Packaging and postal disasters

As 99% of all my models have been purchased from the US, and a few from Europe, I have been lucky 96% have arrived undamaged and intact, but I have had a few disasters like the WCPD 1960 Impala I purchased from an Ebay seller, as the package was handed to me I could hear a lot of rattling, the model was in it's foam crate but not taped shut with just a small amount of news paper used as packing, this was at a time when to get a refund you had to return the model which is costly from Australia back to the US, I learn't you must check the feedback.. The T Bird was photographed in the base crate so you could not see the scripts were missing from the doors, I received a full refund and was advised to keep the model, when the model is damaged and not as described you end up putting in the back of the cupboard, disheartened, but overall I have found sellers to be honest and reliable, just a few bad apples out there....

Images were in the wrong format... fixed

I have extensive experience on the issue, will try to post some thoughts and pictures tonight.

Wowser, that model T looks like it was in a Charlie Chaplin movie!

ive been quite lucky that though I’ve had a few mildly damaged models it wasn’t to the point they couldn’t be saved, this one I was able to put the bumpers and and trunk back together though the front suspension is still slightly Cati-Wompus ,the front axle being crushed upward.

@donderbeestje Let me ask this question first, are you asking how to improve your packaging so you can ship safely, or you are asking what to advise the seller when they ship to you?

@chav,

  i don't sell many cars, but i try to pack it as food as possible. Until today i have send about 30 cars without box and no complaints except for one of the first FMs i send. It was a 1907RR in the "breadbox". I wrapped it in bubblefolie and filled fhe box with cotton but still the front wheels broken by the pressure on the wheels because these boxes have a hard surface. Since then i use a foam tablet between the wheels. It is very important to me to have only good reviews on Ebay and local digital marketplaces.  But also i give this info to the sellers before they pack it. 

My most heartbreaking experience was with an inexpensive original model that had been extensively re-worked to great effect by the seller.  The work involved a mojor roof alteration, which the seller must have known to be a weak spot'.  Yet the 1/43 model arrived wrapped only in card - not corrugated cardboard - and bin liner plastic.  The package was no more than 1 1/4" deep!  I had no idea what or whom it was from and so studied it with care before opening, and there was no visible exterior crushing.  Yet on opening, found there to be a big crack across the roof.  

I wanted the model badly and it was not too expensive to begin with so I did not raise an issue, but I did wonder if the crack had been photoshopped out of the original images and the poor packing was an excuse, to blame the postal company.

I in fact bought from the seller again - his work is very 'wantable' - and the following items were normally packaged: model surrounded in taped tissu, taking pressure off external parts and plenty of space around the model filled with polystyrene balls and newspaper around that.

Thus I remain convinced the first model was damaged before being packed: call me cynical.

@charles-rockett

The first car i bought from the Australian guy mentioned above was also without an original box. It arrived unbelievable perfectly after 7 weeks alltough the outside box was heavily damaged. Never felt so lucky....

@donderbeestje Very nice Silver Ghost - WOW ! is it 1/43 ?

@charles-rockett

Thank you. No it's a 1/24 1907 RR by Franklin mint. This is the limited maroon version. The green version is the more common one. These cars were the reason i started collecting 2 years ago.

I mentioned it before, it's still a pity there are not so many cars in scale 1/24 in the era 1890-1920.

On a completely different line of damaged goods stories, this pertains to the electronic information shared in our artificial intelligence world and specifically to e-bay and their relationship with Global Shipping Program who also raise V.A.T. charges for various national governments PLUS their own charges - whether GSP or other shippers who retain the right to open our boxes is largely immaterial in my view.

I bought two models from a seller in the USA. The first I paid GSP exorbitant shipping and duty fees on and later, when I asked the seller if he would use USPS he agreed - but e-bay information already knew that there were two items in his box, one they had taken their fee on and the second, they hadn't.  Models before being sent...................

The box was opened in Los Angeles by U.S. Customs And Border Protection - note, leaving the U.S.A. and duties into France, charged in Euros, raised on the model that had been ordered without Global Shipping Program's two levies - even though both were now supposedly in the hands of USPS.

Model with GSP's two levies, the Lincoln Futura was in perfect condition but here is what the Packard looked like - and certain parts that had been broken off the model when it was out of its inside polythene bag had been tossed back in the box after the now broken model was returned into its polythene bag - evidence of its being removed and manhandled........

Fortunately Micheal Murray of Illustra Models, who originally built the Packard, was able to supply new parts so all is now well, other than my being an ardent activist against the privatisation of tax collection!

@donderbeestje The two - but especially the crimson /maroon are absolutely stunning. Thanks for the extra 'photos one feels one's looking around a museum at the real things. I've had a passion for Rolls Royce since I discovered Laurence Dalton's "The Elegance Continues" (now entitled Those Elegant Rolls Royce) and his Derby Phantom books: what warms any of us to a particular Marque ? As a boy, I used to write to RR and they would send promotional literature, which I now wish I'd kept.  I guess you'll be familiar with Ilario's splendid Rolls Royce - though they're 1'43?

@charles-rockett

Great story. At the end the Packard looks fantastic. Is it a 1/24?

@charles-rockett

Great story. At the end the Packard looks fantastic. Is it a 1/24?

@donderbeestje Thanks. I was relieved to have Mike's help in securing the parts. Due to space considerations, I've kept strictly to 1/43.  It seems you've acquired a magnificent collection and contrary to what I'd initially assumed (a client used to ask "what are the first three letters of assume?") not just Rolls Royce.  Though I wonder, is that a Racing Green Phantom I skiff I see?