When Antique Shopping Is About More Than The Goods - Latest WorthPoint.com article

I so enjoy writing for WorthPoint.com, who would have ever thought that I would write anything anyone would care to read. It just goes to show you never know what life will hand you.

I had proposed a series of articles on antique shopping across several states one of which was Texas. Well, Mother Nature decided to burn my home State of Texas up therefore my travels have so far been pretty limited. I am hoping that a trip to Colorado and possibly Georgia will be coming soon.

Please enjoy my latest contribution to WorthPoint.com - http://www.worthpoint.com/article/antique-shopping-more-than-about-goods

What To Do, What To Do

Have you ever just hit the wall with a big project? It is staring you in the face day after day and it just seems like it is just too massive to do anything about?

Well I am there. I still have a couple hundred boxes in my house and garage from the closure of my antique shop a year ago February. I believe I have already talked about the massive mess and it isn't getting any better.

What Is Up With the Postal Rate Increase?

I realize that prices go up. I mean we are paying almost $4.00 for a gallon of gas. Thank goodness I work from home and a tank of gas will last me about a month.

But this Post Office rate increase is horrible if you ship packages. They are doing what UPS, Fed Ex and DHL have always done, charge by volume instead of weight. But they have gone overboard with it. A package that used to cost me $7.00 to ship through USPS now is double that amount plus insurance. At least with the other guys they cover you for $100 in insurance.

I raised the rates on my website when the postage rates went up but I think I am going to lower them back to the old rate and ship through DHL instead. I will also implement free shipping with a certain dollar amount purchase, I have not decided yet what that will be. It isn't fair to my customer's to have to pay such a HUGE shipping cost.

It will be interesting to see if the Post Office looses any shipping business or if they will increase their services.

What Is An Antique Dealer To Do?

Where does my responsibility as an online antique dealer end and the responsibility of the customer begin?

I have been selling through my own online shop for 7 years, prior to that I had an antique store and sold on eBay. I loved the customer interaction with the store life got in the way and we had to close it. Selling on eBay became a huge problem just because of the way eBay is going.

I have learned many lessons selling through my own website but for the most part the customer's have been amazing and I have had very few problems.

When I first started the website I automatically tacked on the cost for insurance, this was a carry-over from my eBay days, but I had quite a few complaints from customer's so I made purchasing insurance an option. On occasion if I was shipping something really fragile I would go ahead and pay for the insurance out of my pocket just to be on the safe side and there were a few times where this was a good thing.

UPS owes me a few hundred dollars for items I insured that got demolished in transit and they did not make good on the insurance I purchased but that is just their way.

But what do I do if someone makes a substantial purchase on a non-fragile item and then says it has not been delivered to them, yet the Post Office shows that the item was delivered? What is my responsibility in this situation? They opted to not purchase insurance on the item and I have proof of delivery.

If you live in a neighborhood where packages are apt to get stolen from your doorstep then I recommend you purchase insurance on purchases. As a seller I cannot know what your neighborhood is like. Or do like many of my customer's and have the packaged delivered to you at work.

I really need some help on this because I do not know what to do. Am I being scammed? It has happened to me before. I appreciate all input on this situation.