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

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

#141

Post by devicenull »

eco wrote: post #43
abandonliberty wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USPS is quite remarkable given their costs. Based on the volume of mail handled there are many horror stories, but their actual error rates are very good. It does sound like you're in a particularly bad location. If you want better you'll have to pay more. Shipping within the US is awesome. Living in any other country is very enlightening. https://about.usps.com/what-we-are-doing/service-performance...

I would hope a "particularly bad location" wouldn't encompass the entire Salt Lake metro area (+1M pop) but my experience has been the same throughout the many places I've lived in the valley. You'd think a bad location would be isolated to a particular post office. By the stats on this page I'm in one of the better locations though (SLC). I agree shipping in the US is awesome. I'm still amazed how well it works. USP…

> I do, however, often feel like USPS costs me more than UPS and FedEx just because I have to spend time each day throwing 95% of what I get from them in the recycle bin (and that's after I've opted out of everything I can).

I've been using PaperKarma for awhile, which has significantly reduced the amount of junk mail I get. It's been pretty effective, we're down to only a couple pieces of junk mail per day (most of which is stuff for previous residents that I've never seen before)

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

#142

Post by huehehue »

dtparr wrote: post #124
huehehue wrote: post #103

Earlier quoted context omitted.

USPS is usually fantastic but, when they fail, they fail very bureaucratically. Ordered a gift with rush shipping on Dec. 20th. Arrives at the local post office Dec. 22nd, marked undeliverable as addressed the next day. I call them up and say, "Hey, I typed in 123 Sprig Street, but I meant 123 Spring Street. Can I just drive over and get the package?". "No." An employee told me all I could do was update my address wi…

So, the USPS has a pretty strict set of rules for ensuring that mail is only delivered to the address it was mailed to, and it's all based on what's on the package. One interesting bit: if you mail something to an address that is valid, defined overly simplistically as "zip matches city/state, street exists, street number exists within the valid numerical range for that street regardless of whether there's actually a…

"Sprig" was not a real street name; it was a bad address.

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

#143

Post by gre »

byuu wrote: post #35
kilrathi wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

If I wanted to be a monster and screw over the guy who already successfully lent me a package of 100 PAL games back in September, and was nice enough to lend me another, and say "well it's all your fault for not paying for more insurance!", I could do that. But that is not the kind of person I am. He was doing me the favor. If not for my asking, he'd still have all his games right now. And I'll make it right if I hav…

My dad sold an original Strat-o-matic game on Ebay last year and sent it through USPS insured at $1500+. It got stolen in transit. Why would someone steal a lightweight, unmarked box unless they had access to the insurance amount and could get away with it? I don't trust USPS. Sorry for your loss, I hope your package turns up.

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

#144

Post by eco »

devicenull wrote: post #141
eco wrote: post #43

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I would hope a "particularly bad location" wouldn't encompass the entire Salt Lake metro area (+1M pop) but my experience has been the same throughout the many places I've lived in the valley. You'd think a bad location would be isolated to a particular post office. By the stats on this page I'm in one of the better locations though (SLC). I agree shipping in the US is awesome. I'm still amazed how well it works. USP…

> I do, however, often feel like USPS costs me more than UPS and FedEx just because I have to spend time each day throwing 95% of what I get from them in the recycle bin (and that's after I've opted out of everything I can). I've been using PaperKarma for awhile, which has significantly reduced the amount of junk mail I get. It's been pretty effective, we're down to only a couple pieces of junk mail per day (most of…

I tried it. I didn't notice any appreciable decrease unfortunately but I loved the idea.

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

#145

Post by phonon »

throwanem wrote: post #138
Larrikin wrote: post #61

>First, because I don't speak any German, and feel very uncomfortable traveling to a foreign country on my own. I know most Germans speak English, but that doesn't ease my concerns all that much. It's scary to me to travel alone, sorry. Found this odd. What is scary about traveling to a presumably a big city in one of the richest countries in the world?

> What is scary about traveling to a presumably a big city in one of the richest countries in the world? Not everyone enjoys, or is comfortable with, travel in its own right. It doesn't have to be about the destination, or even the journey - some folks are just homebodies, and that's okay. In fact, I'm one of them! My trip to Manhattan last year was pretty much the first time I'd been out of Baltimore in half a decad…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6EpfCzdMoY

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

#146

Post by throwanem »

phonon wrote: post #145
throwanem wrote: post #138

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> What is scary about traveling to a presumably a big city in one of the richest countries in the world? Not everyone enjoys, or is comfortable with, travel in its own right. It doesn't have to be about the destination, or even the journey - some folks are just homebodies, and that's okay. In fact, I'm one of them! My trip to Manhattan last year was pretty much the first time I'd been out of Baltimore in half a decad…

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=i6EpfCzdMoY

Like so much of The Wire, that's exaggerated for dramatic effect. And I'm Mississippi born and raised, in any case. But I do dearly love this town, and I don't expect or intend ever to leave for good.

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

#147

Post by prirun »

I sent a laptop from IN to TN, with tracking (back in the 90's) and insurance. It never got there. After several weeks, I filed a claim with the USPS, and they weren't going to honor it. Their records showed that I turned it in to the local post office, then nothing - no further tracking whatsoever. I had to threaten to escalate things before they would pay, and then it took forever to get the money.

They said in the future, if you want to be sure of a delivery, you have to send it registered mail: with that, every time a transfer of any kind occurs, it is done with paperwork, signatures, tracking, and under lock and key. Of course it costs an arm and a leg too.

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

#148

Post by lucaspiller »

bane wrote: post #92

I'm very sorry to hear about this. Shipping stuff internationally can be hair raising when it goes wrong. I used to regularly ship about $500k worth of computer equipment all over the place and it one time got caught up in German customs. A colleague of mine in Germany had to drive from Munich to Frankfurt and back many times over the course of several weeks to get it sorted out. IIR the problem was some minor form h…

Also /r/datahoarder. Plently of people there would be willing to help out. I bet there is even somebody willing to drive to your house to fill up a hard disk :)

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

#149

Post by rewrew »

byuu wrote: post #105
martinald wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

21 days seems pretty excessive to be stuck in customs. I've sent a fair bit of stuff between UK and US and I've never had it take so long to clear customs. Plus they usually explicitly say that it's cleared customs. It seems very odd that it would take that long. Did you pay the right duties and tax on this? It may be that it's still with customs and they have absolutely no idea what a giant box of old SNES games is…

> Plus they usually explicitly say that it's cleared customs. It didn't on the last package delivery, at least. > Did you pay the right duties and tax on this? I don't know, sorry. I'm the recipient. > It may be that it's still with customs and they have absolutely no idea what a giant box of old SNES games is worth? I would truly love it if someone from USPS would tell me that, if that were the case. I'd pay their r…

Not sure if this could help: https://www.etsy.com/teams/7722/discussions/discuss/16095598... -- seems like there's quite a few good tips in that thread.

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

#150

Post by scott_karana »

mjolk wrote: post #85
mwfunk wrote: post #81

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A startup isn't a labor of love; if it was, it'd be a hobby, not a startup.

If your startup isn't a labor of love or you're not driven by a strong dislike of an alternative career path, then almost every startup would die the second the founder(s) do the math of income opportunity cost of trying vs stable employment.

Hardly. People do "risk vs reward" assessments all the time.

Balancing "use some savings to live off ramen for two years" vs "implement something people will pay for" might not be very difficult, depending on their existing rate of savings, income, state of mortgage, monthly expenses, etc.

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