re: USPS in disarray

Buckycheese:

Very few books are 1# or less. Average books are between 1 and 2#. , and many are just over 2#, which might as well be 3 (same cost to ship if 2#1oz as 3#). I also buy bookfolds (protective corrugated specifically for shipping books undamaged) and those used to be inexpensive, now they have quadrupled or more in the 25 years I’ve been doing this, and the shipping to get them to me has gone way up as well. All that means is that whatever used to be profitable no longer is in many cases unless you pass that expense along to the buyer. And they balk. I would, too, when the Amazons and Temus of the world offer free shipping. The solution is to sell items with higher profit margins, and that is easier said than done.

While I do feel that I am almost at the limit of what the market will bear for shipping costs, I have had very few misdelivered items.

Many years ago, one of my college years jobs was working part time at a post office in BR. I cased mail from very early in the mornings, until leaving for class. Many handwritten addresses were simply indecipherable, and I am sure folks were wondering why mail went astray!

Reminds me of the scene in Dances With Wolves where a settler lies dead on the plains, a crusty old geezer looks at the deceased, and remarks "folks back east wondering ‘why don’t he write?’ "