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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

#31

Post by byuu »

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.

A lot of the pain comes from cleaning every single cartridge. Many old games look like this:

http://i.imgur.com/sdRqyl.jpg

And you need them to look like this:

http://i.imgur.com/GbxMxl.jpg

That takes about a half hour's work. Then you get to open the cart and clean the contacts, another five minutes. Then once it's connected to an SNES and powered on, you have to wait 5-10 minutes to dump it, and then move on to the next cart.

It's a full-time job for several months to do a complete PAL set. And that's not even counting scanning the boxes, manuals, cartridges and PCBs :/

It's a lot less effort for the donor to send me his games, and I send them back, and reimburse him on his shipping charges.

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

#32

Post by ajb »

eridius wrote: post #25
phonon wrote: post #17

Why not sue DHL? (USPS has sovereign immunity.)

Sue them over what? DHL didn't lose the package.

No, but the sender had a contract with them, to deliver the package, not USPS. USPS were acting as a subcontractor in this instance. So legally DHL are liable if anyone is.

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

#33

Post by SmokyBourbon »

walrus01 wrote: post #6
anonymous_iam wrote: post #3

I suppose that you have now learned to not trust the United States Postal Service with your $10,000 package. FedEx or UPS do cost a little more, but in this case I think you would agree that it would have been worth it.

If you read, it was sent by DHL from Germany. Within Germany, DHL is the defacto choice for courier. The problem is where DHL hands it off to USPS for US delivery, since DHL has pretty much pulled back from trying to compete directly with Fedex and UPS in the US48 market.

That's his point. DHL is shit. Do not ship with DHL.

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

#34

Post by byuu »

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.

Yes, after sitting for 21 days in US customs, it's now stuck in Jersey City, NJ:

http://i.imgur.com/XYB1lZS.png

Note the "in transit to destination" is a fake event automatically added 24 hours after no scans. Assuming it wasn't stolen, it's still in NJ. Sitting in a pile for 10+ days for no apparent reason despite being priority mail.

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

#35

Post by byuu »

kilrathi wrote: post #30
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.

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 have to.

But I'm still holding out hope that someone at USPS might notice this and lend a hand.

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

#37

Post by ryanlol »

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.

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

Are you sure that's true? I think the loss rates of both are around 1%

But yeah as dtparr said, obviously don't check your luggage. If it's too big to carry on, take it to the gate instead of baggage drop to ensure that it's manually put on the plane.

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

#38

Post by rasz_pl »

ajb wrote: post #32
eridius wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sue them over what? DHL didn't lose the package.

No, but the sender had a contract with them, to deliver the package, not USPS. USPS were acting as a subcontractor in this instance. So legally DHL are liable if anyone is.

But why sue? They will be happy to return full sum of the insurance.

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

#39

Post by q3r3qr3q »

pixelbill wrote: post #16
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…

Yup, this. And given that he states twice in his spiel that he "had no reason to suspect the package would be lost" it is almost laughable. Has any single person in history sent a package and said "Well I expect this will get lost in transit!" ?

Why would it matter what he expected? It was the sender that failed to insure it properly.

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

#40

Post by rasz_pl »

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…

Wait, so you didnt even reimburse him cost of insurance?
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