Which courier do you prefer?

@ tubegb

What a mess on South East of Conus!

I do not have such bad experience in Washington State so far except some unexpected delay.

My experience tells me you can have very positive outcomes, or a negative one with any shipper. I’ve gotten records from the Mideast via DHL to NY in a week, I’ve had parts shipped from Eastern Europe via TNT (which I think is now part of Deutsche Post) overnight- i’d get an email saying it was dispatched by the sender and the delivery person would be walking up my front steps by mid-day the next day. And, I had same day cross country service.
I don’t consider any of these shippers ’couriers.’ A courier is a guy in a dark suit with sunglasses, a Halliburton handcuffed to his wrist, and no sense of humor.
As for the US Mail, I'm shocked that it works. But it does....

Records by mail from Middle East ? You mean Turkey, Bill ?
I see some stuff from there on ebay. I also see a lot of records from Israel there and got one once, not expensive. Of course, it was overgraded but playable. I shamed the seller in a very personal message and kept the record. He didn't say anything in return, he knew I was right.
When you get your balls handcuffed to your brain you lose sense of humor quickly, so I don't blame them.

Beruit. And other places nearby. Almost all UK pressings. There are people with great records all over the world. 
New Zealand has some wonderful pressings from the era- so does Australia- big market for British rock/folk/psych from the era, sometimes with the same matrices as the far more expensive UK pressing. In the Court of the Crimson King was released in Australia or NZ as a Vertigo Swirl. How bad is that! (I don't have that one, but wouldn't mind it- oh wait, I'm not supposed to be collecting!). Ah, it's late my friend. Tomorrow, another big adventure!

Maybe it's not exactly or not only collecting, maybe you rescue certain records to put them in proper place - your house.
I bought a few original Spanish flamenco records from 70s from Australia, records that I couldn't find anywhere else. How they got there I don't know, condition was excellent and shipping was two times the cost of the records. Australia Post was just fine, two weeks for registered, I think. I get records from Berlin within five-six days, not DHL or EMS, and shipping cost can be less than USPS Priority from New York to Texas.