It pays to ship to PO Boxes & APO

[retroman_studios]

It's really interesting that I've had some good sales to users who have PO Boxes or to US users who are currently deployed, and in fact, in some cases I think it's my willingness to ship without restriction in the US that has actually gotten me some good sales.

The other day I had a watch sell, I got it for a pretty good price, and although it's not the latest version, it literally sold within 24 hours, I priced it the same as a similar item (slightly newer model) and that one was located in USA. But I would hazard a guess that seller doesn't ship to APO.

The other cool thing about APO and similar locations is that some of the cost and/or features like tracking are subsidized. I remember when I was selling watch straps and mailed one to an APO and even though I only used the cheaper USPS with no tracking, because it was military mail, it upgraded to tracking no extra cost.

So for those who are scared of shipping to PO or APO, its not that bad. Yes, you will need to prepare a bit as APO address will never verify in any postage site (due to military secret) and officially you need a custom form, but from what I've read and experienced, military users are generally easy going and happy to find a seller who is willing to send an item, as finding certain items can be tough.

In the case of my Casio Pathfinder watch, I think the new owner is a pilot, as it's going to both a Taskforce Falcon/DynCorp Aviation company that is stationed in Kandahar, Afghanistan.

It's always interesting how much information you can find about people these days with internet.

[femmefan1946]

And Box 500, Ottawa is the Canadian diplomatic corps.  Also a good address.

The whole PO box thing is such a dumb restriction. It's based on some US sellers who used UPS or FedEX shipping when those companies would not deliver to PO addresses.

But when I google my customer addresses, because I am retired and always looking for entertainment, a very large proportion of apartment addresses are POs or MailboxesRUs in strip malls .

Not so much PO Box 123, Station A, 456 Main St., Anytown  as

Unit 123, 456Main St, Anytown.

[cumos55]

People will use a post office box  number  to keep their home address private, and not visible somewhere on the internet