Wait Time
There can be a substantial amount of time pass from when an auction ends and when you get the item. These "wait time" components are summarized in tabular form at the bottom. The biggest wait time components are mail/shipping time and check clearing time. If you send a Money Order or Cashiers Check, the item usually goes out the day after we get the certified funds (This only applies to US Bank Address MO or CCs sent from within the US from customers we recognize who have superior feedback--Bank checks that we are unsure of will have clearing hold times like personal or business checks). However, that still means a two week wait--one week for the check to get to us and another week for the item to reach you by FedEx or UPS ground.
This is why we strongly encourage payment via Paypal (or Wire Transfer for large payments). This way we can usually get the item on its way to you within 24 hours or less (during the business week) of our getting the electronic payment and you can often get the item within 2 to 4 days, depending on your location relative to New Mexico. In addition, electronic payment reduces our clutter, accounting work and chances of damage while waiting for payment to clear. (Please note that on items too big for a regular cardboard box, there may be some additional days delay while we locate or build a special container).
If you elect to pay by business or personal check, there is an additional major delay while we wait for our financial institution to confirm that our deposit of your check has really cleared (not been returned as un-collectable). This takes 10 business days or 14 to 17 calendar days (depending on how weekends and holidays fall) from the time we deposit your check (usually the day it comes unless it is Saturday, in which case we have to wait until Monday). While this seems like a ridiculously long time in this electronic age, it is a standard time. Just check out the clearing time listed for personal checks sent in payment of ebay escrow transactions. The purchases I have made from other ebay sellers using a business check have called out a 3 to 6 week delivery time after they get my check.
The bottom line is that the best you can expect (for regular mail/UPS) if you pay with certified funds is 2 weeks. If you pay with a personal or business check, your are looking at 4 weeks wait. Any delay in making the post bid closing contact and any delay in getting payment in the mail, adds to this wait time.
We try very hard to minimize the time it takes to get items to you by getting to you promptly after bid closing and shipping items promptly after payment funds have been confirmed. However, most of the wait time is out of our hands. The only ways to significantly reduce wait time add significant cost to the transaction.
For those items that are listed as "escrow accepted", you can pay by credit card and have the item shipped within a a couple days of bid closing for a total wait of slightly over a week. Of course, you can always send certified payment by overnight courier and pay for the item to ship the same way which could drop the wait time to about 2 days.
Below are the times we are typically seeing for various wait time components in calendar (not business) days.
Post Bid Communication 1-3 days
Check into mail time 1-7 days
Check mail delivery time 4-10 days (currently 7 days typical)
Check clearing time 14-27 days (for our bank to be able to say it cleared)
Check clearing to ship time 2-5 days
USA Ground delivery time 2-10 days
On International orders, including Canadian, the wait times can be dramatically longer. If payment is via a check or MO that has to be sent back to the country of origin, funds clearing will can take 30 days or longer (sending for collection seems no-longer an option so be sure you use electronic payment or US Bank Address payment). Surface shipping of the goods, once the funds have cleared, typically run 6 to 10 weeks and there may be additional delays with customs. (It is critical that your contact phone number(s) be included with your address on all International orders.) If at all possible, please arrange to have your item shipped to a USA address for later pickup or professional forwarding to you.
If you have any questions, please contact us. Please be sure to include a description of the item you are interested in. We have thousands items and we are not very clairvoyant.