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 S. Hinman - VE6LDS
long West 113 deg 27 min 20 sec
lat North 53 deg 27 min 3 sec
Maidenhead Locator DO33gk