"Paul Hinman" wrote in message
news:aLfEg.400583$Mn5.137675@pd7tw3no...
I frequently see postings in the ham radio related newsgroups for items
currently being offered on E-Bay.

All to often I that items will be shipped only to the lower 48 states,
leaving hams in Hawaii, Alaska, and Canada out of the picture. What is the
problem. In Canada we are well served by FEDEX and the United States Postal
Service. Amateur radio equipment crosses the border with out any problem.
I realize that Hawaii and Alaska may be a bit far from the "lower 48" but
the same delivery services are available even though surface transportation
may be a little bit slow. In the US you also have UPS, the folks in Brown
which we Canadians prefer not to use because the often make the border
crossing more difficult than it needs to be and we don't like getting stuck
with brokerage fees.

So why the discrimination, if the buyer knows that delivery may take a
little longer and is prepared to accept the fact then it becomes a non
problem. If the seller is intimidated by the prospect of complicated
paperwork, he needn't be. Please leave it up to the buyer to decide whether
he wants to bib or not.

I can not speak for shipments to Europe, Africa, India, China, or the South
Pacific but for fellow Americans, or friendly northern neighbours, I think
that people should be prepared to deal with us.

Thanx for letting get this off my chest and I realize that I have cross
posted this to four different newsgroups but I wanted to get to a broad
audience.

Paul

Paul,

The reason is very straightforward. This is a boatanchor newsgroup
and it's mostly geezers who deal in old radios.

Geezers live in the past; WE don't think critically; the same tired
thoughts cycle through our heads. Even worse, many of us
hallucinate and make up reasons. You'll see several in this
thread.

Many geezers (to be fair, not all) are Xeno-phobic.

To them, Hawai'i is FAR away and never having been there, geezers
imagine that it's a foreign country with different laws a strange
language. In their minds, it's a not that far from Hawai'i to, say,
Nigeria or Pakistan. Even if they could call the Honolulu police to
report a deal gone bad, they would not be able to speak to them with
finding a translater.

On the other hand, a geezer thinks, OK, I'm in Virginia, if a
$30 deal in Kansas goes bad, I'll just get in the Biscayne and drive
over there tomorrow, demand my money. I have that recourse.

People! As Paul says, Hawaii and Alaska are U.S. States.
They have senators in Washington. They vote for the president. As
far as the U.S.P.S, FedEx, and UPS are concerned, those states are,
like, right over there.

To Sprint and other fone companies, after 7 or 8 PM, just pick up
your fone and those places are a free call. If you pay for wired
service, it's 5 or 7 cents a minute.

Here are some actual numbers from www.fedex.com


2 day service - 20 pounds

Virginia to Kansas - $61.85
Virginia to California -$65.83
Virginia to Hawai'i - $66.87

2 day service - 60 pounds

Virginia to Kansas - $151.93
Virginia to California -$166.63
Virginia to Hawai'i - $169.24

About the same price for 2nd day service.


FedEx Ground service - 20 pounds

Virginia to Kansas - $12.70 - 4 days
Virginia to California -$16.03 - 4 days
Virginia to Hawai'i - $48.22 - 7 days


FedEx Ground service - 60 pounds

Virginia to Kansas - $28.40 - 4 days
Virginia to California -$39.08 - 4 days
Virginia to Hawai'i - $114.63 - 7 days

Three days longer and more dollars going ground to Hawai'i. But
then Buyer Pays Shipping!

The same tracking and return receipt, the same laws govern the
business deal. It takes about the same amount of time.


The reason that they say "lower 48" is that they think it's still
1936. It just comes out. There's no reason other than old
thoughts cycling in old heads like regeneration in a triode.


It's like hollarin' out,

Kids these days!

You call that music!

Dag-nabbit!


I've bought items from Canada and sold to Canada. One thing I don't
like about it is that it's expensive to ship across the border. In
fact, it's cheaper to ship though Canada to Alaska.

But then, buyer pays.

I just had the experience of buying from China, a DEGEN DE1103. If
you don't have one, go over to the Bay and look up the seller LIYPN.
$44 for the radio and $24 shipping and insurance. Took about 8 days
to get here.

This is the best pocket shortware radio. Check out the reviews on
the web. 1 kHz readout, better than 1 uV sensitivity, stable, 4
and 6 kHz filters. Covers 100 kHz to 30 mHz continuous so you can
listen to AM broadcast, 160 meters, everything!

I can sit in my car, pull out the whip antenna and copy 7040 CW in
the evening. I heard W1AW CW the other day, this is in
Virginia.

SSB sounds good. Well, mostly good. I still can't understand the
hollarin' on 27,000.

While you're buying and enjoying the DEGEN, think about global
commerce and the fact that you just traded with a real foreign
country.

de ah6gi/4