I have a missing item. I'm not missing the item....I have the item, but it isn't mine.

Just over a week ago our doorbell rang, it was the mail person with a priority mail box. I accepted delivery (didn't have to sign for it) and opened the box. I pulled out and unwrapped a cup, and was totally clueless. I thought maybe my husband had won an auction "lot" and this was part of it. Then I unwrapped a bowl. I poked around in the box and found a few more items that felt like plates, by then I was sure it wasn't ours.

The return address scrawled on the box didn't help. It was 2 initials....that weren't written clearly. Written all on one line, here's what the return address looked like:

?.?.,Box ____, CH, CA95621

I looked in the box for any kind of auction I.D. info...nothing. I looked in my checkbook to see if I could figure out a name that might match up with the scrawled initials....nope. I looked at auctions we were waiting for to see if any had "CH CA" listed as the item location....nope. Then I saw an auction we'd won for a plate from the Sahara, which had been delivered already. I remembered that the plate was wrapped in the same type of paper as the items in the "mystery" box.
I found the box from the Sahara plate, and it had the same return address. Finally, I was able to click on that auction to get the sellers user name, pull up her past auctions and find the set of dishes that was on my kitchen counter.

I emailed the seller a link to the auction with a note explaining that we had received the dishes. The box arrived here with $14.05 postage, but the contents had "settled" during shipment so I added more packing to the box. I suggested that the seller send me a $15.00 postage tape and a mailing label...either back to her or to the person who won the auction, and said I'd take it to the post office.

I heard back from the seller and she said she'd send the postage and the label. That was a week ago.

Sorry for telling the long version of the story...the actual point is Do you include identification in packages that you send out? It was frustrating for me to figure out where the package came from...I was about half tempted to toss it in the dumpster or donate it to goodwill and forget about it!

There's lots of dishonest people out there....but there's lots of honest people, too. Make it easy for an honest person to locate the source of a mis-directed package. Make up labels with your name, phone number, email address, ebay name, etc. and stick it right on the item (well, the item's wrapping ). If an envelope is addressed wrong or gets ripped and a chip falls out, maybe it will find its way back to you.