Back when I was selling Lew's collection largely through eBay, I would spend a lot of time on the official eBay seller's and shipping forums, and one could find a lot of horror stories there about the GSP. Apparently, the contractor providing the service (Pitney-Bowes at the time, if I remember correctly) would often unwrap the parcels sent via their hub, inspect and repackage - sometimes with unhappy results (think nihonto) besides the inherent delay and increased costs. An occasional strangely routed or waylaid and thus delayed shipment aside, I never had serious difficulties directly sending using the Postal Service's International Priority Mail service.
|