The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

Just when you think you've seen it all.

"Unwrap A Smile"
Amazingly, there wasn't so much as a single scuff on the horn!

Holy Toledo!

"This box fits it close enough..."

That was lucky... It makes you wonder how many artifacts are being ruined through eBay sellers' ignorance of how to properly pack items. Oddly, the seller in this instance seemed careful to protect most of the horn!

George P.

I'm still perplexed.

Did the Canada Post and USPS like it? Maybe the convenient "handle" helped them carry it? Perhaps it wouldn't fit under anything, so it was on top of the heap? A thousand different scenarios are going through my mind trying to understand the "no damage" effect of such a screwy packing job. The more I wonder, the more my brain hurts.

I've had better packaging come to me in lesser condition.

Fran

Maybes they thought it was an acoustic 1914 iPod dock

After meditating on this...

• confinement does yearn an opening
• things yearn not
• a box with a handle is very useful
• joy reserved for a recipient is spoiled by premature disclosure
• completing a task is this simple
• effortlessness is a result of a well developed processes
• screaming uncontrollably may seem a rational thing to do

James.

I had a similar experience. I bought an Edison 9-panel horn for my Standard from eBay. When it arrived, I found that ⅔ of the horn had been packed in one box, leaving the small end sticking out of the top. The rest of the horn had been capped with a small box, maybe ¼ the size, loosely taped to the top of the bigger box. A strong breeze would have knocked it loose. Of course that arrangement had not survived intact long in transit and the horn had come apart at the seam where the panels fit into the funnel at the end. Fortunately I have a gracious neighbor who knows metal work and was able to get it back together again using old-time tin solder.

Clay

Roaring20s wrote: After meditating on this...

• confinement does yearn an opening
• things yearn not
• a box with a handle is very useful
• joy reserved for a recipient is spoiled by premature disclosure
• completing a task is this simple
• effortlessness is a result of a well developed processes
• screaming uncontrollably may seem a rational thing to do

James.

James, is that; "Zen and the art of packing"? Except perhaps for the screaming uncontrollably part, that did seem rational, however, at the time

FloridaClay wrote:I had a similar experience. I bought an Edison 9-panel horn for my Standard from eBay. When it arrived, I found that ⅔ of the horn had been packed in one box, leaving the small end sticking out of the top. The rest of the horn had been capped with a small box, maybe ¼ the size, loosely taped to the top of the bigger box. A strong breeze would have knocked it loose. Of course that arrangement had not survived intact long in transit and the horn had come apart at the seam where the panels fit into the funnel at the end. Fortunately I have a gracious neighbor who knows metal work and was able to get it back together again using old-time tin solder.

Clay

Definitely not a good ending. I was VERY fortunate. Not that this horn even pales in comparison to your 9 panel. But, I don't think I will ever be this lucky again.

I think in one small moment, all of my luck was used up.

Very unusual common sense packaging,i often wonder what humans think in this type of scenario!