This state we're in!

Another of my rants is the fact that many seem to think that Alaska is another country (non-DXCC speaking of course). What brings this to mind is looking on eBay for "stuff". People shipping items Priority Mail and only to the lower 48! News flash, flat rate is the same to Alaska as it is anywhere else. See the USPS commercial?

Many people in Alaska are used to paying extra for shipping. Most everything up here costs 20% or more due to our shipping costs. Most of the stuff here arrives by sea but stuff also arrives by air. We don't have Fed Ex here at my QTH and we don't have UPS however, we can still get them. But at least for me, MAIL is the only way to shop. It's great to find people who will ship using USPS. There are no house numbers were I live, none. There is no postal delivery to my mailbox. I have to head to the post office to get my mail. Try to order stuff when you don't have a regular physical address. It can be challenging at times. Oh, and my post office winter hours are 10:30 am to 12:30 pm daily.

Sometimes I have to swallow hard when I'm quoted a shipping price but again, a part of living where we do I guess. I have shipped my Ameritron AL-1500 back to the factory for repair work (without the power supply) so yes, USPS can ship big things! There have been so many items I would have purchased from eBay but the poster refuses to ship to Alaska. Their loss as it only takes a short time before I find someone who will ship USPS. I have had some success sending emails to the listing station asking for them to ship USPS. But in case you did not get the memo, Alaska is part of the United States! I won't get on my rant about those who inflate their shipping prices to make that extra million a year.

Yes, I know there are horror stories about the postal service but there are also the same for Fed Ex and UPS. When you really don't have a choice, you have to take a chance. So if you're selling something, remember us hams in Alaska and that we like to spend money too! We are part of the United States even though we are a seperate DXCC country. Our stamps are your stamps and our dollars are your dollars. We give our stamp of approval to anyone who ships reasonably to Alaska.