On Sat, Jan 3, 2009 at 4:34 AM, John Varner <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Are there locales or dealers that are prone to having packages of shells
> getting lost in transit?

I buy shells from dealers in China, Canada, USA, Brasil and various
European countries. Even occasionally from Uruguay, Argentina,
Australia and Japan.

Personally, I have only ever had one package of shells go missing in
the mail. This was sent from Florida to New Zealand, and I know full
well that the sender was totally trustworthy.

I can't understand why these labelled parcels go missing, unless they
are stolen at random by postal workers (or customs etc) hoping to find
money or valuables.

I have had cash go missing when I sent it, about 3 times to the US and
once to South Africa. Fortunately these were not large sums.

I HAVE paid for items and not received them because of dishonesty on
the seller's parts; once for shells (John Wei, China), once for VW
parts (and with another of the latter looking about to come true).

I think the only places likely to suffer from serious depredation on
packages would be Africa (excepting RSA) and Russia (and perhaps some
other exSoviet-bloc countries).

--
Andrew Grebneff
Dunedin, New Zealand
Fossil preparator
Mollusc, Toyota & VW van nut

<[log in to unmask]>

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