Highest Priced Item You Bought That Was Not Delivered?

I don't know if this is still the case but at one time parcel deliveries in what was considered to be a 'rural' area were simply placed st the mailbox. I ran into that when we moved to our present home twenty years ago and a package with supplies was just dumped on the curb net to the box. I got nowhere with the PO but managed to talk to the carrier and got him to walk parcels to my door. Incredible. They apparently would have left stuff out in the rain if left to themselves.

Sheesh! How on earth do you deal with that! Goodness me, that is extraordinary.

I seemed to have had a blessed life, 10 years with 1 dealer in North America, not lost a single thing. Over 2000 mails.

Yet.... Last week I won an item from this dealer, I took a screen capture
of the auction win, but it was sold to another purchaser $4 more.
I emailed the dealer twice, and have had silence.

It's how things make you feel that lingers... being ignored is a real disappointment, it was only a $20 purchase but 10 years of support was worth nothing.
Losing 7-8 parcels would destroy me.

I've had things disappear into that black hole, too. It always makes me hesitate before buying things from Europe, even if it's with registered mail — which does seem to get lost more often, in my experience.



Registered mail has been left in my mailbox or on my doorstep without a signature on a number of occasions. Sure, it saves me a trip to the post office to pick the thing up, but it kind of defeats the purpose....

The worst thing is that it's difficult to get a refund since every time, the tracking clearly shows the item was mailed. They simply get to the New York International Sorting Center and never move again.

I've been "lucky" in that every package lost has been from an ebay or Delcampe seller, so typically not rare items, simply a large quantity of more common items. I've come to learn which sellers I have worse luck with -- I think part of the problem may be in their packaging, labeling, or customs declarations. I'm careful to stick with the major auctionhouses for irreplaceable items, as I haven't had any issue with their shipments.

I once ordered an "oriental" carpet that never arrived. Somewhere someone is walking barefoot over my rug. The seller refunded my price. More stamp-related, I ordered some stamps from Pakistan once (I know . . . I know) which hadn't arrived after two months, so I emailed the seller who swore he'd mailed them. The very next day they arrived! So no insults for Pakistan here, but their mail system sure works slowly. I had some things stolen from the mail when I was in Czechoslovakia once when I mailed them back to the U.S. so I know that in some countries mail theft seems to be a going concern. The poorer the country, I imagine the more of that you get. It's best to keep purchases smaller and have things shipped in small amounts to avoid one massive loss.

I was buying quite regularly from and ebayer who took the stamps out of albums and put them in one country packets. The selection of stamps was very varied, it seemed he didn't make any assessment of the value of the stamps, just popped them all in packets.

We even exchanged messages and he seemed like a very nice, genuine man. Then I won a couple more that never arrived and his feedback showed that from 100% positive several others were in the same boat as me - no sign of their wins.

I came to the conclusion that the poor man had just died or otherwise been incapacitated so he could no longer trade on ebay. Rather sad. But I think this is most likely what happened with Erilaz in the transaction discussed above, especially when you think of the average age of those collecting and dealing in stamps

Well, looks like I jinxed myself. Lost my first shipment from an auctionhouse. A €3,000 collection of German Occupation stamps sent registered from Germany, scanned leaving Germany 5 weeks ago, but never scanned inbound in NY. Looks like the NY USPS facility claimed another one. At least I'll get reimbursed for this loss, unlike most of my ebay losses.

I bought a Penny Black on ebay from a dealer in Canada, waited for weeks and it never came. Contacted the dealer and he seemed so honest and apologetic about the missing stamp that he actually convinced me that he had mailed it, so I let the whole matter drop and moved on. A few years after this someone hit my mailbox with their car and bent it over. So I was out to fix it and took off the box part setting it on the ground. The front flap popped open and I could see a letter stuck inside the box up against the top and wedged into the front top rim where you would never see it when you normally opened the box. It was the letter from Canada containing the Penny Black stuck in there for years. If the mailbox had not been hit, it would still be out there and I wouldn't be any wiser.

Loupy, a very interesting experience spanning over a few years.

Any just like that, my missing auction lot appeared. Delivered today, 6 weeks after it left Germany, without being tracked at all in the U.S. despite being sent registered. SMH.

PostmasterGS, glad that you got your auction lot. €3000 is no small sum.

About 2 months ago I bought an old, used (about 20 years old) Zumstein catalog for Switzerland and Liechtenstein. It hasn't turned up yet, and after all this time I don't expect it to. The dealer hasn't responded to my complaint. I won't worry about it too much because it was only about $10. If I see another one for sale I'll probably buy one from a different dealer.

A couple weeks ago I bought a collection at auction for $2,000. I'm a snowbird so I was very specific "this item must be shipped to FL". After 2 weeks I hadn't heard anything or received tracking info so I called. Long story short they had shipped it on Apr 1 to NY. I asked don't you require a signature and they told me "someone" had signed and accepted it. My closest neighbor will take in a package if he sees it on my porch but he hasn't seen and signed for anything.

Now they told me they will pursue it with Fedex on Tuesday. I guess I'll just have to wait until next week to see what happens.

I have watched the Fedex driver leave a package that required a signature and caught him before he left. He looked sheepish and told me it was all set. I insisted on signing and could not because that function was unavailable. I believe that he signed.

I think this time the Fedex driver is going to have to knock on the door and ask for the package back. I don't know which house he left it at and I'm not going to be there for 2 months to figure it out.