The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

VintageTechnologies wrote:Receiving broken records is an all-too-frequent occurrence, mostly from general eBay sellers that are not record dealers. Some don't know squat about packing, and others simply don't care. I recently began pointing sellers that I have not dealt with before to Bryan Wright's Claxtonola website that gives good pictorial instructions for packing 78 rpm records. http://www.claxtonola.com/shipping78s/ The reactions from those sellers have been positive so far. I usually offer the seller a few extra dollars to buy the proper packing materials to do the job right and to not use media mail.

Thank you for that. I have similar written instructions I sometimes send out, but a picture (or a website) is worth a thousand words!

I had the same thing happen; bought on eBay and shipped in an envelope the seller said the Post Office clerk had suggested she use. The seller promptly refunded the purchase in full.

As the years go by I suspect fewer and fewer people are aware of the fragility of shellac records. Offering advice on packing is probably a good idea.

I will have to say, though, that I have bought many other records on eBay that have been well packed and arrived safely.

Clay

52089 wrote:

gregbogantz wrote:Records don't need special packing protection because they are all "vinyl".

...and anything that plays records is a Victrola, right?

The one that boggles my mind lately is sellers who refer to records as phonographs, as in "Lot of 12 Edison phonographs" that turns out to be 12 cylinders...

FWIW I used to call VHS tapes VCR tapes when I was little, and my box of 78s was labelled "Grafonola Records", probably by my (great-)grandparents (who probably had a Grafonola, if my powers of deduction are correct). But that's just....what?

There is absolutely no excuse for shoddy shipping practices that result in breakages.
If you have an item listed on ebay, you obviously have access to information regarding proper packing.
I see no argument against posting the names of sellers who are guilty of bad packing that results in broken records; refund or not.

Shame, shame. After receiving too many broken and/or damaged records I usually ask the seller to "please pack well using cardboard LP mailer with extra cardboard (please no padded envelopes). Also, please remove record from jacket to prevent jacket from splitting during transit" for when I buy an LP.

Well, you could always just buy them that way. Even "Silent Cal" would have said, WTF?

Well I'm sorry to say I'm a member of the club. I just wish it hadn't been a very rare vertical-cut record from 1915. Perhaps next time they'll bust a Berliner or a Neophone record.

Ugh that's exactly what happened to a Bessie Tucker Victor 38000 race series blues record in E+ condition I purchased on EBay.
I received a refund, but was still heartsick over it.

Steven

Viva-voce wrote:Ugh that's exactly what happened to a Bessie Tucker Victor 38000 race series blues record in E+ condition I purchased on EBay.
I received a refund, but was still heartsick over it.

Steven

oh that is just aweful ....i have had it happen three times ,twice with shellac 16 inch transcriptions ,and once with a Boswell sisters record in a thin envelope with one layer of thin bubble wrap around .The transcriptions were a great loss one of them was a Chandu the Magician show from 1932 the ONLY copy it now exists as an MP3 nothing else

oh that is just aweful ....i have had it happen three times ,twice with shellac 16 inch transcriptions ,and once with a Boswell sisters record in a thin envelope with one layer of thin bubble wrap around .The transcriptions were a great loss one of them was a Chandu the Magician show from 1932 the ONLY copy it now exists as an MP3 nothing else[/quote]

That is really terrible and I can imagine how it must have felt.
It's been several years since my last record purchase on Ebay and will probably be several more years until my next one lol