The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

I had a similar thing happen a couple of months back with a rather rare recording myself (although not nearly as rare as yours, by the sounds of it).

The shipper placed the record into a box right under the lid with no protection other than a couple of newspapers crumpled up underneath it. All it took was one box placed on top of mine, and crack!

I was truly distressed as this was a difficult recording for me to find, and as you know, once that piece of history is gone... it's gone forever.

So sorry to hear your news.

I had a bad experience a couple of years ago when I bought a fairly rare Helen Traubel album from the US. (She's my favourite singer). It came as a lot with about five other album sets of Blanche Thebom, etc. I expressly asked the seller to put the Traubel set in the middle of all the others, just to be sure. He did that, as requested, and then just chucked them in an "M" bag - not taped together, no padding, nothing. Every single disk was shattered except the Helen Traubel set...I was both happy and very sad!

If I buy 78s on ebay now, I try to only get them locally where I can pick them up. It's too frustrating!

Broken records: and why is it that either the shipper or oneself breaks is a rarity? I figure I'm too old to shed tears over a record but I've been tempted!
Here's the broken record sheet music to lighten things a bit. I've got Ozzie Nelson doing this. Or at least I think I do!

Jim

I have Guy Lombardo doing that one- here's a video someone posted of it, but not very good:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4uUnGkfuuo

iirc Jack Payne also recorded it. I traded it, five minutes after buying the record, for another one. Payne's version is quite hot. Not sure whether he recorded it for Columbia or shortly after he switched to be the musical director for British Imperial.

Henry Hall and the BBC Dance Orchestra also did a good version. I found this on You Tube

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=th8yHYbc8_U[/youtube]

That is why when i buy a record or a phonograph that i explain to the seller how i want the item packed and shipped. I learned this after a diamond disc record was shipped to me in a bubble wrap envelope.

Just a thought... when I ship a rare 78, I take several "junk" 78s and place them on the top and bottom of the record, making a small stack with the valuable record in the middle. Then I wrap the stack in bubblewrap. It adds weight to the package, but it sure is hard to break an entire stack of 78s with one blow!

If shipping just one or a few 78's, I take pink or blue foam insulation board and cut four sheets the dimensions of a USPS Priority Mail shipping box of the appropriate size. The records go in the middle between the four sheets of foam. I center the records on the foam (there is a half inch to spare on either side) and stab a used steel needle into the foam through the spindle hole to make sure the record(s) won't shift much and push the top two layers down onto the needle, then tape the sandwich with shipping tape. Slide it into the Priority Mail box and you have a light-weight and rock solid, unbendable mass. 12" records require bigger sheets of foam and a non-Priority Mail-sized box. A 4x8 sheet of foam is not inexpensive, but it makes quite a few stiffeners and is cheap insurance.

Stephen_Madara wrote: a diamond disc record was shipped to me in a bubble wrap envelope.

No good?

It's hard to break a DD, even through a postal serve, provided there was enough bubble padding around it, to prevent scratching or chipping.