Since the rate change in May, many folks that used to ship Priority, now find it too expensive to ship, so they opt for standard mail(parcel post, IE 4th Class), delivery time can be as much as a week to 10 days normally, sometimes longer. I ship everything priority mail, it may cost a bit more, but it will be delivered in 2 day 99% of the time anywhere in the US, the last two frames I sent in for barrels cost me less than $10 each, insured with free delivery confirmation, they received both of em in 2 days, granted, they were both just frames, no stock set, I ordered stock sets for both of em since I like complete Handis. But Priority gets there quick, less handling, less chance for something to go wrong, damaged, destroyed, stolen, or whatever, pack it properly, and it'll get there, a little hint, you can't put too much tape on a package, and USPS even offers free priority tape!!
Folks are quick to point out a problem with mail delivery, but they never mention all the thousands of deliveries they've received in the past that were trouble free and for pennies in postage to boot!! When you consider the 212 billion pieces of mail delivered each year by the USPS, how relatively few misdeliveries/problems there really are. I got to deal will too damn many ignorant customers in over 32yrs of USPS service, 99% of delivery issues are caused by improper addresses or improper packaging on the part of the mailer. If I had a nickel for every misdelivery I researched that turned out to be the mailer's fault or misinformation from the mailer, I'd be wealthy!! There is no tracking on delivery confirmation mail, the only tracking available is for Express mail, delivery confirmation provides just that, confirmation of delivery, it usually provides time of mailing if accepted at a retail unit and sometimes an arrival scan or scan at a bulk mail facility.
The USPS gets the blame for waaaay to many delayed deliveries, the mailer says it was mailed, when in fact it may not have been. If the mailer uses Click-N-Ship, which is the USPS' online shipping, a delivery confirmation shipping label is generated and the electronic transmission of the mailing is entered into the system as being electronically transmitted, but not necessarily actually in the hands of the USPS. If that item gets accepted by the USPS and scanned, there will be another entry in the system showing acceptance, if that acceptance scan doesn't happen, there's no proof it actually got mailed or when it went in the mail system.
Tim
http://www.usps.com/send/waystosendmail/extraservices/deliveryconfirmationservice.htmhttp://www.usps.com/shipping/expressmail.htm 
