded hard sided mailers. So they cost 18 cents more than a regular envelope, but I've never had one work it's way out or have convenient coin-sized holes form in their packaging.
Guy

 

I ship all my coins (no matter how inexpensive) as non-machinable. They ask if I want priority, etc. etc. etc. - just first class non-machinable (with insurance if the value is over a certain amount). And it's often just a quarter more.

 

I bought a Morgan on-line. I got a cardboard envelope from the post office. Inside was a white envelope ripped in half, and the Morgan was still in the envelope.

 

I ordered a bag of small scale trees for my slot car setup. The bag came from Singapore. Can you guess what the post office thought was in there? haha. I finally received it, all torn up and taped back up from the post office, with a sticker that said "We care".

edit: 100's of purchases and sales through ebay. Only ever had one problem, and thats because I didn't write "Do not bend" on the envelope.

 

It doesn't matter whether I am sending raw coins or slabs, I prefer to use the self sealing mailers that are made of corrugated cardboard, and I will put that in an envelope or a USPS Priority box.

Chris

 

One of my souvenir cards arrived in my mailbox folded neatly in half right across the "Do Not Fold" stamp.

 

lol, of course!

 

it has also happened to me with the UK postal service, a corner of the envelope was torn off in a square and the coin was gone, there are thieves in every walk of life and the postal service is no exception.

 

I worked in the delivery/transportation industry for many years and believe me, they catch the sob's that do this sort of thing. It may take time, but they get 'em.

 

This is also the way that I ship any of my coins. I've found this to be the best way. There's no way the coin can move around or slip out. You have to deliberately tamper with it to get it out.