Shipping of cylinders by media mail

[orpington]

My understanding is that cylinders can be shipped by media mail, at the lower rates. Is this correct?

[rgordon939]

That is correct.

Rich Gordon

[orpington]

I have 37 cylinders being shipped to me, and, curiously, when I was not home yesterday, a receipt was left stating that shipment was attempted, and that $10.97 postage due is required. I am guessing this is because they might be disputing what is in the package???

Further research as to what goes as media mail:

e. Sound recordings, including incidental announcements of recordings and guides or scripts prepared solely for use with such recordings. Video recordings and player piano rolls are classified as sound recordings.

From: http://pe.usps.com/text/dmm300/173.htm

Not to sound like a 'crank', but this just adds to my extreme hatred of the postal service. Ever since I shipped a well-packaged phonograph and marked Fragile all over it, and the package still arrived mutilated and the contents within (A Standard Model A) were damaged. Obviously, it got dropped...and then some!

[52089]

This happened to me at my local PO once as well. To be fair, most people have never *heard* of a cylinder record, never mind actually seeing one. I just had to explain to them they cylinders were also sound recordings and the postage due went away. If they give you a hassle at all (unlikely), ask for a supervisor to inspect the contents and don't buy it if they tell you they can't - they have already done so!

Good luck.

[rgordon939]

This happened to me at my local PO once as well. To be fair, most people have never *heard* of a cylinder record, never mind actually seeing one. I just had to explain to them they cylinders were also sound recordings and the postage due went away. If they give you a hassle at all (unlikely), ask for a supervisor to inspect the contents and don't buy it if they tell you they can't - they have already done so!

Good luck.

That great advice.

Rich Gordon
Retired Postmaster (42 yrs)

[VintageTechnologies]

I strongly urge people to think twice about shipping wax cylinders by Media Mail, much less any other service. I cringe to think how many have been broken. I have received at least 800 packages of all sorts (not just records) through various mail carriers over the last 10 years and quite a few of those boxes have seen terrific abuse. You should assume that any box may be dropped off a truck, a loading dock, or thrown across the room - so pack accordingly. Double-boxing is no guarantee. Marking "Fragile" on the box is futile. Most sellers don't/won't pack wax cylinders well enough to survive. For those that do arrive unbroken, it is more luck than skill.

[rgordon939]

I strongly urge people to think twice about shipping wax cylinders by Media Mail, much less any other service. I cringe to think how many have been broken. I have received at least 800 packages of all sorts (not just records) through various mail carriers over the last 10 years and quite a few of those boxes have seen terrific abuse. You should assume that any box may be dropped off a truck, a loading dock, or thrown across the room - so pack accordingly. Double-boxing is no guarantee. Marking "Fragile" on the box is futile. Most sellers don't/won't pack wax cylinders well enough to survive. For those that do arrive unbroken, it is more luck than skill.

Over the years I probably have shipped close to 1000 Standard cylinders and close to 100 5" Concert cylinders. I am happy to say that I only had one standard cylinder arrive cracked. I am sure that dealers/people who deal in shipping cylinders know how to pack cylinders so they arrive safe. I have recieved a few shipments from people who know nothing about cylinders and had no knowledge on how to pack them. An example of that would be a suitcase of cylinders that was put in a box. There was no bubble wrap around the cylinders to protect them. As you can guess they all were broken. He was very understanding when I contacted him and he said he had no idea how to pack them.

I just find it hard to believe that you received 800 packages and that the majority were damaged.

[VintageTechnologies]

I just find it hard to believe that you received 800 packages and that the majority were damaged.

I did not say that a *majority* of the 800 packages received were damaged, but quite a few boxes suffered abuse to varying degrees. Thankfully, most contents were not seriously damaged, if at all, due to the kind of item being shipped, or adequate (if not good) packing, or just pure luck. But there have been a lot of close calls and also some heart-breaking arrivals.

[PeterF]

It's easy to have a high success rate once you recognize a specific concept and always apply it: The cylinder must not be able to move independently, in any dimension. You can quadruple box and bubblewrap it 27 layers thick, but if that cylinder can move inside it all, especially end-to-end in its regular factory box - it can break.

So all you need to do is put in enough soft material in the box at one or both ends to prevent any movement, then proceed with the bubblewrap and double boxing to protect against physical shock, temperature fluctuation, and crushing or punctures of the outer box.

The 5" concert size cylinders require much more care in this regard since the boxes tend to have deteriorated structurally over the decades. For example Columbia 5" cylinder boxes have a center mounting pylon which is merely cardboard glued into the box's interior surface, and the outer surface of the cylinder does not have flush contact with the box. So you need to disregard the pylon completely and wrap the cylinder with soft material before putting it into the box such that there is no movement by the cylinder within the closed box. I've received several exquisitely over-packed Graphophone Grand cylinder boxes that proved to be filled with waxy fragments because of no interior precautions.

[rgordon939]

It's easy to have a high success rate once you recognize a specific concept and always apply it: The cylinder must not be able to move independently, in any dimension. You can quadruple box and bubblewrap it 27 layers thick, but if that cylinder can move inside it all, especially end-to-end in its regular factory box - it can break.

So all you need to do is put in enough soft material in the box at one or both ends to prevent any movement, then proceed with the bubblewrap and double boxing to protect against physical shock, temperature fluctuation, and crushing or punctures of the outer box.

The 5" concert size cylinders require much more care in this regard since the boxes tend to have deteriorated structurally over the decades. For example Columbia 5" cylinder boxes have a center mounting pylon which is merely cardboard glued into the box's interior surface, and the outer surface of the cylinder does not have flush contact with the box. So you need to disregard the pylon completely and wrap the cylinder with soft material before putting it into the box such that there is no movement by the cylinder within the closed box. I've received several exquisitely over-packed Graphophone Grand cylinder boxes that proved to be filled with waxy fragments because of no interior precautions.

Here is what I do to prevent breakage. On most all cylinders, except for the cheap run of the mill stuff, I do most of the steps you mentioned then I put them inside a piece of pvc pipe and single box them. The pvc pipe protects it from just about anything. I've shipped rare $1000 to $1500 cylinders and never had a problem. A box with a standard size cylinder done this way will weigh about 1lb 3oz and cost about $3.25 to ship media mail. The piece of PVC pipe cost me about .50 cents.

Rich Gordon