Would You Pack Records Like This?

So here is a box I received from an eBay seller recently. It's packed in a very thin mailer, all the corners are bowing open, and they used a single strip of tape across the top which was coming loose. Oh, and this went from the West Coast to the East Coast via USPS.

I wouldn't dream of packing anything like this, much less a fairly pricey item, which this was.

Why are eBay sellers so ignorant? You'd think if they were new to this they would at least Google for some shipping tips. BTW, this seller had several pricey items for sale. I wonder how long it will take before one arrives destroyed.

 

Is your mailer sitting on top of something? If it's not, it looks like it could hold 5 albums.

 

Nope, it's just one of those cheap multi-depth mailers made of paper thin cardboard. The item inside was a 4xLP boxset that cost over $100.

 

No Bolsters?

No Bubble Wrap or Padding of any kind?

Corner protection?

I usually tape the edges of those 'multi-fold' mailers 360 degrees, too. The perforated edges get real tired, real quickly.

 

The inside was wrapped in plastic wrap and a thin layer of bubble wrap. No on everything else.

 

A much larger photo (and a few more, including the inside) really would help a lot.

 

Not much padding inside there, Saran wrap and thin bubble wrap bag. You can see how thin the cardboard mailer is. I wouldn't even use one of these things for a $5 LP.

 

Were the contents damaged?

 

No, but that was sheer luck IMHO. The seller is inexperienced and had a lot of expensive items for sale. Only a matter of time before one gets trashed in transit if packed like this, and yes, I already sent the seller a note.

 

The key word is inexperienced seller. Plus, one of the downsides for any seller on ebay is limiting postage costs and then charging a final fee on the postage. Sellers see that and figure that they're losing money on shipping so they take a chance on marginal packaging. It'll catch up to them sooner than later.

 

I wouldn't package records like this but I also wouldn't package a record like the one I received on Friday which was sent with no protection at all. The seller wrapped it in brown craft paper, put my address on it and sent it off. Of course the corners are ruined. When I emailed the seller about it they apologised and said they hadn't heard of lp mailers and this was the first lp they ever sold on ebay (I never bothered to check their other items like I normally do) and had no idea it would be damaged. Fair enough if you aren't an experienced seller but common sense would dictate that wrapping a record in nothing but craft paper isn't a good idea.

Still waiting for my promised refund so we'll see how it goes.

 

This looks like a perfectly standard mailer to me, and although I have some better ones I would have no problem sending a $5 LP as you put it or any standard single or double LP in one with proper interior packaging. I wouldn't use it for an expensive boxed set and I'd add cardboard as well as bubble, myself - but if your complaint is in that style of 1 piece folding corrugated mailer in general you'd be best advised not to buy records from private parties on the Internet, because I'd say mailers just like that are used for 90%+ of private sales on eBay, Discogs, Amazon, here, etc.

 

Well put, and very true. The seller should have done a better job on a box set, no question, but that mailer is totally fine for a traditional LP.

What amazes me is how there is constant moaning and groaning about what happens on ebay and other places - yet no one seems to realize that they can communicate with the seller right after they've paid - and simply ask them to make sure that the packing will be done to a certain standard. Heck, you can use example photos to show them what you mean - and then save them on your computer, so you can use them over and over again.

 

When I buy guitars, I send a PDF with packing instructions to the Seller after confirming that they are willing to pack it to my standards.

Should probably make one for LPs, too.

 

I did communicate with the seller, both before and after the sale. Not sure I would risk buying something from them again.

 

There are many types of better mailers that are easily available today, so no reason to use these junk mailers. I'm not new to buying records online or through the mail either (been doing it for over 20 years off and on at this point), and most of the time they come in better mailers than this, or the the mailer is beefed up significantly with reinforcement cardboard and more tape. My friend also runs an online record store, a one-man operation, and doesn't use these types of mailers.

 

You asked the seller to pack it a certain way before sending out, and they told you they would, but that didn't happen?

 

I notice the worst lp mailers I receive almost always come from Europeans BUT I haven't had any damage to any mail ordered lps in a long long time. Once I got a red vinyl Japanese Beatles pressing in a pizza box from some dolt out of Alaska.

Why complain when nothing was damaged?

 

I hope it wasn't a used pizza box?

 

I think it was. I guess they were being green.

 

Because it was a pricey item, and the seller was selling lots of pricey items. It could've been damaged.

 

I didn't think it was necessary to give a detailed rundown on how to pack something, especially when the seller was selling a number of expensive items. You'd think they would know what they are doing, but I guess not. The seller assured me it would be packed well. It wasn't. See my first post.

When I communicated with the seller after the sale, they admitted they had never shipped a record before. I did link them to some shipping tips, but I'm not confident they would follow them in the future. My guess is they recently inherited a rather large audiophile record collection and know very little about records or shipping practices.

 

Yuk. I'm ok with sellers reusing packaging, but draw the line at soiled food containers.

 

No offence, but I've seen a helluva lot worse, often from "experienced" sellers. They did try to at least pad it out a bit and place it in an "official" LP mailer. As a couple of others have mentioned, I've had LPs shipped from Europe that were placed in something akin to a thin cardstock photo mailer. Most were damaged in transit of course, but a few have arrived miraculously unscathed. God watches over fools, drunks, and the occasional import LP packed by drunken fools...