My Latest Package

I received this package on Saturday:


I had already opened the box when I took the above picture.

It is fine for sellers to reuse boxes, but sellers should turn the boxes inside out whenever a large number of markings are present on a box. I turned boxes inside out for years until I finally decided that the old boxes took up too much space, and it was too time-consuming to reverse the boxes and make them sturdy enough to ship.

The reason why boxes with markings should be reversed is that the extra markings can cause a delay in delivery, especially when bar codes are present. Notice that a bar code is present on the above box. The mail is routed using bar codes, so unrelated bar codes can cause the mail to be routed wrong, even when the bar code is from FedEx or UPS. Just think of what happens when an extra bar code is a recent USPS bar code. The package could get sent back to the seller or to wherever the previous destination of the box was.

I had a package from last year take around four to five weeks to get to me. When I finally received it, I discovered that an old USPS bar code was present on the back of the package. Most likely the package went back and forth a few times before finally arriving. I had been in communication with the seller, so I let the seller know that the old bar code probably caused the delay. Some people have posted evidence online of delivery confirmation numbers showing the back and forth trips of packages. It does happen.

This is what I saw after I opened the top of the box:


The books seem okay, but I have no way of knowing how many corners were bent during shipping. Some of the books are a bit worn, which of course was not mentioned in the description. Actually, there was no description, aside from a picture and a short statement of how many books were in the lot.

I am not dissatisfied with the transaction; it was exactly what I was expecting. I bought the lot because of one book, and I will use the rest of the books to help sell other extras that I have. The purchase was Buy It Now, and this is yet another example of how bulk lot Buy It Now transactions usually turn out. The recent package that I mentioned here in which one book was missing was another bulk lot Buy It Now. The sellers are all like-minded, and the results are very similar.