Monday, October 10, 2011

Ebay: Further Tales of Terrible Packaging

I didnt get the memo about there being a cardboard shortage.

Random, newly scratched and bent valuable pieces.
Mr Owl, how many hours does it take to clean off explosive Cockroach excrement off vintage toys? 

ZERO packing material!!!!
Pictured above are 2 seperate Feebay transactions. You can see in the patio triangles I bought, they fashioned a homemade box sparing not even a centimeter for packing material. They weren't damaged, but still. The most recent (and last one I will ever buy) house bought on Feebay was a good deal ($20 for house, $35 for shipping). The house advertised online looked great and nearly complete. The house that arrived came in a home made box that was more tape than cardboard, all the post covers were brown and shattered, roof panels and windows were severely heat warped, the box insides and roof panels had white scuff marks from the walls rubbing agianst is in shipping and many pieces seen in the listing photo never made it to me. The seller thought it was acceptable to ship a very large, vintage toy this way and I had to go through Feebay to force a refund since they refused to reimburse me for original shipping much less return shipping. So, in conclusion I will no longer be buying houses on Feebay because its gotten so bad with dirtbags out there that damage the item while they have it stored in a hot garage for years (complete with browning, warping and bug carcasses) and facilitate further damage by crappy packing when selling. This last one has completely removed any joy or motivation I have had in the past to renovate and resell these houses.


My interest in Beaver Cleaver 1950's suburban colonial homes lead me to this unfortunate experience.  Another hillbilly thought they could shove an antique fragile toy in a tampon carton that was more painters tape than box, use no packing material, no insurance and the house had a spiders nest. When first we practice to deceive.....I ended up with a partial refund.

Porch was bent in order to fit into the box that was too small for the house to fit into. Really?  The house did end up looking nice once it was de-grossed in the shower, polished, furnished, given a front lawn and photographed well. If I had the counter space I'd make a Nick at Night cul de sac. 
Straight from Reno, Nevada another bunch of dirty, broken toys thrown into a box last minute and shipped out. What, a dirtbag in Reno?, say int aint so! Not even the obligatory Walmart (WallofChinaMart) bag thrown in for good measure?
Wrapping a 35 year old toy in a priority mail envelope? Thanks sooooo much. ...

 Listing quote: Chairs are damaged, they still stand, one leg missing. Reality: This is what arrived in the mail-chairs smashed into 12 different pieces, missing 3 leg pieces. 
Once again, someone cheaply wrapped a 21 year old NIB item in paper only! GRRRR!



1978 Mattel A Frame Barbie Dream Doll House Red roof yellow floors mod groovy 1970s 1980s custom OOAK 

3 comments:

  1. That's a damn shame. I hate that sellers on eBay act like they can get away with this sort of thing. And they do get away with it. >:( You should have seen the way my Star Traveler Motorhome was shipped. I threw away FIVE full garbage bags of wadded up newspapers, and the box was enormous. I have no doubt that the shipping caused damage I then had to repair when I restored the set (like pegs breaking off the interior walls).

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  2. I hate to hear these sellers have discouraged you from doing what is your passion. Try telling them before you pay that you want it packed a certain way and if they say it is too expensive, offer to pay a little extra for the packing material. I had to start doing this with books because they do not realize how valuable they are to collectors and would send in a bag and the usps would damage them almost every time. The postal service is awful, you could request UPS and they seem to be very gentle on items, forget about fedex,they constantly throw things over my gate, even after it was on the news about them throwing tv's and all. they seem like they enjoy it, because why even do it, I have a special box for big packages at my gate for ups, fedex, big usps boxes. they will always throw it over, why not at least lay it by the gate (it's acres away from neighbors). Anyway, telling the sellers what you want ahead of time is very important. they just don't realize.

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  3. Thank you for your thoughts. I have started asking before bidding and after payment that packing material be used. I had a great experience with the Playmobil castle I bought this year. It was like buying it from myself. The guy was so nice and cared to do a good job. Why cant everyone in the world be like that? I have started looking around at good deals and there are still some to be found, even on the cottage occasionally. So I would renovate a house again. I find that if insurance is purchased USPS takes good care of parcels. Sorry you have had problems with Fedex. Maybe with enough complaints, they'll start taking more care with deliveries. I never use them because they cost more than USPS.

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