Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

byuu.org

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 151 posts

Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

#21

Post by eli »

birdman3131 wrote: post #10
ryanlol wrote: post #8

>Obviously, it should have been insured for the full value. But please understand that hindsight is 20/20. The sender chose the insurance amount, and had no reason to suspect the package would be lost , and that we would be given no help on the matter. It's not unreasonable to believe a mail carrier would try to avoid the need to pay out 1000 Euros worth of insurance by not losing said package . That's some really hi…

For UPS anything over $1000 is considered high value and treated differently.

You can insure regular mail up to $5000.

You can insure Registered Mail up to $50,000. Registered Mail is treated differently (e.g. stored in locked cages in transit, tamper-evident packaging) and comes with delivery verification. It's also, obviously, slower and more expensive.

Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

#22

Post by x1798DE »

ryanlol wrote: post #8

>Obviously, it should have been insured for the full value. But please understand that hindsight is 20/20. The sender chose the insurance amount, and had no reason to suspect the package would be lost , and that we would be given no help on the matter. It's not unreasonable to believe a mail carrier would try to avoid the need to pay out 1000 Euros worth of insurance by not losing said package . That's some really hi…

> It's not unreasonable to believe a mail carrier would try to avoid the need to pay out 1000 Euros worth of insurance by not losing said package.

If it costs 1000 Euros to insure a 10,000 Euro package, doesn't that sorta indicate that the chances of something happening to the package are on the order of 1 in 10?

Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

#23

Post by mcphage »

userbinator wrote: post #14

Why didn't you send the dumping hardware to the PAL donor? This makes me think of another idea to avoid shipping the cartridges themselves around: an interface that allows eventually accessing them over TCP/IP. It could be exposed as a block device or a custom protocol, it doesn't matter as long as you can essentially send an address and get some bytes back, allowing to read the entire address space.

The connecting-to-the-cartridge-and-getting-bytes part is how you dump cartridges. The donor would need that to get data off of the carts they have, and once they've got that part, they're 90% of the way to the dumping hardware anyway.

Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

#24

Post by coldpie »

brink wrote: post #12
ryanlol wrote: post #8

>Obviously, it should have been insured for the full value. But please understand that hindsight is 20/20. The sender chose the insurance amount, and had no reason to suspect the package would be lost , and that we would be given no help on the matter. It's not unreasonable to believe a mail carrier would try to avoid the need to pay out 1000 Euros worth of insurance by not losing said package . That's some really hi…

> that's some really high expectations there. The USPS is easily on my top 5 list of incompetent companies.

I'm not a high volume shipper, but I do a fair amount of buying and selling online, and I have never once had an issue with USPS. I understand the last mile service quality varies widely across the country, though.

Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

#26

Post by skykooler »

ryanlol wrote: post #8

>Obviously, it should have been insured for the full value. But please understand that hindsight is 20/20. The sender chose the insurance amount, and had no reason to suspect the package would be lost , and that we would be given no help on the matter. It's not unreasonable to believe a mail carrier would try to avoid the need to pay out 1000 Euros worth of insurance by not losing said package . That's some really hi…

> If you want to send something to another country and aren't willing to lose it? Buy a plane ticket.

And how often do airlines lose luggage? More often than packages go missing.

Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

#27

Post by eridius »

x1798DE wrote: post #22
ryanlol wrote: post #8

>Obviously, it should have been insured for the full value. But please understand that hindsight is 20/20. The sender chose the insurance amount, and had no reason to suspect the package would be lost , and that we would be given no help on the matter. It's not unreasonable to believe a mail carrier would try to avoid the need to pay out 1000 Euros worth of insurance by not losing said package . That's some really hi…

> It's not unreasonable to believe a mail carrier would try to avoid the need to pay out 1000 Euros worth of insurance by not losing said package. If it costs 1000 Euros to insure a 10,000 Euro package, doesn't that sorta indicate that the chances of something happening to the package are on the order of 1 in 10?

Where did you get that figure? The package was insured for 1000 Euros. It did not cost 1000 Euros to insure the package.

Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

#28

Post by was_boring »

joezydeco wrote: post #11
rewrew wrote: post #9

I'm confused -- has it been verified that this package cleared customs? Because if not that could be the delay here.

FTA: This person explained that the package had already left DHL's hands and was stuck with the USPS. That would seem to imply it had cleared US Customs and was handed off for final delivery.

Sometimes. This can also happen before customs so that the company does not have to deal with it. It's amazing the abuse that other carriers do to USPS because they have a constitutional responsibility.

Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

#29

Post by dtparr »

skykooler wrote: post #26
ryanlol wrote: post #8

>Obviously, it should have been insured for the full value. But please understand that hindsight is 20/20. The sender chose the insurance amount, and had no reason to suspect the package would be lost , and that we would be given no help on the matter. It's not unreasonable to believe a mail carrier would try to avoid the need to pay out 1000 Euros worth of insurance by not losing said package . That's some really hi…

> If you want to send something to another country and aren't willing to lose it? Buy a plane ticket. And how often do airlines lose luggage? More often than packages go missing.

I assume he's referring to carrying it on, where you can maintain physical proximity to it, rather than checking it.

Re: SNES preservation project on hold due to missing $10,000 package

#30

Post by kilrathi »

ryanlol wrote: post #8

>Obviously, it should have been insured for the full value. But please understand that hindsight is 20/20. The sender chose the insurance amount, and had no reason to suspect the package would be lost , and that we would be given no help on the matter. It's not unreasonable to believe a mail carrier would try to avoid the need to pay out 1000 Euros worth of insurance by not losing said package . That's some really hi…

With the estimated value of that package, cheap insurance seems less of a "hindsight 20/20" problem and more like a "extreme risk-taker" type of problem.

The package is the sender's responsibility until it's received.

Post reply on HN