Does this kind of stuff torque anyone else off?

[Steve]

I almost forgot, once I received a record in a greasy pizza box!

You might well laugh, but I wasn't laughing when I once received a compact transportable gramophone (complete with FITTED leather carrying case) in several different parcels, one of which, was inexplicably a pizza box!

Not only did one of the only known surving examples of the British "F.T.A. (Fixed Tone-arm)" gramophone arrive with its soundbox crushed within an inch of its life (did someone place a refridgerator on the box?), but it took over 2 months to receive it all in bits and I had to pay THREE lots of Customs charges when ONE should have been enough! The seller thought he was being clever but he was unbelievably stupid, thoughtless and careless.

This actual machine is even pictured in one of the Fabrizio & Paul books before some pizza chomping moron got his grubby hands on it and wrecked it. One day I will get around to getting it sorted out and back in the book condition, hopefully very soon.

But why oh why send a machine that was designed to be packed away tightly and securely for transit in its own carrier, in a series of pizza and breakfast cereal boxes without ANY packing at all?!!!!!!!

Oh yes, I forgot to add that the seller even forgot to send me the outer leather case too! I do have it now, thankfully

[saxymojo]

Hi

I once bought a Berliner disc from a well known UK seller, photographs his stuff on a dirty old blue office chair, yep you know the one. The disc was made in 1900, the tittle, The Wedding March, in like new condition. He posted it in a used padded envelope, nothing else, amazingly it arrived in perfect condition.

Marcel

[Raphael]

I bought a music box from the same UK seller; he sent it in a cardboard box, with no packing, and it arrived with severe damage. Then, to top it all off, he put in a claim with Fedex, collected on the claim, and never passed the money on to me. I was stuck with a $2,000 useless piece of garbage.

[VintageTechnologies]

Kindly publish his name; I would like to avoid that gentleman.

[Kirkwood]

So sad, getting a record you have longed for, in such condition----and maddening, when you consider how little effort was needed to see that it reached you intact.

We all have had our experiences, both good and bad. Once I was the lucky winner of a series of 5 of the 14-inch Pathé vertical cut discs. I stressed in concise emails how careful the seller needed to be when packing them, and to be honest they did a good job. The seller shipped them Media Mail, so it took a while, and a very large box arrived (far larger than the discs). What I didn't expect was that a large something would crush one end of the box, and 4 of the 5 discs cracked all the way down to the spindle hole. I should thank my lucky stars that they weren't completely destroyed. So while the discs are playable, they have a very audible "tick" from a crack that wasn't there when they left the seller's hands. I theorized that the mechanical sorting used at the USPS probably lobbed a box of encyclopedias on top of this box of records. From that day on, I refused to even consider buying records that I couldn't buy in person and carry home myself. To be truthful, I can't say I've done so badly with that approach.

[Tinkerbell]

This was the first record released in the Okeh "vertical" cut catalogue, and look how it arrived...

It just torques me off when a seller doesn't adequately protect a record when shipping it.

Sad to think it is forever lost, lost, lost.

It may not be lost, lost, lost. A few careful dabs of superglue could put that puppy back together well enough to track on an old machine.

It is a shame to see a lovely Okeh disc meet that fate though.

Well, sadly Okeh 1001 succumbed to the side effects of surgery and the original injury, and did not make it.

There were several smaller stress fractures along the break line in the record, of which one needle track across the top managed to dislodge a flake.

R.I.P. Okeh 1001, you could have been loved.

[coyote]

I try to check for and leave feedback comments regarding packaging on eBay. By and large, sellers have packaged records very well. I once received a record in a padded envelope. Luckily it was a Diamond Disc, so it survived without edge chipping. However, I had an experience like yours last year, Tink. Delivered was a crushed oversized box with just newspaper. Seems the seller was accustomed to selling vinyl and not shellac, but still. This seller left eBay (or, more probably renamed himself) two months later. A refund was obtained only through arbitration as the seller would not respond to communications sent.

[Tinkerbell]

I try to check for and leave feedback comments regarding packaging on eBay. By and large, sellers have packaged records very well. I once received a record in a padded envelope. Luckily it was a Diamond Disc, so it survived without edge chipping. However, I had an experience like yours last year, Tink. Delivered was a crushed oversized box with just newspaper. Seems the seller was accustomed to selling vinyl and not shellac, but still. This seller left eBay (or, more probably renamed himself) two months later. A refund was obtained only through arbitration as the seller would not respond to communications sent.

I've had more than a few packages show up on my doorstep in similar condition (not only record purchases) which caused my heart to sink when I first saw them, but had yet to open them.

That was typically followed by bemusement over how the box could have fallen to such a fate, (What, was it run over by a jumbo jet, did it fall out off the cargo hold?), and then quickly followed by exasperation with the nincompoop of a seller who believe the protection provided was adequate.

Just looking at your pictures makes my stomach do a little backflip.

[Raphael]

I think most buyers don't appreciate the extraordinary costs of proper packing and shipping, especially as a percentage of the cost of cheaper items. Check out a roll of bubble wrap or styrofoam chips next time you're in a Staples or Office Depot. Go to a UPS Store and see what they charge for double-wall cartons, which I do not use because they are not good enough (I buy mine at an industrial supply house). After all, who wants to spend $10 and then get hit by a $25 shipping fee? But proper packing materials and boxes cost good money and take time and expertise to utilize. I know some sellers who go dumpster diving to save on materials costs, but do you really want to receive an item with dirty, smelly recycled packing? I've been selling music boxes, clocks and phonographs on eBay for 15 years, and have tried every type of packing and shipping method, and to this day still consider it a learning experience. I have spent as much as $500 on packing materials for a single item, not to mention the cost of shipping. Granted, this was an expensive item, but the cheaper items can be just as fragile. I recently packed a very delicate, extremely small (and expensive) item and the buyer refused to take my recommendation on how to ship it...the end result being damage that could have been avoided had he spent an extra $200 on a $9,000 piece. Also, I have had to turn down some very good sales over the years because buyers wanted to use an inferior method of shipping, just to save money (I should have done the same with the aforementioned item). My point in relating all of this is that, when you're buying from random, amateur sellers on eBay, you take your chances. If you step up to the plate, and pay what it takes to buy from a reputable, specialized seller, you are much more likely to receive your goods safely. In this age where the internet has leveled the playing field, true "bargains" are hard to come by and often bittersweet.

[operabass78s]

I have been catching up on forum reading after being out of the loop for a bit. Aargh! I have a few experiences to share here:

-A record shipped in a greasy pizza box (survived intact). It seems like this sadly is more common than I thought.

-I once ordered a lot of a few Red Seal 12" discs. I opened my door one morning to find a sloppily (duck) taped Dole banana shipping box with loose newspaper inside and remnants of the seller's trash as packing material (orange peels, used napkins, candy wrappers, a cracker box). The records were of course smashed, seeing as they were not secured in ANYTHING. I left the seller some stern feedback and thankfully received a refund.

-Another Ebay gem; A few years back I won a G&T "Melba" disc for around $25. Around a week later I arrived home to see a manila envelope forcefully stuffed into my mailbox with around 6" sticking out. The seller had packaged the record in such and thought that an old Tijuana Brass album sleeve was enough insulation. The disc was perfectly cracked in 3 pieces. I sent a picture to the seller and they were quite apologetic and refunded my money.

-My last story off off Ebay. I recall a few years back winning a lot of around 30 "NOS" diamond discs for $80. They arrived packed decently but I guess the term NOS has very loose connotations. The records were chipped, scratched, with lamination bubbles and cracks and all had stressed grooves. If they were NOS they had been stored in somebody's basement next to the sump pump and under the washing machine for 50 years. I took pictures and contacted the seller who refused to give any type of compensation. He stuck by his terms that the items were as described. I salvaged around 2 playable discs from that lot, hardly worth $40 each.