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The BladeForums.com 2024 Traditional Knife is available! Price is $250 ea (shipped within CONUS).
Order here: https://www.bladeforums.com/help/2024-traditional/
If you are ordering USA knives from overseas, don't use USPS.
- Thread starter paua
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as long as it gets there, does it really matter how?? assuming a reasonable time frame , of course.
Esav Benyamin
MidniteSuperMod
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First, I'm going to move this from the General Knife Discussion since this isn't a knife discussion, to FEEDBACK/GBU where we post evaluations of buying, selling, trading, shipping, and so on.
Next, just a note, USPS does not provide tracking on ordinary mail. It is not a joke, it is simply not available. What you are referring to as tracking is delivery confirmation. Actual tracking is only available on some premium services.
This has nothing to do with the reliability of handling and delivery, only with a customer's ability to obsess over where the package is at any moment.
Next, just a note, USPS does not provide tracking on ordinary mail. It is not a joke, it is simply not available. What you are referring to as tracking is delivery confirmation. Actual tracking is only available on some premium services.
This has nothing to do with the reliability of handling and delivery, only with a customer's ability to obsess over where the package is at any moment.
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I've ordered knives from USA to Ukraine (Knifeworks/CutleryShoppe/eBay) many times and always they was shipped with USPS. USPS Express (EMS) is the best service available - You will not pay any customs here in Ukraine if Your order total is below 200 EUR (about 250 USD). EMS tracking gives you enough information and EMS is insured. USPS Priority Mail (but not the Flat Rate) also provide tracking information from USA to Ukraine but less informative and also can be insured. FedEx, UPS etc. is not an option here - You will need to pay about 50% customs from the total cost in any case if any of the commercial couriers is used. So the best and secure way to ship a knife form USA to Ukraine (or Russia) is EMS/USPS Express International 
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I have received a few knives I ordered from US eBay, they all arrived well and safe. They were of the smaller variety so they fit inside padded envelopes and such but all of them dropped from my letterbox about a week from payment. So at least with small stuff and Priority mail (IIRC) I can't complain. There was no tracking, true, but I just thought "well it'll get here when it'll get here".
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I think USPS is the best shipping provider there is in the business. I've only had one item lost { a John Deere key holder } and it was found and all turned out wonderful.
Esav while we're on the topic of USPS and I know you are a former employee.
Can you explain to me the difference between First Class mail and Priority mail? I understand that First Class has a 13oz weight restriction, but why does it take 3-5 days and Priority only takes 2-3days? They both travel by air right? Why the extra 2 days? Do the postal guys see the First Class and just kick the package around the lobby a little while before shipping it?
Parcel Post is ground, so I can see why it takes longer, but First Class travels by air, there is no reason for it to take longer.
Can you explain to me the difference between First Class mail and Priority mail? I understand that First Class has a 13oz weight restriction, but why does it take 3-5 days and Priority only takes 2-3days? They both travel by air right? Why the extra 2 days? Do the postal guys see the First Class and just kick the package around the lobby a little while before shipping it?
Parcel Post is ground, so I can see why it takes longer, but First Class travels by air, there is no reason for it to take longer.
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I think you should mention where you are from as mail services in different countries have different levels of service. Also which service did you use? Once the item leaves the US there is no way for USPS to update the status if it's 1st class or Priority. If you want that level of service then cough up the dough for global priority or global express. I for one do not see the necessity or the logic in paying so much for shipping especially for the kind/value of knives I buy. Especially since I've seen so many sellers trump up their shipping fees just because it is an international sale. USPS 1st class have worked fine for me and flat rate priority (with delivery confirmation) has worked well too. They arrive and that's what counts.... I'm not too particular about knowing where my item is all the time. There's always FedEx and UPS. Both of which have screwed me over in the past by refusing to do a redelivery when I wasn't at home. USPS and my local postal service on the other hand has been very satisfactory. My last package arrived via USPS 1st class from US to Singapore in a record of 6 days.
Esav Benyamin
MidniteSuperMod
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Esav while we're on the topic of USPS and I know you are a former employee.
Can you explain to me the difference between First Class mail and Priority mail? I understand that First Class has a 13oz weight restriction, but why does it take 3-5 days and Priority only takes 2-3days? They both travel by air right? Why the extra 2 days? Do the postal guys see the First Class and just kick the package around the lobby a little while before shipping it?
Parcel Post is ground, so I can see why it takes longer, but First Class travels by air, there is no reason for it to take longer.
It is much more complex than that. There are different procedures for letters, flats, and parcels, and for local and long distance delivery areas.
Priority Mail IS First Class, but charged at a high FC rate even for smaller items since it travels in an expedited mailstream. I believe we shipped Prio out of New York along with Express Mail.
Parcel Post isn't slower because it goes by ground but because it has no Next Day or Second Day or whatever standard. We delivered it in sequence of arrival. When the delivery day was over, the PP carrier brought back the undelivered mail and started at that point the next day.
Most mail never sees a post office lobby. It comes from businesses to the loading platform. It comes from collectors from corner mail boxes. It moves in sacks easily over 50 or 60 lbs. to Mail Processing where clerks work at night sorting it into classes and delivery areas. Businesses that presort bypass the piece by piece sorting, whether by hand or machine.
Esav Benyamin
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There is an exercise we used to go through with new employees, sitting them down and tracing the steps a hypothetical letter goes through from, say, mailing in San Francisco to delivery in New York.
One night (working for the post office in New York) I went to lunch, returning to the workfloor at midnight, Friday night to Saturday. At lunch I had written a letter to my brother (living in Oakland CA). I stamped and cancelled the letter and put it directly into the sack designated for San Francisco mail. It went to the airport that night, flew to San Francisco, and was sorted for delivery in Oakland Saturday. When he got it, he wrote back to me and got his letter to the post office Saturday afternoon, where it was postmarked with the same date as the letter I sent him.
I got his letter Tuesday because that Monday was a holiday.
One night (working for the post office in New York) I went to lunch, returning to the workfloor at midnight, Friday night to Saturday. At lunch I had written a letter to my brother (living in Oakland CA). I stamped and cancelled the letter and put it directly into the sack designated for San Francisco mail. It went to the airport that night, flew to San Francisco, and was sorted for delivery in Oakland Saturday. When he got it, he wrote back to me and got his letter to the post office Saturday afternoon, where it was postmarked with the same date as the letter I sent him.
I got his letter Tuesday because that Monday was a holiday.
Yes, I agree.
The delivery agent USPS has in Taiwan is awful.
They let the package sit in their hands for two days only to tell you it was delayed by custom. Then they claimed (of course without any proof ) they had made the unsuccessful delivery at the time you were actually sitting out on the porch waiting for that godforsaken parcel.
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Priority mail is kept in a segregated mailstream that basically bypasses the mail processing plants for all priority mail except that in the overnight delivery area for that plant.
The segregated priority mailstream is handled in an automated plant with a tight window for segregation to the air routes served by the planes the Priority Mail Plant's trucking lines are designated to meet.
So, the priority mail is worked to the delivery location and plane serving that location while the mail distribution plants are cancelling the letter mail and flats collected and returned to that plant by collections. The distribution plant's mail is shipped to the local 2nd level distribution plant that breaks it down to the carrier route or small Post Office. By this time the Priority mail is already in the air...
Michael S. Hoover
Retired Area Manager and Postmaster - Seattle District
The segregated priority mailstream is handled in an automated plant with a tight window for segregation to the air routes served by the planes the Priority Mail Plant's trucking lines are designated to meet.
So, the priority mail is worked to the delivery location and plane serving that location while the mail distribution plants are cancelling the letter mail and flats collected and returned to that plant by collections. The distribution plant's mail is shipped to the local 2nd level distribution plant that breaks it down to the carrier route or small Post Office. By this time the Priority mail is already in the air...
Michael S. Hoover
Retired Area Manager and Postmaster - Seattle District
Eventually I got a written letter from Taiwan custom telling me my parcel was impounded because they don't like the shape of Falkniven NL1. Holy crap! I thought this kind of things will only happen in China or North Korea.
Nevertheless, it is still very odd USPS Taiwan delivery agent could try to make delivery when that parcel actually was withheld by Taiwan custom, isn't it?
Nevertheless, it is still very odd USPS Taiwan delivery agent could try to make delivery when that parcel actually was withheld by Taiwan custom, isn't it?
Esav Benyamin
MidniteSuperMod
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Nevertheless, Taiwan delivery agent is not USPS.
Your original premise was misleading.
Your original premise was misleading.
All my US sourced knives have been shipped USPS and arrived here without problems. I don't worry about tracking because you can only track it to the US departure point and then it disappears in a cloud until it pops out of customs some weeks later.
