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What is the general consensus on Media Mail?


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I started the ebay thing over 10 years ago when I resided in California (Oakland to be exact) and was offering Media Mail during my residency there... For about five years or so of shipping this method... I had zero complaints.

Then my wife wanted to raise our son in Hawaii... and, all hell broke loose. I was having buyers complain of receiving their parcels up to TWO MONTHS from the East Coast, and up to ONE MONTH for the West Coast.... when USPS states 7-14 days or whatever for delivery. Bullshit. It goes by boat folks... Then complaints of parcels annihilated, razored, demolished during transit were compiling. About 1 in 10 buyers contacted me regarding their grievances and such. After taking a tremendous loss of shipping Media Mail, I cut it off for good. Hawaii isn't paradise, not for me that is... but, that's another story, for another time.

For the lower 48er's, I'd say Media Mail is fine. It was odd though getting a record shipped within a 20-30 mile radius (via Media Mail, of course) that took 3 days..

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I started the ebay thing over 10 years ago when I resided in California (Oakland to be exact) and was offering Media Mail during my residency there... For about five years or so of shipping this method... I had zero complaints.

Then my wife wanted to raise our son in Hawaii... and, all hell broke loose. I was having buyers complain of receiving their parcels up to TWO MONTHS from the East Coast, and up to ONE MONTH for the West Coast.... when USPS states 7-14 days or whatever for delivery. Bullshit. It goes by boat folks... Then complaints of parcels annihilated, razored, demolished during transit were compiling. About 1 in 10 buyers contacted me regarding their grievances and such. After taking a tremendous loss of shipping Media Mail, I cut it off for good. Hawaii isn't paradise, not for me that is... but, that's another story, for another time.

For the lower 48er's, I'd say Media Mail is fine. It was odd though getting a record shipped within a 20-30 mile radius (via Media Mail, of course) that took 3 days..

This is interesting. I'll have to keep this in mind if anyone from Hawaii ever buys anything from me.

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I think it makes sense that it would take much longer from Hawaii and thus allow for more time to pass for the parcel to get damaged. State this in your eBay auctions and only ship parcel post or priority mail.

I should be a problem solver for a living.

Once I shipped a record to Alaska via Media Mail and it got there in three days. No idea how that happened.

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From my friend at the USPS:

"What the F*ck to you think they do Dave? Charter a different plane to ship your media mail packages? Same goes for International First Class vs one step above, don't waste your money."

It isn't until you get to overnight and two-day services that you will find a major difference.

BUT around the holidays and right after they do in fact have different paths through sorting and media mail slows down significantly for about 4-5 weeks. I always let buyers know.

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If the seller packages it right, that shouldn't be a problem. I've only ever had one record damaged, and that was because said person shipped it in a bubble mailer. Paying $3.50 to ship a 2xLP in place of like $7 or $8 is definitely worth it.
what this guy said.

i got a messed up record in the mail today because the guy mailed it in a bubble mailer. gave me a 25% refund though, so that's cool.

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1) 95% of the time I have no problems at all

2) The only time I have trouble is one of two reasons:

a)I order a picture disc and the sleeve in it is demolished but this is less to do with media mail I suppose and more to do with how it is packed. (Also how pathetic most picture disc sleeves are.)

b)There is no packaging at all to protect the vinyl I am ordering.

3)It completely has to do with how it is packaged and I often send messages to sellers (I have never bought from) informing them to package my vinyl carefully, and they usually do.

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How have your experiences been? Is it worth the smaller cost and slightly longer time? Please share your thoughts.

considering 95% of us use this method of shipment on 95% of our records, none of us have issues with it... I've had shit show up that was shipped priority from a state away come more fucked up than most of my record buying combined. In all the years of buying records, I've only had one unplayable record and that label replaced it for free, which I didn't ask for...

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i've been mail ordering records for 11 or 12 years now and i've only ran into a couple problems, each time they were via media mail. i've had a few lost packages and luckily they were from record labels willing to replace them, and twice i've gotten broken records in the mail, one of which was from hawaii

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i've always thought this was an interesting question, mainly because I collect records and posters.

record nerds ship media

poster nerds ship priority

each group is totally happy with the shipping norms. even if i sell a poster for 20 shipped, then the buyer expects priority and delivery confirmation. around here priority is never discussed.

i usually feel safer shipping priority but i've never had problems with media. for the record, posters can be shipped media.

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I have two pieces of input:

1.) It doesn't happen very often, but media mail is also subject to inspection (to verify that you are indeed shipping items allowed under "media rate") and I have had packages that were packed very well arrive asunder because someone tore through them to make sure I wasn't trying to pull a fast one on the USPS.

2.) Even within the lower 48, I always recommend to upgrade to something other than media when purchasing during the summer months. The few dollars you save on shipping won't account for the warping that you'll endure when your LP was trapped in the world's hottest mail truck for 14 business days.

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I have two pieces of input:

1.) It doesn't happen very often, but media mail is also subject to inspection (to verify that you are indeed shipping items allowed under "media rate") and I have had packages that were packed very well arrive asunder because someone tore through them to make sure I wasn't trying to pull a fast one on the USPS.

2.) Even within the lower 48, I always recommend to upgrade to something other than media when purchasing during the summer months. The few dollars you save on shipping won't account for the warping that you'll endure when your LP was trapped in the world's hottest mail truck for 14 business days.

my thoughts exactly, and when hit is comin to texas and louisiana it makes a huge difference. the heat down here is ridiculous and the longer that shit sits around waiting the more chance it has to get fucked up

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2.) Even within the lower 48, I always recommend to upgrade to something other than media when purchasing during the summer months. The few dollars you save on shipping won't account for the warping that you'll endure when your LP was trapped in the world's hottest mail truck for 14 business days.

I learned the hard way not to order from No Idea using media in the summer months anymore. Complete waste of a Leatherface 2LP! :'(

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i recently got rise against appeal to reason shipped media mail and that bitch is so warped, the back of the cartridge scrapes the record, even tho it spent a a week with enough weight to flatten it out at least enough foe that to stop happening but no dice. and my wife loves that rec so i have to get another cuz its too fucked to play, in that insatnce for sure i would have rather payed the extra 6 bucks for that maybe not to happen

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