# question on shipping



## phillyreading (Aug 25, 2015)

Who is a reliable shipper and won't damage something?

I have used the USPS before and had the item damaged at the receiving end. Also used UPS and the same thing happened, damaged product at the other end. Insured the items both times.

Almost seems that I am stuck going to train shows to sell stuff because of shipping damage.

Lee Fritz


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## RT_Coker (Dec 6, 2012)

So far I am having good results with USPS Priority Mail, and saving $ using the PayPal discounts, https://www.paypal.com/shipnow.
Bob


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

I don't think there is a 100% "no damage" shipper out there. Our trains do not
like to be shipped. I have been lucky. No damaged items received or shipped. I 
do hear of damage though. Its a crap shoot. Putting a package with packing material
around that inside another box seems to work. Yes, I double box many items I ship.


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## mopac (Feb 24, 2011)

How did that insurance work out for you? I hear its almost impossible to get them to
pay.

I have one of those large mailbox by the road. One day I received a train item and
the mailman forced it into my mailbox. The box was a little too big to go in the mailbox.
He had crushed the box a bit and it took me 20 minutes to get the box out. I was
being careful with it. The item had been double boxed and item and its box was fine.
But that happened at the end of its trip.


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

If you want no damage, pack the items properly! I make sure things I ship are packed properly, and shipping damage is a non-issue. OTOH, I get stuff that isn't packed properly, and it's sometimes pretty bad!


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## phillyreading (Aug 25, 2015)

mopac said:


> How did that insurance work out for you? I hear its almost impossible to get them to
> pay.
> 
> I have one of those large mailbox by the road. One day I received a train item and
> ...


I got USPS to pay up on the insurance. Currently working with UPS on the insurance payment. The UPS package looks like it went through a car crusher!
But why did I get the same results with 2 different carriers?

I buy stuff from internet vendors a lot and never had a case of damaged goods, but when I ship something it gets destroyed. I would love to have the answer to that!

Lee Fritz


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## phillyreading (Aug 25, 2015)

gunrunnerjohn said:


> If you want no damage, pack the items properly! I make sure things I ship are packed properly, and shipping damage is a non-issue. OTOH, I get stuff that isn't packed properly, and it's sometimes pretty bad!


I used the MTH shipping box for an SD-45 with the Styrofoam inserts from MTH and also put it inside the outer cardboard box. So if the item that went to California was damaged the USPS people must have drop kicked it several times or kicked it around like a football even though it was insured.
What I am saying it was packed very well!

The other line of reasoning is I was scammed by somebody in California! I asked for photos of the box to prove shipping damage but no photos of the box I shipped it in.

Lee Fritz


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## gunrunnerjohn (Nov 10, 2010)

Lee, when you use the original box and shipper, you still need to do a little extra to make sure the item can't move AT ALL in the packaging. Most of the stuff I return ship has extra foam in strategic places to prevent any movement.

When I'm ready to seal the box, I pick it up and shake it in all dimensions. If I feel anything moving, I'm not done packing!


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## time warp (Apr 28, 2016)

I sometimes ship a half dozen or more items a week, and receive about half that.
Always USPS for me. 0 problems.

On the other hand, the ones I receive.........


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## thedoc (Oct 15, 2015)

I've been buying and selling on E-Bay since '98 and have always used USPS, never a problem with them. Items I've packed and shipped have always arrived in good condition. I can think of 2 items that I bought that were damaged by the seller or poor packing. The one was buildings that were supposed to be plastic, but they were plaster and poorly packed. I received a box of pieces, but the seller had in the listing the conditions for returns. I should have filed a claim for "Item not as described". The other item was chipped and painted in an attempt to cover the damage by the seller. But that is 2 out of over 1200 items bought, I think I'm doing pretty good.


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## thedoc (Oct 15, 2015)

One item I bought that I did not use USPS, that was a piano and I had professional piano movers pick it up and deliver it. A few other items I bought, the seller used UPS or FedX, no problems.


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## CTValleyRR (Jul 26, 2014)

While I have had some outer boxes banged up pretty well (both ones I've shipped and ones I've received), I have only ever had one item incur damage in shipping. That was a set of paint brushes shipped by Amazon.com without any protective sleeves around the bristles. They arrived all mashed and splayed out.

Other than that, USPS, UPS, FedEx, DHL, and a couple of common carriers -- no worries.


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## MtRR75 (Nov 27, 2013)

When packaging, one has to take into account the effects of boxes that are dropped or thrown. (Yes, I saw a UPS driver THROW a heavy box that we had ordered from one end of his truck to the other.)

When heavy boxes are thrown or dropped, the contents have momentum and try to keep going. So as you package anything think about where the item will held back when the item tries to keep going when the box is dropped. And you have to look at this from all SIX directions. Try to make the contact areas against solid parts and suspend fragile parts in air pockets.

Case in point. I bought a small steamer. It was shipped in it's original foam inset in its original box, which was suspended in plenty of packing peanuts inside a substantial larger box. It looked like perfect packaging to me.

But the loco arrived with the front pilot broken off. Why? Faulty design of the original foam insert. The foam was designed to stop upward movement of the loco in the box by foam across the top of the the front pilot. There was some space above the boiler. When the box was slammed on the top (by some unknown machine force) the loco shifted upwards, breaking the pilot off.

Fortunately the shipper was willing to fix it, but that meant that I had to ship it back. So I carved out the foam above the front pilot. Then I inserted new foam pieces above the boiler, to prevent upwards movement, and in front and behind the smokestack and sand domes, to prevent front to back movement. This left the fragile front pilot suspended in an open area, where it would not receive any force, if the loco tried to shift.

I also received a steam loco that had a loose weight inside the boiler. It's weight shifted and knocked the front of the boiler off. Fortunately that was easily reattached.

So keep in mind where the pressure points are on your objects that you ship.


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