Return To Sender From USPS For An Item I Sold Three Years Ago

Today I received a return package via USPS containing an Ecuador stamp collection that I sold on ebay to a gentleman in Montana in April 2020. It had a return to sender label noting the address was vacant with no forwarding address.

The stamps are not terribly valuable and I probably sold them for $20 - $30. I can't get any info about the sale from E-bay because their records that far back don't show any dates and I don't want to read one line descriptions of several thousand sales in my ebay data base. I have no negative feedback so I can't get anything from that either.

I'd like to get the stamps to the guy so if anyone has any ideas, please advise. I think its hysterical that it took the USPS three years to get the item back to me but I appreciate the fact that they did. So John from Montana, if you're reading this, please get back to me with your last name and I'll complete the transaction.

Nice post,
always a joy to hear "good people" in society,
Lifts the spirits.
Good luck

Not to be a Debbie Downer, but perhaps the buyer died.

This is like the karmic opposite of buyers who receive an item then report it was never received. Good on you

Well, that is what 'Ctrl F' or a similar search function is great doing for you.

?
You don't need CTRL F even

Ooops

Yes, CTRL F is the one

ebay sends emails for each sale. If you don't delete your emails for sold items for ebay, trying searching through your emails.
Just a thought. Just trying to be helpful.

I had a similar experience sending free stamps through the boards giveaways and contests. They were also sent to a John in Montana and returned after two or three years. It turns out he lived in Canada and had a US PO Box in Sweet Grass, Montana. However, due to Covid, he was unable to go to the United States and I believe our USPS closed his box and returned all the items. If this is the gentleman you referring to then email me and I'll send you what little information I have about him that may help you get the stamps to him.

If the transaction pre-date ebay's managed payment nonsense, and the buyer paid by PayPal, perhaps their records go far enough back for you to make some sense of this?

Yep. There's a reason my gmail account is 12GB in size.

Although in all candor, ebay's data retention period for buyers and especially sellers is red hot garbage.

I could be wrong about this, but those emails have no email addresses for the buyer in them. All you can do is contact through the ebay emailing system. Same thing for PayPal emails. This is to hinder off-platform communications.

John