Tracking a mysterious sender of vinyl records?

June 9, 2008 10:45 AM

I received a surprise gift in the mail and there was no return address. Is it possible to track down the sender?

On Saturday, I received a record that I know I did not purchase. There was no return address and no receipt or note enclosed with the record. According to the customs receipt (and the postage stamp) it was sent from the UK, which is strange because I do not know anyone from the UK.

Is there any way I would be able to track down who sent me this lovely Iron & Wine record? And should I be wary as my siblings seem to be?

Thanks!

posted by blithely to grab bag (17 comments total)

If they sealed the envelope using their own saliva, you could have that analyzed for their DNA.

I don't think you need to be that wary, though; free record! Enjoy it!
posted by Greg Nog at 10:54 AM on June 9, 2008

do you have an amazon wishlist, and is the record on it? someone might've bought you a present off of it from a registered third party seller and the buyer or seller could've forgotten to write a note.
posted by lia at 10:58 AM on June 9, 2008

Search eBay for a recently completed auction of that item.
Could have been a mistaken address.
posted by weapons-grade pandemonium at 11:07 AM on June 9, 2008

Was the package addressed to you by name?
posted by robinpME at 11:15 AM on June 9, 2008

Your best bet is not to trace it through the post office, but through personal investigations. Make a list of everyone you know who might have been able to send you such a thing. Ask them about it and each other (in person, so you can have a shot at reading their faces). If they're especially interested in finding out who did it, then they probably don't know. Otherwise, there's a good bet that either they're responsible or know who.

If you're obnoxious, you could pretend to be really disturbed by the anonymous gift and make sure everyone you knows knows it. They'll own up out of guilt pretty quickly. But I don't actually recommend that because it's a pretty mean thing to do.
posted by ErWenn at 11:21 AM on June 9, 2008

Yes, robinpME, is was addressed to me by name. And the address was handwritten.
posted by blithely at 11:28 AM on June 9, 2008

Might have simply been ordered from the UK, either through eBay or an online store. Either way, sounds like a gift. If the sender wishes to remain anonymous, respect that. Guilt or tracking will just make things more awkward, especially if you have no concrete reason to be concerned. Just enjoy the record, that's probably all the sender wanted.
posted by hungrysquirrels at 11:29 AM on June 9, 2008

this happened to me too! well, okay, it was a cd, not vinyl. and it was chet baker, not iron & wine. and it the address was printed out onto a blank mailing label and not handwritten. and it came from argentina, and not the uk.

but blithely, i bet i like chet baker as much as you like iron & wine. and i never ordered this brilliant disc (this was actually an argentine release, and the return address bore no name, but the city and country code of BA, AR [Buenos Aires, Argentina]).

i asked ALL my friends who might possibly have been to argentina (more than i'd imagined), and they all demurred. i don't want to stalk the sender, but i'd LOVE to thank them.

or maybe there are just mailing angels sending music the old-fashioned way? how cool is that??
posted by deejay jaydee at 12:27 PM on June 9, 2008

maybe this has some kind of relation to this question? is musicrossing the next big thing?

like blithely (sorry if i'm jumping your train, b), i'd also love to know anything that others might know about this (or even just hear of like experiences!) . . .
posted by deejay jaydee at 12:29 PM on June 9, 2008

Not that many people would want an Iron and Wine record, so if I were you, I'd just assume someone you know bought it for you.

Maybe a friend simply ordered it from the UK as a gift.
posted by reductiondesign at 12:35 PM on June 9, 2008

I thought this happened to me, but it turned out it was just this.
posted by annaramma at 12:58 PM on June 9, 2008

i think you're over thinking this somehow. just send an email out to all your friends saying "hey, i got this in the mail the other day, did any of you send it to me?"

i've gotten gifts from friends that were ordered thru 3rd party sites and there was no indication who it was really from, so i just emailed people about it, and the sender would reply. and then i'd say thanks and carry on with my life.
posted by misanthropicsarah at 1:03 PM on June 9, 2008 [1 favorite has favorites]

i'm not the OP, misanthropicsarah, but i totally sent "an email out to all your friends saying 'hey, i got this in the mail the other day, did any of you send it to me?'"

nobody had a clue (or claimed to have a clue). i can't speak for blithely, but for me, it was kind of sweet and VERY puzzling . . .
posted by deejay jaydee at 1:06 PM on June 9, 2008

and to be honest, i emailed my friends, ms, and not yours . . .
posted by deejay jaydee at 1:07 PM on June 9, 2008

Hi misanthropicsarah, I have asked friends and family and they all said no and most had never heard of Iron & Wine (they also warned me about anthrax). I thought it was perhaps a close friend or family member because I don't give out my address freely. Strange!

deejay jaydee: Very cool indeed! I don't want to stalk them either, I'd just like to thank them because it brightened an otherwise crappy day!
posted by blithely at 1:46 PM on June 9, 2008

hungrysquirrels is correct. I don't actually recommend guilting them. I suggested that more as a joke than anything (though I have seen it work when the receiver was genuinely a little creeped out). I would recommend sending out an e-mail as misanthropicsarah suggests, just in case it wasn't on purpose. If you aren't psychologically racked by the not knowing (I would be, no matter how much I tried to make myself stop caring), you could even include a thank you in the e-mail and a disclaimer saying that if it was meant to be a secret, the sender need not feel obligated to own up. That way you won't be making anyone lie.
posted by ErWenn at 5:48 PM on June 9, 2008

Is it possible someone hacked your ebay account and forgot to change the postal address to their own address?
posted by taff at 4:01 AM on June 10, 2008