... that delivery delays are not always the fault of the seller.

I won an eBay lot in December. The seller mailed the chip to me on 12-8 (verified by postmark). It was delivered to me on January 3rd. Total distance from him to me about 800 miles. No explanation on the envelope, nor any apparent reason for the delay.

Just as an aside, I think some collectors have gotten unreasonably impatient about physical shipments. We've been spoiled by the speed of computer/internet communication and somehow seem to have reached the conclusion that physical mail should move as quickly.

While I applaud those sellers who have a one day turn around from receipt of payment, I think it is unreasonable to expect everyone to operate on that level of efficiency. Just normal living will often preclude that. I also don't worry about sellers holding material until checks clear (I have prosecuted and/or defended hundreds of bad check writers!!). While I think many club members will ship immediately to other members, I don't blame sellers for being cautious with people they don't know. Unlike retailers, online sellers really have no way to verify the validity of a personal check.

Fourteen days for a purchase with a money order, though, is long enough that I'd be asking what's up. ----- jim o\-S