Nightmare Shipping Stories

[Junkman 4]

I thought it would be fun to share some of the foolish things people have done shipping valuable items. This one about killed me when I saw how it was shipped. No box, no padding, stuffed in a literal paper bag.

 

 

Edited January 7, 2020 by Junkman

[Sumez 2,218]

It's in a pretty solid plastic package though, so it should be safe.

[kell 102]

Always amazed at the lack of awareness by some.  I got an expensive N64 game and I think my Pocky & Rocky & Becky shipped in a similar manner.  

[Junkman 4]

1 hour ago, Sumez said:

It's in a pretty solid plastic package though, so it should be safe.

After 20+ years the plastic on these is actually extremely brittle. Anxiety inducing really.

[jonebone 1,254]

I got a CIB Mountain Bike Rally Speedracer ($2k game) shipped in a bubble mailer last year. And miraculously unscathed somehow.

[RH 4,079]

Look, if I put a wooden spoon on eBay, expecting to get a nickel, but it sold for $100, I’d still decide to forgo the paper envelope and actually put the thing in a box, bubble wrapped.

Even if you are clueless as to why something was deemed valuable, if they are willing to pay a couple hundred dollars (or even way more), you’re an absolute careless jerk to throw the item in a paper envelope or bubble mailer.

You don’t have to understand video games, comics, dishware, furniture, whatever, to realize that if people gave you a bunch of money to buy an item you’ve sold them, you should at least package it well enough to be sure it won’t be damaged in transit. That’s not just good business, that’s just being smart because the buyer can report and item damaged and get there money back. You are then out both the money AND the item.

[CMR 470]

I bought a minty Star Ocean for the PS1 once and the thing arrived in a bubble wrap mailer crushed to hell.  I opened a case and got a refund, now they guy won't let me buy from him anymore.  He probably got mad because I returned it to him, neatly wrapped in a box, just to show him how it was done.

 

@jonebone You should go buy a lottery ticket with that luck.

Edited January 8, 2020 by CMR

[Lincoln 230]

I had a sculptor's cut cart and manual shipped in a bare ocarina of time box.

I had a half dozen n64 carts dropped in a priority mailer bag. Everything loose, no padding. 

I've had 3 cib copies of North and South squished from idiots sending them in a bubble mailer.

[Skorp 345]

If anyone remember or saw on NA, had that Zelda NFR shipped in a regular white envelope, which got lost in the mail of course. Unbelievably, it was founded by @RH and got it in the collection after a few months of stress. Got screenshots on my other laptop so can update this post later with them.

 

[DoctorEncore 3,563]

I swear this kind of stuff happens all the time with eBay purchases. I just got a CIB copy of Bases Loaded 4 in the mail today and it was in one of those thin cardboard USPS envelopes meant for documents with ZERO padding. I have been chasing this game for a year and it wasn't cheap. It's crazy how clueless some sellers are. Miraculously it had only some minor front to back compression.

[0xDEAFC0DE 1,270]

I learned pretty quickly whenever I buy any game with a box, I ask them to use a box in the shipping note. So far since then everything I've received has been in a box. *knocks on wood* One actually did come to me in a bubble mailer but in that was a shipping box. 

[Sumez 2,218]

10 hours ago, Junkman said:

After 20+ years the plastic on these is actually extremely brittle. Anxiety inducing really.

Still good enough to protect the controller though

[Junkman 4]

43 minutes ago, Sumez said:

Still good enough to protect the controller though

A single crack can cost you hundreds of dollars in value and the only thing valuable about them is the plastic. The controllers inside are as common as sand

[Sumez 2,218]

Kinda hard to use while still in the plastic though

[arnpoly 178]

One of the biggest scores of my life arrived marked as damaged.  Found an eBay NES lot several years ago that had a bunch of games including Flintstones Dino Peak and Kid Klown.  First the payment didn't go through right away, which I figured for sure meant that I got backdoored, but I got lucky and got the games shipped to me.  When I got the box I could tell that it was too small to actually hold the games properly.  The seller folded the flaps down as far as they would go and put tape down, but neglected to cover up the huge hole made in the center that the box flaps did not cover.  The opening was just large enough for a cart to have slipped through it, but somehow I managed to get everything in the lot safely.  A huge scare from a lazy seller with a happy ending.

[darkchylde28 1,536]

I think I still have the email chain somewhere, but the worst one I ever had was when I won a STACK of West End Games Star Wars RPG books I didn't have for a pretty great deal about 15 years ago or so.  I paid the guy immediately, including the equivalent of whatever Priority Mail shipping was going for in those days, then didn't hear from him.  I kept contacting him and, apparently, it took him like a week to get it shipped off, then another week to find tracking, then, another week or two later, when I kept contacting him (but never got tracking), I got somewhat of a conclusion.  I seem to recall he sent a picture of like one of the books (soft cover) loosely contained in what appeared to be a reused paper grocery bag that had been wrapped around this stack of books (seriously, there were like 10-15 books in the lot, with a mix of hard & soft covers, so likely every bit of 6" thick if not more), then taped shut and put through the postal system via parcel post.  He sent the sad story of, "unfortunately, this is what I got back from USPS and I don't know what to do."  I immediately informed him that his next step was to provide a full refund before I took it up with eBay, which he initially agreed to, then hemmed and hawed about for a couple of weeks until I opened a case.  Then, what do you know?  I got a personal check in the mail a couple of days later, from the West coast to the East, in record time, lol.  Made sure to cash that at the local branch of whatever bank it was to make sure I didn't have any further headaches and made sure to never buy from the guy again.  I've never run into anyone else in 20+ years of using eBay that actually shipped something (or showed some evidence of it) that was such a train wreck as that.

[Tanooki 4,581]

Other than having waited 15 years to get a Duo again to have it jacked up in transport despite the box itself not showing evident signs of it, I got nothing in awhile.  A generic warning at least as far as this house goes, never use UPS or as if you sound it out OOPS because boxes will get dented, squeezed, crushed, and my favorite, holes blown into them ruining anything I get.  It's balls too, as their main office/hub is here in town, you'd think they'd care a bit more hoping someone would rage out after them.

The Duo though I just got it back, no time to open it up and play   I'm out the door to get kiddo so sometime later, much later probably which sucks.  That lovely transport bend/broken the spindle and offset its running height, knocked the pots out of alignment (which I addressed), and also snapped the switch that lets the laser work correctly too.

[dvertov 177]

I won an eBay auction once for a small lot (5-6) Famicom games. They came in a squished, flimsy dress shirt box held together with a single piece of tape, with a single plastic bag inside for padding. Thankfully only two of them were cracked, and they were very common titles so not much $ was lost... After that I never mind if buyers contact me to ask about packaging.

[Philosoraptor 368]

I've received and returned my fair share of GB, GBC, and GBA CIBs that were shipped in bubble mailers, but my worst shipping experience was buying a bunch of stuff from Plaza Japan. Granted, they packaged everything well and I have no complaints about them, but UPS or Japan Post decided it would be super cool to leave the package out IN THE RAIN. By the time it got to me, the outer box and anything cardboard inside it was soggy and had started to mold. Miraculously, none of the actual items were damaged, including the electronics, but nothing paper was salvageable. Sad times.