Uggh spider senses tingling for sure, my first code "10" small packet....

[ricarmic]

A note that I'm a stamps on the box kinda guy, so I have all the rate tables printed off to figure out my postage costs.

Today sent something to Mauritius. The small packet code for them is "10" (code 10 also includes the likes of North Korea, Syria, Sudan, many other African countries, and Antarctica (didn't even know I could send a small packet there!!!)). 

I think this is the first time I've ever sent anything to a code "10" before.

I have been sending an awful lot of stuff in the last few weeks to the likes of Israel, Sri Lanka, Chile etc all of which have a higher than normal loss rate.

Anyway time will tell, it will be interesting to see if they all get there!

[pjcdn2005]

I was curious about that country so I did a little reading about it and now I want to go there!  It looks beautiful and other than the odd typhoon, their weather sounds great too!  Wish I could have hand delivered your package. 🙂

[ricarmic]

Yes my wife also thinks we should be delivering some of the shipments to places like this in person too!

[ricarmic]

I should have added that the buyer did respond positively to my special note advising that it might take quite a while to get there so that is at least a good sign!

[piperscorner1924]

Good-morning:

Yes I would be too interested to know if this actually does get delivered, it just might help me to think more about shipping outside of canada for once. I`m too untrusting when it comes to the mail being delivered, so this would help.

Please let us know more when it comes time.

Thankyou

[ricarmic]

I think deciding whether or not to ship internationally depends a lot on what you are selling.

I live in the stamp world, which has been a mature mailorder environment for over a century, so international shipping is generally much better understood by my buyers.

Whilst "code 10" countries worry me, in a normal year I ship to over 50 different countries, and 35% of my sales are outside North America.

Using cookie jar insurance can help offset the odd losses (again depending on the category).

In actual fact, my own loss rates are low, you've probably already seen this but here's a link to my annual "loss rate" statistics I put out each year:

https://community.ebay.ca/t5/Seller-Central/Self-insurance-cookie-jar-RICARMICs-statistics-to-2018/m... 

(You'll note that generally my losses aren't to these worrisome countries)

Anyway, I will report back, but I suspect it will be a long time before there's any news!

PS I've successfully gotten items to Nepal (it took a veerrrrryyyyy long time) and Gibraltar (I had to ask the buyer if their address was correct because it was something like "Bob Brown Green Street Gibraltar" no house number etc!)

[luckylegend]

Who usually buys stamps from you and why?
I remember collecting stamps when I was a little girl because I liked collecting and pictures...
I am actually curious

[lotzofuniquegoodies]

This:

Or this:

Hmmmm?

-Lotz

[ricarmic]

---

@luckylegend wrote:
Who usually buys stamps from you and why?
I remember collecting stamps when I was a little girl because I liked collecting and pictures...
I am actually curious

---

I have a lot of stuff, and I've been selling for over 40 years now.

The breadth of my stock covers new collectors, regular collectors, specialized collectors, treasure hunters, resellers, hoarders etc.

I've come to learn (and continue to do so by experimenting with new stuff whenever I can) what things are moving/popular and acquire or pull it out of my inventory.

Stamp collecting is a worldwide hobby which helps and explains why I have customers in over 50 countries every year.

That's the coles notes version......hopefully it helps explain a little

[luckylegend]

Very interesting. You sell for longer than I exist.
I tried once with antique tableware but wasn’t very successful. Maybe I should find my thing...

[ricarmic]

Update: one of the packages arrived AOK!!! (they left feedback today about the 2nd package mailed a week after the first, I'll check to see if they got both)

[femmefan1946]

Any collectible is a tough sell, because collectors are such a variable lot.

There are more collectors around than we think, but most are quiet about their passions.

One reason for the success of Pinterest is the large number of collectors in the population.

ricarmic -- Have you seen the change in philately from an almost exclusively male hobby to a more gender neutral one over the past few decades?

We saw it first when children coming into the shop were not boys brought in by Daddy or granpa, but girls dragging their parents.

And now Ian belongs to three (or possibly five) clubs in the Victoria/Sydney/Duncan area which run 50/50 to 75/25 with more  new women members than men.

[ricarmic]

Yes I see a lot more women buyers now for sure than 10 years ago. Perhaps the internet has made it more accessible than the traditional club based culture, who knows!

[reallynicestamps]

And more women have their own money.

Even in the 50s, working women (which included all the mothers on our street by the way) would normally hand their paycheque over to hubby.

By the 70s and certainly the 80s, what's mine is mine was more usual.  His account, her account, their household account.