Some insight into US Mail shipping and how to package items for it, from someone who hauls it.

[eppur_se_muova]

29. Thanks. Having bought more than my share of items on eBay I have been appalled to learn ...

... just how little common sense some people have about how to pack items for shipping (by ANY carrier or means of transportation imaginable).

I received a PC graphics card about 1" thick (two PCIe slots, for those familiar) in a manila envelope. Did I say PADDED manila envelope ? I did not. I knew what it was when I received it because I could look through the enormous hole in the envelope torn by the sharp corners of the bracket. Anti-stat bubble-pak ? HA ! Get serious ! Amazingly, it worked anyway.

I received a laptop computer in an oversized box with loose chunks of styrofoam. Not peanuts or chips, just big, broken-up chunks, with lots of empty air for it all to rattle around in. The latch had opened during shipping so the laptop was open when I opened the box. Amazingly, it was not damaged either.

I have received any number of CDs, in their fragile (acrylic?) "jewel" cases, shipped internationally in *thin* cardboard envelopes. I invested in a stock of empty jewel cases to replace the lids which so often arrive with one or more hinges broken off, or huge splits in the middle. Shattered corners are not that rare either. Sadly, this included one custom cardboard-and-plastic three-disk case. BTW, that box of 100 empty cases arrived with several broken, because they were packed in a just-barely-fitting corrugated cardboard box. I have become pretty proficient at "stripping" old cases and putting the inserts into new cases; a 0.5mm mechanical pencil comes in handy to remove the "daisy" trays. It's surprisingly common to find the ONLY damage is that some of the petals of the daisy are broken, so that it no longer holds the CD in place -- evidently, a sharp blow sideways allows the CD itself to just guillotine some of the petals off. I've found the petals loose in the case several times.

I received a one-piece soprano saxophone with a bent neck because it was just put in its case and dropped into a shipping box. A little padding around the neck would have prevented any damage. A second was shipped in an oversize case (actually meant for an alto) with no extra padding. Pro instrument dealers know to stabilize the keys with cork wedges and put extra padding inside the case, no matter how plush it looks. Then wrap HEAVY padding around the case, and ship in a box twice the size of the case.

I have always used the eBay comments to note when an order was incompetently packed, or to heap praise on very good examples ("real PRO packing job" is one I used when comments were limited to 80 characters). Now that longer comments are allowed I get pretty descriptive. Some of the worst offenders seem to have left eBay shortly afterwards, though I doubt I get any responsibility for that. Some people seem to close their accounts and open new ones repeatedly, to clear their records of complaints. A family member got ripped off by someone like that, and found about her more extensive record only afterward.
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Thanks for all the explanation about how packages are moved. Reading what happened to baby Yoda probably explains how it was that I once received a CD which had been creased in two places. Have you ever tried to even BEND a CD ? They're Mylar, and nearly bulletproof ! How the heck could you *crease* one, except by running over it with steel wheels ? Now I think I know. (Amazingly, the "daisy" insert was intact !! )

Enjoy your time in Crapville !