I won an eBay auction on 11/18 and paid for it right away with Paypal. The seller shipped it the next day. It never arrived. The seller figured it was lost and refunded my payment. The next day the package showed up in the mail. It took 17 days to get to NY from California.

This past Saturday I made a deal with a chip collector in Portugal and mailed him the chips on the same day. He got the chips today. Only three days to send a package to Portugal, 17 days to get one from California. Both packages were sent with standard 1st class mail, air mail to Portugal.

How is it possible that USPS service is so inconsistant?