Amazon US LP packaging

Seems a little haphazard. Most often LP’s arrive in a perfectly acceptable cardboard mailer, but there are occasional exceptions. Today I received a (warehouse) copy of Erroll Garner’s 2-disc “Concert By The Sea” reissue scantily dressed in nothing but the shrink wrap it was born in, with a mailing label slapped on it. Surprisingly, the sleeve is only slightly dinged up.

 

welcome to the club! as one should expect, amazon indeed demonstrates no consistency in packing of vinyl records. thank goodness they have a very hassle-free returns system.

 

Return it and let them know the packaging was terrible. They make it easy to return, in the same condition.

I hope this was from Amazon and not a third party seller.

 

Just fire it right back at them,i always put a note in box to tell management to smarten up.

 

i'm sure the folks working the floor, dock, whatever really appreciate the note. that'll teach them.

 

Rush moving pictures 200 gram with the t -shirt

got lucky and bought one when it was in stock

arrived loose in a flat cardboard box

luckily the extra packaging that the LP and shirt come in protected the contents

I tried ordering single LPs and have received dented and folded covers

give feedback so they know this is a problem

 

It's haphazard, especially this time of the year when Amazon brings in temporary staffing for the holidays and incoming inventory overwhelms their receiving docks. The records should be packaged before it enters inventory. This doesn't always happen when resources are constrained. The receiver maybe doesn't know it should be packaged in a mailer before entering inventory. Or the receiving manager just makes a call to move the records off the dock, because another order need to be received.

Something to note. This year constraints were year round with Amazon choosing to delay shipment of nonessential item because of Covid-19. So you either get redundant packaging like a mailer thrown into a box or you might just get insufficient packaging with the unprepared record thrown into a box.

 

Placed two vinyl orders from Amazon for the first time in a very long time. Looks like lots of stuff I've had my eye on is quietly going OOP and unfortunately Amazon seemed to be the only place with stock left.

First order contained two albums and were shipped super securely. Each packaged inside their own LP mailers and placed inside a larger box. Lots of cardboard, but the records arrived unscathed less than 24 hours after placing the order.

My second order was for one album. It was a 2 LP set shipped in a thin cardboard mailer with no protection, so naturally it arrived with bent corners, and one of the records was insanely warped. No big deal, I processed an exchange and played the waiting game. Today the replacement arrived, once again, shipped the same way as the first time, so naturally it showed up with bent corners (worse than my first copy) and dings. Of course at this point the album is sold out so I can't get another replacement. I'm kicking myself for not getting the album sooner so this could've been avoided, but oh well.

I've noticed a lot of albums do occasionally come back into print, so maybe somewhere down the line I'll be able to get a new copy.

 

I ordered two copies of the Hot Rats 50th on translucent pink vinyl from amazon. I think that they were $21 each, I had to grab them. I love to flip a copy later when I know it is limited, and at $21 it's easy to break even quickly once it is OOP.

Anyway, each LP was put in its own LP mailer, and then both mailers were put into another box for shipping. Really impressed. And I got them in like 2 days after ordering. Wow!!! They could have both fits in one mailer, but I got two! And I will reuse them soon as I'm a wheeler' dealer on Discogs.

 

I prefer to hit them with a wet lettuce leaf.

 

Anecdotally, it seems like Amazon on the West Coast does a better job with packaging LPs than other parts of the country. I wonder if that's really true? Anyway, in my experience I've never had a problem with LPs shipped by Amazon. A few years ago, they tended to put them loosely in a large box, with some big air bags to compress/cushion it.

In recent years, almost every LP I've received to my Portland Oregon address has been put into a snug inner box, then put loosely into the larger box.

Here's an example of an LP I received today, for example, It arrived perfectly.

• Inner box
• Label on side of inner box with name of the LP, which suggests these were pre-packed and stored in the warehouse inside these inner boxes (versus inserted into the inner box at the moment of shipment)
  
• Well-designed interior to keep the single LP pressed snugly against the inside
• Overly large outer box and no air pillow cushions
• Despite no air cushions, all four corners of the LP are perfect
• No seam splits either!

Maybe everyone who's experiencing the lunacy of loose-bagged or shipping-label-directly-on-shrinkwrap can complain to Amazon and insist that all future LPs be shipped "like y'all do it on the West Coast"?

 

My cat, Mingus Moondog, thinks this is a great way to package LPs for safe transit and damage-free arrival.

 

We get the same inner box. It may be wrapped in vinyl or placed in another bigger box.

Most of the orders come from AMZ Lex which is Lexington KY. Not sure where the bad ones come from.

When we lived in Wisconsin our album orders would also come from KY. With Amazon Air the whole country may come from that location.

 

Does Mingus like Joe Henderson?

 

Not so far. He's off in a different room. My other cats Declan and Gracie usually enjoy jazz, though, and they're right here enjoying my first spin of the LP, along with me.

 

Just in the last couple of weeks I have received two different LP's shipped in a gray plastic bag only, needless to say both albums have dented and bent corners, I hate paying for new records that look like they have already been used and abused. In the past I have had good luck with amazon shipping of vinyl, so this is a surprising development. I'm starting to get into a new pattern of heading to the local UPS store to return damaged vinyl. It's a good thing they have a great return policy, but I don't want to get banned for excess returns. How do people deal with this bonkers shipping issue? Even worse case scenario is when amazon doesn't have the item in stock for replacement.