"The customer must shake his head..." Topic

Hello all.

Yes, I know I'm a broken record. I posted this same topic not too far back. But I think it is one of those topics that is worth repeating – both because it's so simple and because it seems to be something that mysteriously somehow is still a problem. And I truly do not understand why.

Two recent Ebay purchases I made for new-in-the-shrinkwrap GW boxed sets.

This first one, a brand new boxed set of the Ogre Kingdoms Scraplauncher, is showing what happens when you ship a GW retail box in nothing but a bubble sleeve:

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You can see from the photos that GW retail boxes do NOT HOLD UP to the rigors of shipment over long distances. Now, luckily the miniature sprues inside the retail box were not damaged, but they easily could have been. The box got squashed right down to the sprues. I was very angry since I had bought this item new at an excellent discount. And then I had to deal with it being possibly sabotaged because of lazy packaging. Sellers/vendors – take note – GW retail boxes are NOT SHIPPING BOXES. They are designed for DISPLAY in a STORE. The card they are made of is the same thickness as a cereal box carton. Useless for protecting against damage.

I also know for a fact, from numerous posts I've seen on these forums, that some vendors like Redoubt Miniatures and others ship out metal minis in tiny, thin padded shipping envelopes, with the miniatures in nothing but little zip-loc bags. Customers often receive partially damaged or bent miniatures from them because of the bad packaging. What makes it even worse is that with metal historicals, you are dealing with things like bayonets and other small, fragile elements, EXTREMELY delicate details, which makes the issue of shipping minis inside an actual box even more important. Miniatures are not mail! They are fragile products and should be treated as such!

Sellers, please understand from the customer's perspective – if you ship something this way, and you tell your customers that "it's never been a problem" – that DOESN'T mean that you are packaging your shipments safely and correctly! It's LUCK that miniatures make it to their destination undamaged when packaged this way. And it's totally unacceptable.

Now, by contrast, here is the second Ebay purchase I made. Two boxed sets of Dwarf Hammerers. Both boxed sets placed inside corrugated boxes, with some simple foam scrap pieces placed inside. Folks, this packaging probably took about exactly the same amount of time that it would to put them into a shoddy bubble envelope. It isn't any harder and doesn't take any more time to package miniatures right:

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I just need to say to all sellers out there – PLEASE take a few extra moments to use common sense, and think about what these packages look like from the customer's perspective. The ironic thing about the first order that got partially crushed is that the seller is usually excellent, he ships really fast and before this he had been using actual corrugated boxes. I do not know why he suddenly decided to go the lazy route and do shoddy bubble sleeve packaging.

Just common sense here ok? If I'm paying you $40 USD or $50 USD for a new GW boxed set, I have the right to expect that you'll package it in a way that ensures that it will arrive in new condition. That's what I'm paying for.

I just got a sprue of Lothern Sea Guard, today in fact, that was shipped in a bubble wrap envelope from Quebec, with a folded piece of cardboard to protect the figures. They came in fine. I've bought stuff from Ebay where they either collapse the box completely, or don't bother to include the box at all. Usually things come out fine. Part of the issue is that if you use a bigger box, it adds weight. Which adds to shipping fees. My biggest draw to buying stuff on Ebay is to get it cheaper than retail. Why bother with a discount if shipping fees push it up to near-retail anyway? Believe me, I buy A LOT of GW kits off Ebay (usually at least one per paycheck), and while the kit box might look worse for wear, usually the sprues make it through fine…

Damon.

@Garand,

I can see using the bubble wrap envelope if you also include a cardboard piece around them. In that combination, yes I can see that being more acceptable.

But it doesn't change the fact that it's still putting the minis at some risk. And many vendors use the bubble wrap envelopes by themselves, with absolutely no cardboard inside.

There needs to be SOME barrier of absorption, some sort of outer layer that takes the crush and the pressure off the actual sprues. Without that layer, it's no good.

The corrugated layer is what is designed to be crushed down a bit if there happens to be rough handling during shipment. But if the corrugated box is crushed down a bit, the miniatures are ok because they are in the inner layer. Corrugated is like the outer line of defense for packages. Without it, bubble wrap envelopes are not acceptable for protecting a retail box like GW's.

I agree with you but, if shipping seems low, ask how the item will be packaged. Before bidding on a GW box, asked how the item will be packaged. If shipping a GW regiment box isn't in the $8 USD-10 range, you can be sure it is not getting shipped in a shipping box.

the savings in packaging funded your discount.
if the package arrived damaged, take it up with the carrier.

I ship things like that in boxes and they still get destroyed. how that did not get totaled is beyond me.

Buy on ebay with care. And/or leave bad feedback that's visible to other ebay users.

Or buy retail, I guess.

Ebay – for me – is generally a market place of "last resort" (ie I really can't find it anywhere else – as in somewhere with a decent, guaranteed returns policy using my credit card, with the protection that offers – amazon for eg). I treat ebay with a degree of trepidation.

But then I'm the sort of bloke that never backs kickstarters.

Just cautious, I guess.

John T

I've never had a problem with anything from eBay. I always ask sellers to pack extra-carefully -- I offer to pay for additional packing if necessary -- because anything my snailman can break, he will break, and his capabilities in that regard never cease to amaze me. Frankly, I've had commercial sellers (Amazon, I'm looking at you) do a worse job of packing.

Unfortunately, common sense is not required to run any business nor see things on Ebay or other sites.

Did you pay to insure the parcel? If not, were you given the option?

If the parcel weighs over 1 pound it changes to Priority Mail, which minimally almost doubles the cost to ship and it could be a lot more if shipping across the country.

A cardboard box weighs a lot more than a bubble pack and with the box probably pushes it to PM rates.

As with anything, buyer beware. If it is too good to be true, well it probably is.