[meteorite-list] Postal insurance claim or stamps.com.

From: Yinan Wang <veomega_at_meteoritecentral.com>
Date: Fri, 29 Mar 2013 14:08:10 -0400
Message-ID: <CALpO9He_rpNDxuvUNv1u_4Ndm6rB_JGfH51PqYoPs9nLw86RYQ_at_mail.gmail.com>

I've attended about 4 of these in the past and usually there are about
200-300 bidders, probably half of them professional with the other
half bargain hunters/first timers. They have a very interesting
bidding format: if you're bidding on the lot you start with your
bidding paddle in the air and then drop out as the auctioneer counts
the price up. So the last paddle left standing wins the lot, it does
not go back and forth between two bidders like normal auctions, so it
moves FAST.

There are not a lot of bargains because most of the professional
bidders there know what they're after because they need to fill the
inventory of their stores. So for example, a cubic meter of text books
will go for $6400-6800. Or a bunch of gold coins will go till it's
only about 10% below spot. Still, occasionally there are bargains if
you spot something no one else knows about, like meteorites (which I
did not see, but saw plenty of other rocks), or can guess the number
of silver quarters in a flower vase (yes, they have so many silver
coins they fill bowls with them). Or have a way to sell Ed Hardy jeans
(yes, one time there was a cubic meter hamper filled with only Ed
Hardy jeans). Remember that there are over 50 million pieces of lost
mail per year, about 10 million pieces of which are packages.

-Yinan



On Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 1:57 PM, Galactic Stone & Ironworks
<meteoritemike at gmail.com> wrote:
> Hi Yinan,
>
> How big are these auctions in terms of attendance? Is there a lot of
> hot bidding going on, or can bargains be had?
>
> Best regards,
>
> MikeG
> --
> -------------------------------------------------------------
> Web - http://www.galactic-stone.com
> Facebook - http://www.facebook.com/galacticstone
> Twitter - http://twitter.com/GalacticStone
> Pinterest - http://pinterest.com/galacticstone
> RSS - http://www.galactic-stone.com/rss/126516
> -------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>
> On 3/29/13, Yinan Wang <veomega at gmail.com> wrote:
>> To answer Paul about why they wanted to keep the broken item:
>>
>> When the post office's insurance pays out for something, they own it,
>> whether or it's broken, destroyed, etc. The broken item's are
>> eventually sold off as salvage or entered into the Lost Package
>> Auctions. This is how they recover part of the insurance payouts.
>>
>> Every month the post office holds a big auction (or at least until
>> recently when they contracted it out) where they auction off lots
>> composed of items that were lost in the mail or had insurance paid out
>> on it.
>>
>> I've attended these auctions before, they are quite amazing, they take
>> place in a warehouse the size of a football field. Items are grouped
>> in lots, for example: an 80 lb hamper of jeans, a cubic meter of
>> textbooks, a cabinet of thousands of silver coins, entire boxes of
>> gold rings, and yes, there is usually a small cabinet composed of
>> rocks and loose stones. So yes, if you lose a meteorite in the mail or
>> had insurance pay out and they keep it, it will end up at one of these
>> auctions.
>>
>> Before anyone jumps in with angry claims that they're purposefully
>> losing mail: this is packages only, they don't sell letters or other
>> postal things. They do make an effort to return things (open packages
>> and look for addresses inside, look for any contact info, etc) and
>> usually return a decent percentage of items.
>>
>> -Yinan
>>
>>
>>
>>
>> On Fri, Mar 29, 2013 at 1:41 PM, Paul Gessler <cetuspa at shaw.ca> wrote:
>>> Mike , I had an experience like this back in 1995 (so not sure if still
>>> relevant?)
>>> I purchased a cut slab of Huckitta pallasite from Michael Casper.
>>> It was 112grams for $1.75 a gram back then.
>>> It was shipped US postal service and insured through them for $200
>>> When it arrived the box had been crushed and the riker box inside
>>> shattered
>>> with the slab breaking into two pieces. I remember filing a complaint and
>>> scheduled a
>>> meeting with the post master at my end. They contacted Mr Casper to get
>>> the
>>> value
>>> from him. I argued along with Casper that the collectability had been
>>> destroyed because
>>> it was broken in two. (those were the days before Bessy specks I think)
>>> The
>>> post office
>>> agreed and gave me my $200 back. BUT they wanted to keep the meteorite? I
>>> demanded
>>> they return it as it still had scientific value and they were supposedly
>>> going to just throw it away.
>>> They finally relented and gave it back to me. My experience was that
>>> nothing
>>> was easy
>>> or straight forward. I had to prove the damage by showing the crushed box
>>> etc and demonstrate the
>>> obvious careless handling resulted in damage. Then I had to talk them out
>>> of
>>> the object that
>>> had been written off as destroyed. Why would you keep something that was
>>> considered destroyed?
>>> You could also argue sentimental value with this I guess. Same reasoning.
>>> Anyway had to jump through some hoops but in the end I got a full refund
>>> and
>>> got to keep
>>> the broken Huckitta.
>>>
>>> Regards- Paul Gessler
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> -----Original Message----- From: Mike Miller
>>> Sent: Thursday, March 28, 2013 5:26 PM
>>> To: meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>>> Subject: [meteorite-list] Postal insurance claim or stamps.com.
>>>
>>>
>>> I am wondering if anyone can share their experience involving the loss
>>> of an insured package. Whether it was successful or not and with any
>>> of the carriers. I am especially interested in stamps.com or the Us
>>> postal service. I am asking the question because I ship a lot of
>>> meteorites and have lost some but never any that were insured. Today I
>>> talked with a representative of stamps.com and I was told they only
>>> insure the value that I paid for the meteorite or its value at the
>>> time of loss whichever is less.
>>>
>>> --
>>> Mike Miller Kingman Az 86409
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>>
>>> ______________________________________________
>>>
>>> Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com
>>> Meteorite-list mailing list
>>> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>> ______________________________________________
>>
>> Visit the Archives at http://www.meteorite-list-archives.com
>> Meteorite-list mailing list
>> Meteorite-list at meteoritecentral.com
>> http://six.pairlist.net/mailman/listinfo/meteorite-list
>>
Received on Fri 29 Mar 2013 02:08:10 PM PDT