Comments on: I May Have to Buy a Mailbox

By: LJ

LJ — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:02:34 +0000

Hi,

May I know where you bought your mailbox? Funny to say, but all mailboxes I’ve seen here in the Phils are built in their gates. ANd I do mean the traditional ugly ones

Mind sharing where you got one (at a reasonable price, hopefully). Thanks.

By: Dave Starr

Dave Starr — Sat, 30 May 2009 02:36:35 +0000

Hi Joe, thanks for the comment and for a really interesting question. Even for businesses that involve physical products, like books, the Internet is still very muchthe wave of the future.

But running a business like yours internationally involves special challenges, that is for sure.

PhilPost is a signator to the international express mail corporation (consortium) contract that links more than 50 country’s overseas mail services and imposes standards on them.
http://www.philpost.gov.ph/product-services/international-mail-service/
I have only had a few packages sent to me internationally, and all of them have been trouble free (the times the PhilPost mailman _)did_ visit my home before the latest burst of domestic mail activity.
Another thing Ijust found is that PhilPost and USPS can now exchange Postal Money orders (many people just aren’t attuned to paying for somehting ikea book via PayPal or some other onlines service.

The IEMS (International Express Mail Service) works well from all accounts I have heard … but from a practical standpoint, everything in the Philippines ‘depends’ … mainly on where you are living. If you chose to live in a major city, the mail service is likely to be a lot like the USA. If you live in a remote provincial area, all bets are likely off.

The IEMS is certainly cheaper than FedEx, but it will certainly run costs up much hirre thna domestic US postal costs, especially considering the USPS special book rates.

The US and the Philippines now also exchange postal money orders, which would be an importnat business enabler as well.

Aside from that I am not sure how I’d try to internationalize a business like yours though. If there’s some way to have a base of operations in the US, so that every book you buy and sell doesn’t have to cross the ocean two ways, of course it would be a lot easier. But I do see that it is not impossible to run it very similarly to how you would do it in the US, albeit at a slower and more costly rate.

By: Joe

Joe — Wed, 27 May 2009 16:43:06 +0000

I have a wonderfu business selling antiquarian books. I am toying with the idea of relocating to the Philippines. Over the last eighteen months or so I have started to sell some books online. Recesion and everything else included it turned out to be very profitable.

The only problem with doing this in the Philippines is the postal system and Fedex is expensive.

Any thoughts

By: Credit Where Credit Is Due | Live In The Philippines

Credit Where Credit Is Due | Live In The Philippines — Tue, 26 May 2009 09:05:09 +0000

[...] but not least, many will recall my ‘Buy a Mailbox” article a few weeks back. Remember I said that if the PhilPost mail carrier made it to my [...]

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 21 May 2009 08:38:46 +0000

ha ha Andy, that made me laugh. Not about mail so much as there are people who don’t even know what town they buy houses in, based on my expereince. Years ago I lived in a small town (a lot bigger ow) called Pequannock, New Jersey. Not many people even can spell it, but Eric Jeter can, he grew up there. (yet another famous Jersean ) There’s an area of that town called Pompton Plains which has never been a politcal subdivision of any sort, but has had a post office and a Zip Code for years .. the posy office assigns zip codes based on where people live, not on town or country lines.

My dad worked in the tax assessor’s office for years. Needless to say he had plenty ‘disgruntled’ clients, I mean who really likes their property taxes.

But one day he came home with a bemused smile rather thahn a frown. Seems an enraged property owner had come in to the tax office with a bill and a summons to haul my dad into court for fraud becuase my dad had sent this property owner a tax bill from Pequannock when the property owned lived in Pompton Plains … and a whole lot off harsh words and legalese went along with the summons.

“Uh, sir, sorry, but you _do_ live in Pequannock and we are your legal taxing authority, Pompton Plains is like a subdivision name, it’s not a municipality. I hope your lawyer didn’t charge you too much for all this paper, because he really doesn’t seem to know the law very well.”

Remeber Gilda Radner’s famous line from her skits on Saturday Night Live? “Never mind” LoL

By: Dave

Dave — Thu, 21 May 2009 08:20:09 +0000

Indeed, Tommy, that is a blessing. I haven’t always made it clear, but as a military retiree, though the courtesy of the State Department and a lot of hardworking volunteer retirees here in the Philippines, I also have a ‘real’ US mail address. But becuase of military and State Department restrictions only true first class mail can be sent .. the rest is tossed away as a service to me in Tokyo, where my mail enters the US State dept/DoD system. What a blessing indeed. It’s only been three years, I can well remember the handfuls of absolutely useless mail offers I used to get in the States that I no don’t have to deal with.

Funny your comment coming in when it did, I’m working on another article that covers mail as we speak … one “can’t” factor a great many still in the US use as a reason they can’t move here is mail …but to a great extent, it’s a bogus reason. So much of that trash that’s in US mailboxes today is not needed .. before I left Colorado, for example, all my monthly bills like water, sewer, electric and such were online, all credit cards, bank statements etc., and I paid everything every month with a couple keystrokes on my bank’s site. My 1099R’s are all online now and I file my taxes in 15 or 20 minutes online every year, and the refund goes direct to my savings account in 3 or 4 days … since I have bene here in the Philippines, Social security and the Veteran’s Administration have opened online benefit application as well … aside from my Philippine bills, what do I r4eally need mail for at all?

By: Tommy

Tommy — Thu, 21 May 2009 07:44:44 +0000

on the bright side Dave look at the trees you are saving by not getting the weekly fliers and massive amount of junk mail

By: Andy Wooldridge

Andy Wooldridge — Wed, 13 May 2009 19:01:34 +0000

Hello Dave I live in a rural are and did not have mail service to address until about 8 years ago. So I had PO box. Now I live in a very tiny town, but when I started seeing the mail carrier daily I decided to put a mail box in. I never got mail even though I put in address changes. But because small everyone know everyone area my mail get get to my PO Box. I finally asked after about 6 months and found that I did not live in Finley but Lakeport. Because small post office and they did not deliver from there. New zip code and all, now I get my mail here. Make sure you are in right town. haha

By: Bob New York

Bob New York — Mon, 11 May 2009 04:24:01 +0000

Opposite to the Philippines, the cost of labor and benefits such as health insurance and retirement plans makes it cost effective to spend millions or more on automation equipment in the USA for agencies like the US Postal Service and as you mentioned also the amount of mail being handled on a day to day basis. I would imagine however there would be some facilities of Philpost that do have at least some automation.

By: Dave Starr

Dave Starr — Mon, 11 May 2009 01:47:15 +0000

Wow, the comments haven’t stopped coming in yet and US postage rates have already gone up … 44 cents for first class now. Told you you should have mailed your Mother’s Day cards early