Quoted from KingBW:Yes, I made several Black Friday purchases. Only thing that I didn't get was my PowerBladez. Tracking says that they have been stuck in NY (not literally I hope) for at least the last 5 days - USPS. FEDEX shipments were pretty quick. UPS I got all by last Monday.
Be on the look out for something called "UPS Surepost" which I think was formerly called "UPS Mail Innovations". It's advertised to large businesses as a way to economize shipping in order to boost profit. In short stuff travels by UPS trucks in their long-haul routes and is handed off to the USPS for the final delivery. It adds at least a day to the delivery timeline for the handoff between the two carriers. UPS must know it's slow and unreliable because when you track one of these tracking numbers you are offered the opportunity to upgrade the delivery to keep it in UPS to your door. The UPS site also offers you an associated USPS number for the final leg, but typically no scans are performed on the USPS number until the item is dropped at your door.
I don't think anybody in our pinball space is big enough to participate, but I've seen it used recently by gotprint.com, shapeways, shutterfly and onlinecomponents.com. Many of us are buying online right now for Christmas, I share in hopes you can watch for it and choose another delivery provider (or a different seller) to beat the 12/25 deadline. With so many stores doing curbside, that's not a bad option either.
-Rob
-visit https://www.kahr.us to get my daughterboard that helps fix WPC pinball resets or the Pinball Pyramid!
Falls Church, VA
