Friday, April 15, 2005
Post office promotes its eBay connection
© 2005 Blethen Maine Newspapers
Russ Bornstein has some lamps, tables, tools and electrical equipment he'd like to sell, but the 87-year-old isn't planning a yard sale.
Bornstein, of Portland, plans to sell those items on eBay after attending a recent hourlong workshop on the online auction site conducted by the U.S. Postal Service.
Why does the post office want people like Bornstein to use eBay? Because after the auction, any items sold have to be shipped - and the post office wants to maintain as much of that business as possible in the face of stiff competition from Federal Express, UPS and other shippers.
The post office's bread-and-butter - first-class mail - is beset by rising costs and falling use. E-mail and faxes have cut into the amount of mail sent each day, but the post office still has to bear the cost of delivering to every business and home, six days a week.
Package shipping, however, remains a profitable and booming business, as evidenced by the number and earnings of private shippers in the market.
So the post office's "eBay Days" are equal parts a primer on how to sell and buy - mostly sell - online and a sales pitch for using the Postal Service to complete the transaction.
"Competition is increasing for us," said Leanne Payeur, a local post office spokeswoman. "In the past, we were a monopoly and that's not the case anymore, but we believe we do it best, frankly."
Payeur points out that the post office will deliver just about anywhere - "we're coming to your house anyway" - and offers free boxes and heavy-duty envelopes for those using overnight or Priority mail. And, to make it easier for those in the vanguard of the new, digital economy, the post office will pick up shipments at home and its Web site sells mailing labels with postage included that can be printed out from a home computer.
That's especially important for heavy-duty eBay users who wouldn't want to leave the house and possibly miss the last few minutes of an auction of a porcelain doll or Beanie Baby.
The home pickup was a key feature for Bill Mozak of Bath, who attended eBay Days in Portland last week to get over his admitted "squeamishness" about online transactions.
Mozak said he has some sporting goods he'd like to sell and figured a tutorial on eBay might help him overcome his reluctance to post the items online.
"One of my faults is when it comes to mailing something, but if someone will come to my house and pick it up, great," he said. "To ship it right from your home is ideal."
During the session at the downtown post office, Dave Shepherd, the postmaster for East Winthrop, led about 25 people on a tour around the eBay site, projected on a large screen behind him. He noted the registration process, eBay's companion payment system, PayPal, and how to search for items.
He even put an item up for sale, a post office commemorative poster and canceled envelope commemorating last fall's World Series win by the Red Sox, complete with a picture of the item.
"You may think you have something that's not worth a thing, but it's how you write it up," Shepherd said.
Then Audrey L. Johnson, the postmaster of Gardiner, took over, with an overview of the Postal Service's Web site and how easy it is to send an item that someone has sold on eBay to the buyer through the post office.
She noted the free boxes, the ability to print postage and mailing labels and the free pickup. Log on by 2 a.m. to tell the post office you have a package and your regular carrier will pick it up later that day, she said. The carrier will even look "on the porch, under the sofa," if the shipper won't be around and alerts the carrier where the package will be, Johnson said.
EBay has long had a cozy relationship with the post office, realizing what's good for one helps the other, said Hani Durzy, a spokesman for the California-based auctioneer.
Durzy said eBay hosted about 150 postmasters a couple of months ago to discuss eBay Days. Although eBay encourages the post office to hold the sessions, the company doesn't pay for them and leaves the content up to local postmasters.
"It's a great marketing tool for them and it's great for us," Durzy said. "What eBay's great at is removing friction points for buyers and sellers, and payment and shipment are two big friction points."
PayPal, which allows payments to flow easily from buyer to seller, eliminates the friction caused by having to mail checks or money orders, Durzy said, while the post office's online services - which can be linked to via eBay's site - takes care of shipping hassles.
Durzy noted that 20 million shipping labels with postage were printed via the eBay/post office link last year. EBay users can also link to the UPS site, he said, but it doesn't have a formal relationship with FedEx.
Durzy said he didn't have any figures on how many eBay users opt for UPS or other shippers, but added, "The USPS has gone out of its way to embrace the eBay seller."
Bornstein said he felt comfortable enough to give it a go.
"I've been leery of it, but it isn't that hard," he said after the session.
Staff Writer Edward D. Murphy can be contacted at 791-6465 or at: emurphy@pressherald.com
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Sunday, April 10, 2005
The post office wants an extra 2-cents-worth for its stamps.
However, at the same time yesterday that the agency proposed the stamp price increase, it also invited Congress to eliminate the need for it.
The proposal sent to the independent Postal Rate Commission calls for increases to take effect early next year.
They would boost first-class stamps from 37 cents to 39 cents, increase postcards from 23 cents to 24 cents and raise other postal prices similarly.
In announcing the rate proposal the Postal Service said it is needed only because a 2003 law requires the agency to place $3.1 billion annually in an escrow account.
Postal officials have been urging Congress to drop that requirement and said they will withdraw the rate request if Congress does so.
Postage rates last went up June 30, 2002, rising from 34 cents to 37 cents for a first-class letter.
Now that the post office has formally asked for a 5.4 percent increase, the Postal Rate Commission will hold hearings and collect information before ruling on the proposal.
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Wednesday, April 06, 2005
Post office warns of scam
Staff Writer
Acting Postmaster Kim Morse had heard about the scams involving counterfeit postal money orders but she never thought it would be a problem in Mt. Pleasant. That is until yesterday when not one, but two incidents occurred.
"People use the Internet everywhere I guess," she said.
According to Iowa Postal Inspector Linda Jensen, the scam begins when a victim is contacted by someone through an Internet chat room or online auction site such as E-bay claiming to need help cashing international postal money orders.
"The person often claims to be living in a foreign country, but the scam artist can cook up the scheme from any location," Jensen said in a press release. "The scam artist is simply looking to recruit someone in the United States to cash the money orders and return the funds via a wire transfer."
Victims are lured into the scam with the promise that they can keep some of the money as a payment for their help.
The victim then provides their home mailing address and is told they will receive a check or postal money order that they should deposit in their own back account but must first wire back the remainder of the money through Western Union or a conventional bank wire transfer.
The victim only learns of the scam when they attempt to cash the counterfeit money order or when their bank refuses payment on the bogus deposit.
Phillip Speidel of Mt. Pleasant was almost one such victim. Speidel breeds Siberian Huskies and sells them on his personal Web site and also on a friend's Web site.
About two months ago a man claiming to be from Tennessee e-mailed Speidel's friend about purchasing two dogs. The man said one of the dogs would be sent to Tennessee but the other would have to be sent to Nigeria. He said there was a man in Nigeria who owed him and was going to pay for the dogs.
Speidel said the total amount for the two dogs plus the shipping came to $1,600. The man said he would send a money order for $3,600 and for him to send the remainder of the cash to his address in Tennessee.
Speidel's friend who had been in contact with the man immediately became suspicious and told him that the deal was off.
"He never asked if the dogs were male of female or what their eye color was or anything pertaining to the dog itself," Speidel said. "He upset her over the phone and she said she wanted nothing to do with it."
Nonetheless, a letter from Nigeria arrived in the mail Friday with Speidel's friend's name on it and his address. Speidel opened the letter at the post office after they told him about the scam.
"It upsets you that there's people out there doing things like that. No one likes someone to take advantage of anyone," he said. "Everybody is so inviting to people. We're too honest. You think no one is going to pull something on you, but they're out there."
The other incident in Mt. Pleasant occurred yesterday when a man received what he said was an unsolicited letter from Nigeria. Morse said when the man opened the package there were four counterfeit money orders inside. He agreed to hand them over so the postal inspector could investigate them.
Morse said she would encourage people not to respond if they receive offers like these.
"There's no easy way to make money," she said. "Bring it (the letter) into the post office. The more information we can get, the better. We have to make people aware that it is happening and start to curb it."
Monday, April 04, 2005
Leaders of The Packed
And inside those boxes? Rich Habel, who owns two UPS stores in the District, sees it all. At his store near American University, the end of the school year always brings numerous students trying to cram a whole dorm room into a few boxes to ship home.
"They'll use bedding," Habel says. "They'll wrap everything up in a comforter."
Many customers arrive with boxes padded with blankets and newspapers, which UPS discourages.
"They don't spring back," Habel says, "so if something settles, it settles against the side of the box. The whole idea is to keep what's in the middle of the box away from the sides."
Habel encounters many, many optimists in his line of work. These are people who arrive with a bonsai tree in a pretty pot or an Easter lily encased in plastic and foil and confidently hand it over for shipment.
"Make sure it doesn't turn over," they tell Habel. He tries his best, he says, to fasten the plant so it's stationary, but there's no way he can guarantee it will remain upright. "It goes on a conveyor belt," he finds himself repeating.
Michael Spates, consumer advocate for the U.S. Postal Service, has seen coconuts go through the mail, unwrapped but bearing an address label and stamp. "We accepted it," he said. Worms get mailed, cosseted in old ice cream containers, baby chicks in specially designed boxes. "We don't accept steaks."
Packaging is only going to grow -- every time another baby is born, another customer for a packaged product is created. And the job of designers will be to make it ever more efficient, Armstrong says.
"They may be graduates from various Schools of Packaging at universities such as Michigan State, Clemson, Rochester Institute of Technology, Cal Poly, et cetera," he says. "Or, some may just be graduates from the schools of practical experience and hard knocks. That's how we do it."
Friday, April 01, 2005
Leaders of The Packed
"The biggest trend today is global," Armstrong says. "More and more products are made in Mexico or Sri Lanka, and the challenge is packing them to survive the trip."
The modern packaging industry began in World War II, he says, when huge amounts of equipment were being moved around the world. "You had to have better and better means of packaging," he says, "because dropping a radar set or other piece of equipment could be fatal."
3M, which now sells packing noodles, Cushion Wrap and endless amounts of Scotch tape among its many products, got into packaging in 1941, making pressure-sensitive tapes to seal U.S. Army K rations.
Last year it came out with the Easy Open poly mailer, an envelope made of plastic film that you can open with a pull tab instead of having to attack it with a knife or scissors. David Wagner, business manager for 3M's Industrial Tapes and Adhesives Division, says the Internet created the demand that got the company interested in the evolution of the plastic envelope. There's an ever-expanding need for economical and convenient packaging, he says, that takes products from the provider directly to the consumer, cheaply.
"The alternatives might be a corrugated box with some sort of fill, either traditional peanuts or the little bubble pillows," he says. "When you start using multiple classes of materials, the cost goes up."
A few years ago, says Steve Uihlein, vice president of finance for Uline Inc., an Illinois-based distributor of shipping and packing materials, it looked as if big companies shipping directly would eliminate middlemen and small shippers.
Those predictions didn't account for eBay Inc.
Uihlein says his family-owned company does a brisk business in orders from small at-home businesses, individuals and eBay merchants.
"Our median order is about $100," he says, "and we do lots and lots of them."
If global shipping demands high-tech, eBay allows the low-tech to flourish as well, as you may have noticed if you've bought a used hubcap for a 1995 Chevy for 99 cents on eBay and were charged $8 for shipping and handling. The "handling" may mean an ancient box and assorted pieces of cardboard taped into the semblance of a package and sent off to the post office.
