[Ara1]

I've bought all 20 of my diecasts (1/48) sight unseen via mail, and so far, not problems. But I own FM's B-24 (pounds and length galore) and cannot fathom how this baby got here from there* without a loose piece, cracked turret or bent wing.

* "There" being defined as: from China, to a US distributor, then possibly to a retail store, then finally to my home on the US east coast.

[Celtic]

Originally Posted by 1250ships

[*]Have defensive space inside. Fill all voids with foam peanuts or other material that will compress to absorb shocks and impacts.

The ONLY time I have had damage to a package was when a (normally excellent) vendor packed a long three-plane pack diagonally in a long box with the pack in contact with an upper and lower corner of the box. Smasho. However, the vendor sent me another copy of the collection and told me to keep the busted planes and box. I'm pretty sure he was insured...

[Rush104]

Originally Posted by STARMAN 352ND

Guys i will tell you first hand that these handlers toss these boxes around while they are being loaded up.
Just last week i had to pick up my friend that works for one of the shipping companies ( i won't say which one) and as i was walking over to the shipping office to pick him up i had to wait a few mins for him and i
saw the belt line where they unload the main trailer to the trucks that ship out our packages and let me tell you i was a little shocked at how these handlers where handling the packages....
No wonder why somethings break ...But the Corgi's are pretty well packed up in the molded styrofoam box the planes come in..I have been lucky not to having any problems so far.
JP

Don't put anything past these major shippers-
My nephew works for one of the big shippers. He's told me stories about how some of the knuckleheads working there will take a package marked "fragile" and deliberately throw it on the floor, hoping that it will be broken upon arrival.
So, some things that I would recommend if you're going to ship with these clowns-
1) Wrap the model (and it's box) thoroughly in the big bubblewrap, and put that snugly inside a box.
2) Take that box and pack it into another box (the outer shipping container), and use plenty of packing peanuts to fill in the space between the two boxes (make sure the inside box is resting on a good layer of the peanuts). Try to fill it up to the point where the inner box will not be shifting around once the outer box is taped.
3) Double or triple tape all seams, corners, etc.
4) Mark the shipping info on the box in magic marker- in case the company printed packing slip somehow gets pulled off during shipping
5) Finally, whatever you do, DO NOT mark the box as being fragile!

This may be cumbersome and more expensive, but it may save a headache later on.

[stalag8611]

Raddager's comments about Armour's 1:100 issues ,and how difficult they are to ship, caused wonder about my own experiences with this manufacturer. I have 28 in my hanger, all but two delivered by Buster Brown or Fedex, and not one ever came through damaged in any way. There was damage to the horizontal elevators only when I attempted to remove the model from its stand. I was dumb enough to damage two, both fixable, but all the others stayed put.
However, I can see how hard it would be for me to ship one and make certain it got delivered unbroken.

Merry Chrstmas and a Happy New Year!

[1250ships]

Originally Posted by Rush104

5) Finally, whatever you do, DO NOT mark the box as being fragile!

Absolutely! Should have had that on my list. Everything I ship is fragile but I never mark the boxes that way. Does no good at all.

[DADoser]

About this time last year - I won a Corgi 1/72 Corsair (White 29 - Kepford; AA33002). I'm in AZ - it was being shipped from Southern CA, Priority. I decided to insure it when I checked out from Ebay.

Plane was packed ok in a flat rate Priority box. Box was stamped "Insured." Right where the box was marked "insured", was what, (to me) was obviously a hole made by a punched fist. I was sure the plane would be damaged. I was SHOCKED that is was not.

Anyway, based on that one experience - I decided that a box marked "insured" was probably just a target for a postal employee who was pissed at his woman that day - or pissed for whatever reason. (I guess the mentality would be that the box is insured anyway - so the person won't really be out anything - and "I" can destroy something with no accountability.I dout that person is thinking that it may be a hard-to-replace collectible in the box. EITHER way - its wrong.)

Not that I ship too many items - but when I do, I tend to just pack well, take the risk (not having ANY mark that would single out the package as a "target"), and add a delivery confirmation/tracking number.

I also answer "no" when asked if anything in the box is fragile - As said above, I want to avoid having that "fragile" stamp as a target as well.

[smartd]

Messages below are a sad commentary on the mind set of the individuals in those jobs. I don't disagree, it's just sad.

[raddger]

Hmmm.

It is sad but you are correct.

I have always traditionally, clearly marked my parcels with 'fragile' tape.

Perhaps this is more for the benefit of the customer.

Would be a good plan to continue with the packing arrangements but ditch the tape!

Raddger

[Shawn 507]

Sorry about the delivery, atleast it was Michigan and not one of the better ones. This does nothing for your loss, but that bird deserves a re-marking bad!!!

[Hornchurch]

Originally Posted by Ara1

I've bought all 20 of my diecasts (1/48) sight unseen via mail, and so far, not problems.

But I own FM's B-24 (pounds and length galore) and cannot fathom how this baby got here from there* without a loose piece, cracked turret or bent wing.

* "There" being defined as: from China, to a US distributor, then possibly to a retail store, then finally to my home on the US east coast.

I'm same as you Ara, my most recent accquistion (I was SHOCKED, as I vowed I wouldn't buy F.M./Armour again) was an AMAZINGLY-nice Coastal-Command B.24 (turreted).

The packaging is nothing short of excellent = takes AGES to get the 'bird' out from her packaging........

As you've said, it's about a mile-long & a mile-wide !!!!!!!!! LOL


I feel well-sorry for kb.466, & yeah, I DO KNOW what those National-Delivery firms are like - as I used to work for the U.K's number-one Parcel-Delivery firm, WHO'VE JUST GAINED NOTORIETY FOR 'LOSING' AN (estimated £20,000) Fender Stratocaster, WHICH HAD BEEN SIGNED BY Jimmy Page, Eric Clapton & countless others = consequently THAT company have just scored a MASSIVE own-goal !!!!!!!!!!!!!