"You don't ship miniatures in just the retail box, period..." Topic

I am posting this topic because it came up again recently after making an Ebay purchase.

I would say that 99% of the time, most of the miniatures products I buy from Ebay are packaged properly and the items arrive safely.

But every so often, and I don't know why this is – perhaps it speeds up somewhat the volume of packaging that the vendor has to do – miniatures are shipped in nothing but their retail boxes with a plastic or paper sleeve of some kind around it.

I brought this topic up several years ago and I will say it again – retail boxes are NOT DESIGNED for the journey of shipping. They are not meant to hold up to all the handling and possible crush/compression that can take place when placed with hundreds of other packages in a vehicle! GW retail boxes for examples, which are typical miniature retail boxes, are made of cardboard that is essentially a thinner version of cereal box card.

PERIOD. If you are a vendor or a seller on Ebay, and your response to this is that you've always done it that way and it's never been a problem, with all due respect to your business I seriously don't want to hear it. Just because something makes it there by luck and wasn't crushed doesn't mean it's packaged properly!

It doesn't take that much more time to put the retail box inside another box, no excuses sorry.

Two recent purchases from Ebay, examples showing how to properly package a GW retail box of minis for shipment, and the way NOT TO DO IT. The one that was packaged just in the plastic sleeve had been crushed down and compressed, but luckily the miniatures themselves had not been damaged. But they easily could have been. If I'm paying $45 USD for a box of GW minis, I expect the vendor to have the common sense to use a corrugated box to ship it in! Period.

Here's the right way(I can't believe this still has to be explained in the year 2016).

The retail box goes INSIDE of this:

And here's the wrong way. These are NOT shipping boxes, these are meant for displaying in a store, not for surviving shipment:

Look at how much this one is crunched up and compressed just from having it hanging around in a seller's inventory. This hasn't even been shipped yet!:

Putting these retail boxes into THIS does nothing to protect them. The only kind that offer minimal protection are the variety that have a bubblewrap lining, but even those are not sufficient for long travel of miniatures:

Vendors/sellers, just put the miniatures into a proper box.

Thank you.

When buying used board games on Ebay, it really bothers when sellers simply wrap the game box with brown shipping paper. Before buying, I specifically request a USPS Priority Mail box or similar for packaging. But you are absolutely correct -- why should you even have to ASK for a proper box.

Consider yourself lucky. I've had them take the miniature sprues out of the box and shove them in the padded mailer.

Hear you. Had one vendor just place the vehicles in abox loose. Mind you tjey were in pieceswhen I got them.
Customs has opened well packagedboxes ans opened up the bubble wrap to check I side then just tossed it all in loose. Lucky I noticed and it wasn't full off popcorn as had to disassemble the box to find arms and pistol stuck under the flaps.

I would add wrapping the same retail boxes in brownn paper is also a waste of time …

At least you got an envelope. I bought a GW Daemon Prince kit about six weeks ago. The seller slapped the address label right to the shrink wrapped box and shipped it that way. The box arrived smashed up, but fortunately, the model was fine. Won't buy from that seller again.

I really appreciate all the responses. Really terrible that items that are so expensive and fragile are treated so casually by some sellers. It's just lazy as far as I am concerned. The demon prince one is especially insane, a shipping label right on the retail shrink wrap?!?!? Bare sprues inside an envelope?!?!?

This is a problem that Redoubt Minis. has had from time to time. Generally good service, but they are known to ship metal minis in just a plastic bag inside a mailing sleeve and bits have gotten broken, or the outside envelope gets totally pulverized but the minis manage to just barely make it to their destination without damage.

But on Ebay it seems that it happens waaaaaay too much!

All I know is, if I ever packed customers' parts that shabbily at where I work I would be fired the same day.

Well you can still leave negative feedback and not do business with them again. I think there should be a TMP list established where people can post bad ebay traders.

Then there's sellers like johngw, who's sent me well over 500 based 1/72 ACW figures packaged so well not one single figure was broken. No guns broke, no figures off their base, just quality packaging.

I was in Hong Kong two months back, dropped off a lot of Adler AWI/SYW miniatures for painting – I wasn't sure if DJD, my local painter was still doing business, so I was looking at other services.

Anyway, got them back 2 weeks ago. Sturdy cardboard boxes, the based figures inserted into a foam surround. Totally crush proof, you could sit on them! Now THAT is the way to pack figures.

Ugh. Yeah. And, if you're on KS, this STILL happens.

I sell a lot of minis on E-bay

That being said I always use flat rate boxes and pack carefully. It is very rare (once or twice) I have had figs damaged in shipping and that was only for a reguler. I just patched them up will send them back out with his next order.

I have noticed that your packing job is half the battle with getting repeat business. It is also a "must do" if you ever expect repeat business. Most of the E-bay horror stories are people who no longer care about the figs and are just trying to unload them cheaply, or clueless people who do not send out stuff via the mail ever.

The worst I've experienced -- and not just from eBay, but from online retailers -- is metal minis in ziplocs put inside a padded envelope. It almost guarantees that long thin bits will arrive bent or broken.