Odd, isn't it...

[ffutures]

...that when I sell a fairly heavy camera lens on eBay I can get it to the USA in a week, with insurance and tracking, for £17.....

...but if I want to buy a fairly light bit of software from a US vendor on eBay (a disk plus manual in a plastic bag) they quote me up to $50 depending on delivery speed, with delivery at that price still taking up to a week.

Are the US postal options really that crap, or do US vendors just not want to do business with British buyers?

Comments

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Everybody's numbers don't count the time they'll need to spend in line at the PO because it is an international shipment. Because it is light, they could drop it in the mail for domestic mail, but to send it to you they'd actually have to show up at the PO, fill out forms, and stand in line to ship your package. They're probably charging you for their time (ie the handling).

I've never really understood your fondness for "bargains" and eBay, personally. Is it even a legal license for the software?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

It's the full version of Acrobat that comes bundled with some scanners. It's technically a breach of the license to sell it on its own, so they also include some unspecified piece of hardware - probably a case screw or something - but they seem to have sold a lot of them without problems.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Forgot to say that you're probably at least partially right about the post office thing. In the UK it's different; I can send most of my international stuff (apart from the occasional insured package) without going to the post office, provided it'll fit in the letter box slot, I just have to put the right stamps and a customs label on. I'd have to go to the post office even for an inland insured package.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

"but they seem to have sold a lot of them without problems."

Which makes it OK? Apply that logic to someone selling your FF CD on eBay.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Interesting point. Presumably, though, these are copies which Adobe has already sold on to scanner manufacturers or whatever - does it hurt them if I get the software instead of someone who buys a scanner?

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Belated answer - Considerably less than if I buy one of the hundreds of completely illegal copies that are on offer at a fraction of the price.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

Please consider the phrase "completely illegal." You know what you're doing is wrong, but you're doing it anyway.

[dsample.livejournal.com]

"Illegal" and "wrong" are not synonyms.

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

You're making exactly the same argument as people who scan in games and post them on the Internet: they can't see the harm in it either.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

I disagree, but since it seems unlikely that I'm going to buy one of these packages anyway it's going to have to remain theoretical.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Sorry, forgot to address your original point. If that happened (and I do have a search running on ebay) I would check the list of registered users, see if it was one of them, and if they were selling one copy or lots. If it was a registered user selling lots they'd be blacklisted, e.g. I wouldn't let them have future copies. I would also put a few copies on sale at a "buy it now" price below the price the vendor was listing it at, point out that unlike the bootleg copies you'd get an update eventually, and wait for the shit to hit the fan.

[robertprior.livejournal.com]

Everybody's numbers don't count the time they'll need to spend in line at the PO because it is an international shipment

Line? I occasionally have to wait a couple of minutes at my post office, but rarely longer. And if I had a scale at home, I could just put on the correct stamps and drop it in the post box at the end of my street.

Of course, American postal law is just strange. For example, it is apparently illegal to label a parcel going to a school, the contents of which will be used in a classroom, as "for educational use" unless the contents are textbooks. At least, the warehouse/shipping manager of a major American games company told me that.

(She also told me that missing parcels had to be traced from the recipient's end, not the shipper's, which Canada Post and Canada Customs found very strange.)

[heliograph.livejournal.com]

The USPS is picky. If you have a package over 16 ounces, you -must- drop it with an employee of the USPS: they have to see you. They have questions they -always- ask you, the answers to which are "No, No, No, No, No, and No."

At the very fastest PO in my area, any transaction involving forms (like sending something over 16 oz, or sending something internationally) takes about five minutes, not including line time. I've found a place that usually doesn't have long lines, but the last time I went (to ship a book to Canada) I had to wait five minutes for someone to emerge from the back to handle my transaction.

My record (for sending something to Marcus, FWIW, years ago) was 25 minutes in line and 15 minutes at the counter. There were only five people in front of me.

[ffutures.livejournal.com]

Weird - when I was selling my camera gear and some other stuff a couple of weeks ago I sent two international insured packages and four recorded delivery inland in about five minutes, and I thought that was taking longer than usual. The stuff I send internationally on a day-to-day basis, like the Forgotten Futures CD-ROM, just goes in a jiffy bag with a label showing its value and weight and my address, rubber stamps to show that it's "Airmail" and "Small Packet", and a few stamps, I drop it in any post box. As far as I know you can post anything that way provided it'll fit through the post box slot and you don't want insurance etc., I don't think weight comes into it.