The Talking Machine Forum — For All Antique Phonographs & Recordings

This post is NOT NOT NOT safe for the weak of stomach..
I recently bought a lot of 130 cylinders from a basement sight unseen.. The seller had them professionally shipped to me today...
I have not dug through ⅓ the box and 22 destroyed already.. I had to take a break from sorting so I could re-hydrate after crying...
ONE layer of bubblewrap on bottom.. 8 cases of cylinders on top of it. It was a 47lb box.. one layer of bubblewrap on top... Some peanuts just for the mess...
This was a "professional shipper that could not even follow the FedEx guidelines on how to pack. They ignored all diections too. This is so angering and sad....

I paid $74.00 shipping to get them from Maryland to NY...

Is there any way to mend the clean broken ones?
I really hope so.... I haven't had the heart to go back and finish sorting..
The blue tote is minor damage or at least most. The box is complete losses..

Kirk

Sadly, realistically, no, there's no way to repair broken cylinders completely. There is a guy at Union who can do some repairs, but it's not cost effective unless the cylinder is particularly rare.

These have to be packed like wine glasses and shipped in cylinder boxes. The survival rate of wax cylinders shipped like this is very, very low.

At a minimum you should file an insurance claim and get your money back.

Sadly Kirk, I've been through this myself bought 140 clean two min cylinders and less than half survived. Same story. Ignored precise packing instructions. Ups paid the claim but it didn't help knowing all that history was lost to someone's lack of knowledge and will to follow instructions. Seller denied any wrong doing and blocked me from eBay. Go figure.

Wes

In the case of 4 minute Edison wax Amberols, shipping is especially dangerous! These early wax Amberols in the green boxes can break just by putting them the mandrel. I bought a Grand Opera Edison 4 minute cylinder and it cracked in half the second time I played it. It still played through, but there was a tick on every revolution. I had the cylinder doctor repair it because it was so rare of a deep basso singing an Italian aria. He secures the inside of the cylinder with a kind of staple and he fills the crack with wax. It cost $85 so it's not for common cylinders and you still have the sound of the click.

This crushes my soul.

Simple - File a claim and never ever deal with that shipper again

I suppose I'll be tromping somebody's toes saying this, but: when somebody, say an eBay seller, starts talking about having things "professionally packed," what I hear is "I'm too lazy to pack it so badly it gets broken in shipment myself, so instead I'll hire some kid at the local Pack-n-Mail to pack it so badly it gets broken in shipment." The well-packed shipments that I've received over the years have always been put together by sellers who take time to do it right because they care about the contents, not just collecting a minimum-wage paycheck at the end of the day. Most recent example: our very own gramophone-georg, who packed some Fonotipia 78s I'd bought from him as if they were treasures from the Lost Ark.

The money is not important here..
It is a sad loss.. I still have ⅔ to go and I dont want to do it.. A super fun experience turned into a sad event...
The seller was some kid who knew nothing about them. He did his part and he even gave them to link to a site that tells you how to ship them.
The shipper www.mailbagplus.com has 15 feedback on google.. Horrid feedback too...
The box was packed by the actual OWNER!

I am heartbroken...

I will make a list of everything and post it. Maybe you guys can ID ones that may qualify for repair.. I was thinking about doing the wax method to repair and I have plenty of broken ones to test it on now

Kirk

A lot of flea market "pickers" know zero or less how to package and ship the stuff we here all collect - it's a crap shoot even when you tell them how to pack the item,,, they don't listen. We here all know how to pack and ship. Pickers? No.

I don't know what cylinder machines you have, but just to clarify in case you don't. I know you own an Amberola III. You cannot play 2 min. cylinders on that machine because, like the Opera, it is a 4 min. machine only. It will play 4 min. wax Amberols with an L reproducer, and 4 min. Blue Amberols and 4 min. Columbia Indestructibles with the Diamond A reproducer. But I'm sure you know that and may have other machines that do play 2 min. wax records.