Security?

I have been told that I should, but I don't. There are a lot of ebay sellers who won't ship to PO boxes, too. It's probably a good idea if there are a lot of people who know that you collect, but if they know that, you're already at risk since they're going to assume that you store your coins in your home.

You would have to stand in line to get one of the boxes at our post office. Lets just say they have a waiting list! Thought we were going to get a new post office building this year but they are suffering with so much debt they couldn't afford to follow thru with their plans. I get everything, from everyone, right here at the house. FedEx, UPS, and now DHL, plus the USPS all know where I live!

Other than having my rural delivery box in front of my old home being knocked down by the snowplow every time we had a snowstorm, I had mail stolen from it a couple times, so I switched to a PO Box. Much more secure and no problems with the snowplow. Further, no concerns about having to wait for and meet the mailman if a coin is coming in; with a PO Box, I can pick it up at my leisure.

In my present location, I MUST have a PO Box: this Post Office has no rural delivery. Actually, many or most very small Post Offices do not have a rural delivery mailman and all persons at that ZIP must have a box.

I have a hard time understanding why so many sellers will not ship to a Post Office Box. Seems to me this is about as secure a shipping method as can be provided since the coin doesn't leave the security of the Postal Service until it is actually picked up by the buyer. On occasion, I've emailed the seller explaining that I have nothing but a PO Box as a delivery address and without exception, they agreed to ship to the box if I won. However, I have yet to hear a reasonable explanation why they won't ship to a PO Box.

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Originally posted by Morgan Fred
However, I have yet to hear a reasonable explanation why they won't ship to a PO Box.

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The best explanation that I've heard is from a seller who insisted on UPS and had had trouble getting them to deliver to people with only a PO Box instead of a physical address. (I used to live in one of those tiny towns where everyone had a PO Box since the zip code didn't have enough residents to justify having a mail carrier.)

The other thing is that because a PO box is (can be) annonymous, then it lends itself to being used in a fraudulent manner. For example, immagine a con man who creates a couple of fake id's and opens a credit card account and a PO Box. He then charges a bunch of things on his card, has them delivered to a PO Box and skips town. When the CC company finds out they back charge all his purchases and the sellers have no address and no recourse. If someone has a physical address it is just a little harder to fake.

Just a thought...

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Originally posted by The_Cave_Troll

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Originally posted by Morgan Fred
However, I have yet to hear a reasonable explanation why they won't ship to a PO Box.

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The best explanation that I've heard is from a seller who insisted on UPS and had had trouble getting them to deliver to people with only a PO Box instead of a physical address. (I used to live in one of those tiny towns where everyone had a PO Box since the zip code didn't have enough residents to justify having a mail carrier.)

The other thing is that because a PO box is (can be) annonymous, then it lends itself to being used in a fraudulent manner. For example, immagine a con man who creates a couple of fake id's and opens a credit card account and a PO Box. He then charges a bunch of things on his card, has them delivered to a PO Box and skips town. When the CC company finds out they back charge all his purchases and the sellers have no address and no recourse. If someone has a physical address it is just a little harder to fake.

Just a thought...

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The USPS requires a PO Box applicant on PS Form 1093 demonstrate that s/he have a viable "street" address, viz. must document a verifiable place of residence. While a person with deceit on his/her mind can get around this requirement with phony documents and it's almost certain that some Post Offices don't bother reviewing the documentation, the level of fraud through blind PO Boxes is relatively low, certainly low enough that sellers who refuse to ship to PO Boxes live in a paranoid delusional state (NPI).

Don't get me going on vendors who only ship via UPS with no provisions for those of us who have only PO Boxes. Makes me see red and load up the .45 when I need a part or a book and can't get it.

yeah I am not worried about losing mail. It's the wrong person knowing the address and that there are coins in the house..

Tony

Starting about 30 years ago, many jurisdictions (municipalities, cities, etc.) required persons living with rural route addresses (e.g., Rte 2, Box 177) to switch to "street" addresses for purposes of 911. The fire departments and police needed to know exactly where to go. I happened to live in one of the earliest areas to implement 911. Twenty years later, I relocated to another location which had not yet installed a 911 system, but when it was finally employed, I had to go through the address switch once more. In both instances, the Post Office merely followed the lead of the local policies rather than instigating the address changes.

In both locations, posting the residence's number on the road or street was mandatory. This makes a lot of sense for emergency purposes (keeps the fire dept or police from having to drive miles around looking for the correct address); both areas were low crime, so few people objected.