OT tracking the shipping from China

[micky]

I bought something** from China on ebay, and I'm not at all saying the tracking from ebay or China is always this good, bu tthis time it was very good. The chinese part was as good as the American part normally is. Bought on Sept 26 and to be delivered on Oct 19. The range they gave me was Oct 10 to 20th, but as soon as I bought it they stopped talking about the 10th and only listed the 20th. LOL Still they beat that by one day.

Today I got the USPS tracking number, when they notified me it was out for delivery. The USPS didn't get involved until it got to the US, but what's interesting to me is that it was handled by Pitney Bowes at their Monroe Township NJ location, and again at their Odenton Md location, and it didn't get into possession of the USPS until 5:30 this morning, at my local post office, (and it was out for delivery at 7:10.)

I dnd't know pitney bowes did this, and I would have thought, it would have gone straight to the post office when it got to ???? California, the closest place to China but California and washington state aren't mentioned at all by either tracking list.

The Bose Hearphones that Bose no longer sells, having moved up to hearing aids of some sort, weren't available even on ebay (unless I screwed up) except for a couple used pairs sold by individuals, but when I looked 6 months later, there were plenty even new ones, usually without the originally intended boxes**. There were vendors in California for 170 dollars, or China for $80, but I think what happened is that it took Bose time to sell off its unsold stock and they both bought the same thing.

At least I hope this will just be NOS and not the defect pile.

I once knowingly bought 20 phone answering machines from the defect pile, from one of the army-navy style, surplus miscellanous stores on Canal St. in NYC (at least they were there 45 years ago.) A friend said we could buy them at $4, fix them and sell them for 20 or 30. But I ended up doing all the fixing. It was fun but we just broke even on the money.

**(There was one new in the box for 3 times what I paid for my first pair new. I lost my first pair. It was lost for a week or two before the cleaning woman came and she may have buried it under tons of my junk. Or maybe it's somewhere else. It was $400 marked down to $300 iirc several years ago. Once it was missing, I bought somethings similar from Amazon, one that gave terrible sound and I returned, and one for $150 that was pretty good, and lighter and more comfortable than the bose, but just before the 60 days warranty expired, one ear broke. It still worked with bluetooth but it wouldn't amplify sounds around me. They would have r eturned my money, but I liked it so I opted for replacement. Then it started working again, but I think I should still send it back.

Meanwhile a powerpack, or whatever they call those rechargeable battery packs meant to supplement a phone with a dead battery, that I bought maybe 8 years ago and had not been recharged for 2 or 3 years, still showed 4 out of 5 leds lit when I recharged it. Enerplex fwiw, but it may just be the high quality of the new style batteries.

[invalid unparseable]

I have similar experience in buying some items from eBay or Amazon. The seller from China would give me a tracking number from a Chinese courier (not big names like UPS or FedEx). After the parcel has arrived in a Canadian port of entry to clear customs, the courier would provide me with a Canada Post tracking number for the parcel to be delivered to me via the post office.

I have bought things from Amazon that turned out to be shipped from the US. Amazon would ship the parcel by truck to the Canadian border, and then transfer the parcel to Canada Post for the rest of the trip with a Canada Post tracking number.

Similar things had happened to eBay purchases shipped by "eBay global shipping" in the US. The parcel would be trucked to the Canadian border, and then transferred to Canada Post for the rest of the trip with a Canada Post tracking number.

[Retirednoguilt]

I don't remember ever seeing any WWII electronics surplus stores on Canal St. but spent many a happy afternoon browsing and occasionally buying stuff on Cortland St., which as far as I remember was the center of an entire mini-neighborhood of those stores. Some sold anything they could find; others seem to specialize in certain types of equipment, e.g. power panels with all sorts of analog meters and/or switches still attached, radar components, two way radio parts, etc. I used to wonder where and what those things had witnessed during the war.

All gone now; torn down in the early - mid 1960s to make way for the World Trade Center.

[micky]

Not especially electronics. Miscellaneous. Maybe hardware and various stores selling unusuall things. One had 4 foot and 7 foot versions of the Statue of Liberty in some kind of grey plastic.

Yes it was, but before I got there in 1971. When they built the World Trade Center, I'm told, they tore down most of it. There were still at least 2 such stores when I was there. At one I bought a used EICO kit oscilloscope, which I still have but never got much use out of it, But it was cheap, maybe $25. (How come $25 seemed cheap then but if you add

45 years of inflation and say it's 118 dollars today, it doesn't seem cheap?) You know, he might have been a regular tv repair shop. The scope was up on shelf, not pushing it for sale. A store on chambers st. had lots of things including all plastic double edge razors (that accepted double edged plates) for 20 cents a piece. I bought 3 and I liked it so much I went back and bought 10 more. I should have bought 30 more because they were so much better than anthhing else, but sometimes tthey would break or I lost them. Because they weighed so little they gave a great shave, no nicks. I still have one or two so it's a good thing I grew a beard. --- They are so cheap I can only guess that they were meant to be free in hotel rooms like little bottles of shampoo are free.

I think I bought one of those. I know I have one in the basement.

Ah, you beat me to it.