OT: why is ebay discriminating again P.O. Box?

That is obvious. A PO box is harder to connect to a person. You can use a PO Box for a month with stolen credit card numbers and then abandon it to do the same again with a different PO Box number.

With a physical address it is harder to do this. A friend lived in a rental house where the PO did not deliver mail. The only way you could get your mail was to pick it up at the PO which closed at 5 PM, or get a PO box. It was a PITA for her.

You can just rent a private mailbox with physical address and do the same scam. In fact, i will probably have to do it this way (but not with stolen credit card).

Some won't ship to a PO box because they don't necessarily ship via the USPS. FedEx, UPS, etc. can't deliver to PO Boxes.

But they all deliver to a UPS Store.

I live in a PO box: I usually have UPS hold package for pickup using "UPS My Choice" web page: However, I gave up years ago and have everything delivered to my palatial office instead.

Oddly, USPS does delivery for UPS, Fedex, etc...

Only FedEx is a problem. UPS sometimes forward package via USPS. Anyway, most of these sellers are in China and they don't use FedEx or UPS. It's probably a ebay default that the sellers don't really think much about.

Wow, lucky, we only had a cardboard box.

My house is in the hills of Ben Lomond, located within driving distance of Silly Clone Valley. My mailbox is the common USPS approved aluminum mailbox, perched on top of a 4x4, planted in a bucket of concrete, and covered with a variety of man eating plants. Since the USPS doesn't want to risk their vehicle on my road, all the mailboxes are located at a nearby safe turn-around.

The problem is that such an arrangement is an invitation to mail thieves. This became bad enough that I was forced to rent a USPS post office box. Now, instead of stolen mail, the USPS misfiles my incoming mail in someone elses PO box. Progress, I guess.

About 20 years ago, a septic tank pumper managed to flatten most of the mailboxes while trying to maneuver into a difficult location. Since the only mail I ever received was junk mail, I decided I could live without the rural mailbox and just use the PO Box. Because the USPS did not deliver to my house, and I had no mailbox, by default, the USPS considers my residence as being in the PO Box.

Unfortunately, I've had a few battles over mail delivery with the local postmaster. Apparently, the USPS is incapable of forwarding mail addressed to an address when the PO Box is listed in the address, but not after the zip code. The result has been that I've had to resurrect the partially crushed rural mailbox in order to receive notices from the USPS that they can't deliver packages to a partially crushed mailbox.

So, now you know why I live in a PO box.

You have to show ID to pick up there, but not at a PO box.

I had a PO box at one time and a shipper used UPS when I was told it would be mailed. The UPS guy went to the post office and got the physical address registered with the USPS for this PO box and delivered it there, lol. I was surprised they gave it to him. I also had to give him credit for resourcefulness.

I am seldom in the office now (it's in a home I'm not spending much time in) and UPS won't deliver unless I'm there. They used to drop it on the car port, but no longer. They also send the package back immediately after the third delivery attempt. If I'm not in the office for a few days I can't get it. So UPS is no longer on my list of shippers. Not sure why they stopped dropping packages on the car port.

But these are not regular UPS deliveries really. They are a special low rate shipping only available to large shippers.

Especially for heavy auto parts. I think UPS does the warehousing and drop ship via USPS.

IMPORTANT NOTICE: I am now officially moved from "PO Box" to "Post Office Box". It got passed the stupid ebay filter. Hope they deliver properly. If ebay catch on to this, i will have to write the address in Chinese.

So you're officially trying to piss off the vendors who DO NOT WANT to send by mail? Kewl! That ought to get you some positive results!

OK, i'll ask the seller whether he cares if my address is "P.O.Box", "Post Office Box" or "Piss Off Box".