Mystic Suspending Shipments

Just got this email:

'Due to the ongoing COVID-19 crisis, Mystic is unable to ship orders until further notice. You can still add items to your shopping cart and you can place orders. Mystic will charge your credit card when you place an order, and ship it as soon as possible. Thank you for your understanding in these difficult times. Stay safe and enjoy your collections.'

It's hitting home, folks..

I doubt they have any choice as NY state is forcing closure of most businesses.

A UK based specialist society I belong to had an entire mailing of their quarterly publication go missing after mailing, apparently being held for quarantine.

Give it another 10-14 days at most and things will be back open. The pressure is mounting as people realize that there will be no economy left if we do not return to work.

I think the idea is to save lives and 'flatten the curve'. I hope to God you're right but people IMO are not going to just be able to'go back to work'. That's denial.

In 10-14 days we'll be where Italy is now.

We shall see my friend.

rogdcam, thanks for the reply. My wife and I are high risk on this thing and sometimes the emotion just takes over. We probably disagree on some things but that's life.

I am wondering if any other sellers may be affected by the states closing business activity down? NYC is no longer the hub of collecting as it used to be but I assume other firms may be. I have a dealer who's been sending me approvals- large selections of collections to pick from, etc. I've had to tell him to suspend this awhile because I cannot go to the PO to mail a large parcel back to him. I've stopped selling on ebay for the same reason.

The fellow who sits 4 feet away from me in dialysis has been sick all week but did not have a fever. Yesterday he was still sick complaining of a headache, shortness of breath and said he had passed out twice at home; but still no fever. About an hour into the treatment, he asked me to call the nurse over. She came over and checked his temp…100+. They pulled his needles, got him off the machine, gave him 02, called 911. The first responders carted him off to the hospital.

Am I concerned? Of course. Do I think that I will die from whatever he had? No. The thing that will kill me is a medical mistake. Medical mistakes kill an average of 250,000 people in the US every year. Where are the media stories about that? If we applied the same level of 'freak out' to the medical mistake topic, no one would ever go to any medical procedure ever again.
Don

I live in Pennsylvania. All schools and non-essentials businesses have been closed for a week, and our numbers keep going up. If they want to "flatten the curve," then we're going to need to stay locked up for at least another 8 weeks minimum.

Hopefully, if we stay locked down for another 3 weeks, it will have some impact.

I hope everyone weathers the storm OK. Italy is an interesting situation. A small country that's pretty densely packed with a lot of senior citizens, and a culture that encourages people to kiss each other when they say hello. It's like a perfect storm for this stuff.

The numbers will go up now because testing is taking place.

Before long, the authorities will have to let non-essential businesses continue on as usual. If not, people won't be able to feed their families or keep their electricity on and many will resort to lawlessness out of necessity.

Coastwatcher - You are correct. There really is no choice in the matter. The devastation caused by shutting down the economy past a given point will make the virus look like child's play.

Mystic shouldn't be charging people until the orders actually ship. That's standard operating procedure among mail order businesses.

Perhaps they're trying to generate some cash flow so they can continue to pay their employees?

yeah, testing would be nice. And providing masks and gloves so small businesses can stay open.

The biggest point of spread is probably going to be grocery stores, banks, home improvement stores, all the businesses required by law to stay open. I really doubt my local stamp store is going to be a hotbed for coronavirus infections. Yet, that store needs to close.

The NIH estimates that 88,000 Americans die each year due to alcohol; no one freaking out over this.
Don