IMNTBHO, Putting a $200 chip in the mail system WITHOUT insuring it at the seller's end was a serious lapse of good judgment.

Some of the sorting equiptment operates at 40,000 to 60,000 pieces of mail per hour. The machines are calibrated for a standard #10 envelope with 1 - 2 pieces of 8.5 X 11, 20lb. paper properly folded into thirds. Any foreign object (pen, refrig. magnet, coin, CHIP) is a disaster waiting to happen. You can write anything you want on the outside of your envelope that you want, like "Hand Stamp", etc. Facts are, LOTS of things end up in these machines that shouldn't... I see shredded TV Guide Magazines, broken audio tape cassettes from MLMs, etc. IF the piece is still identifiable... it gets taped up, put in what we call a "Body Bag" (the little plastic bag that says..."Sorry..."), and goes on its way. Otherwise it ends up as confetti, boxed up and sent to Claims or the Dead Letter office.

And did anyone recently read about the female Postal employee in Chicago who was pocketing an extra $10,000 - $15,000 a year taking cash out of Birthday cards in the mail system? Chances are that she'll be forced to resign and nothing else will happen (to avoid negative publicity).

Steve "The Truth Meister" Snowden