1st Domestic Mail Loss In Long Time

Hey All,
Usually the U.S. Postal Service is accurate and mail is delivered in a timely matter, but as an ebay seller I've lost my first shipment within the U.S. in a long time. It's something I cannot remember the last time it happened. I mailed it late January shortly after the auction and as of today the buyer hasn't received it. When you have other buyers in Indonesia and Czech Republic reporting mail received already you know something is wrong with a domestic shipment.
The buyer is fine - no problems there and it was only being mailed from New York to Massachusetts - 1 to 3 day journey for the mail at best. I've already sent a full refund, but still it sucks as I cannot replace that kind of material (1930's-40's German covers). It was probably chewed up in the postal machinery despite paying the non-machinable surcharge. It's a $30+ loss. I shipped it normal 1st class mail as 99.99999% it's not an issue and tracking isn't usually needed. It could still show up as weirder things have happened. Six months to Macao is still my longest record for mail to be delivered.
I've decided to post this as many folks fear mailing overseas, but it can happen here too. Postal services can screw up anywhere. It won't change how I do business as it's a very rare occurrence, but I can feel how it makes me sick to the gut that it did happen.

I think the ebay/USPS tracked shipping is a good deal. It won't find it if it goes missing, but can help the USPS track it back to where it was last reported. I had one stuck in a mail center in Nashville for 2 weeks. The seller went to the post office and they sent an email to the location. A few days later it showed up.

In the past six months I've had two ebay purchases take almost a full month to reach me.

I hate to bring it up, but it seems like a useful experience. I don't think it's always machines or processing centers, but some of the carriers are the ones doing the losing, and frankly, I would blame the citizens for not putting them back into the stream.

Example A: Apartment complex common mailbox. Mailman puts mail for one apartment in the wrong box. Some people are putting them on the tackboard. I don't know if this is acceptable to regulation, but at least the folks aren't stealing mail and the rightful owner can claim it. HOWEVER, I've seen mail, that I know contains state drivers licenses, with the address crossed out, and stuck to the top of the boxes claiming they don't live there anymore. I always assumed that's for you to cross out and put back into a mailbox somewhere, not to just throw peoples mail around in the hopes that the mailman will see it the next day. Plus, I don't think it's his responsibility to collect in that manner either.

Example B: Private houses with regular mailboxes. Had a mailman who would put mail in the box, had the right address number, completely wrong street. He used to do it quite a bit as well. Of course I'd send it back, unlike the lazy examples in Exhibit A.

Example C: Long long time ago I lived in a college apartment, which had centralized boxes, but there was an outgoing mail-slot. I had an envelope, bad address, I crossed it out, wrote return to sender, put it in that slot. It kept reappearing in my box for a few days. In an effort to cut costs, the USPS allows the people who wrong in the apartment management office(leasing agents and such) sort the mail, and well, apparently they weren't that bright. And obviously shouldn't even be touching it.

Lots of reasons for mail to disappear. Just giving a few situations and warnings that it's not always a machine or processing center, I always imagine those as being really good. It's when someone touches the envelope that shouldn't.
Often times what I think is common sense that everyone does, wrong mail to you goes back in the box, seems to be very rare knowledge out there. :(
In these cases, I wonder how much help tracking is.

Sorry about your loss Battlestamps.

May your mail still be delivered! Sometimes the mail likes to take a bit of a holiday in transit.

A very timely comment to help me. I am opening up to the world market place.

jeffyl00b : You can certainly be right. My rural delivery mailperson gives me mail for other addresses at least once a month. I take the wrongly delivered mail down to my local post office and hand it over to them to deal with. If I get my neighbor's mail I put it in their mailbox since it's only a foot away. If I'm getting other folks mail here and there, I wonder if other people are getting mine by mistake. I just hope they do the right thing and give it back to the post office. I asked my buyer to check with his neighbors since that has been a reason for small delays in the past. Sometimes the spouse gets the mail first and neglets to give it to the buyer as well - "left in the car". It also sometimes disappears into a newspaper or magazine to be discovered at a later date. Many things can happen and stranger things can happen. Back in the 1990's when I traded stamps through the STL (Stamp Trader's List) I had a pack of stamps on route to New Zealand take a scenic detour to the Czech Republic according to the postal markings on the cover.

I do have hope as missing things in the past have turn up.