Unbelievable mold packaging job on Ebay sale

[shotstring]

I should have taken a picture of it when it arrived. I should have taken a picture. Words simply cannot do it justice. But I rather hurriedly unpacked the Hensley and Gibbs 6 cavity mold to see if it survived the trip from the seller to me.

The box wax roughly 8 inches by 6 inches, with a hole cut in one side and the entire bare wooden handle completely sticking out, still attached to the mold. Duct tape reinforced the edges of the hole and fortunately for me, seemed to limit the amount of movement of the mold just a bit.

The mold itself was wrapped in newpaper, no rubber bands, nothing holding the mold together or to any part of the box itself. It was free to wander around inside the box during shipment except for the handles sticking out of the hole limiting it.

Normally, I always tell the seller to package properly and put rubber bands around the mold, but as it should be obvious, I may have neglected doing so this time. Never again.
The handle has a crack in it, but don't know if it already had the crack. The cavities of the mold survived perfectly intact - a miracle!!! How, I have no idea.

Just thought I would pass on this as a cautionary tale to those of you buying molds on
ebay and taking shipment. Don't be afraid to re-state the obvious about packaging to the person shipping off your new found treasure to you.

[stubshaft]

Surprising that the USPS shipped it that way.

[zuke]

I bought a 45 LEE mold off of here a couple year's ago.
The seller dissassembled it and literly tossed it into an envelope.
When I opened it the surface's of both side's were all dinged up.
He refunded the money but not the shipping of scrap aluminum that was a 6 cavity mold.

[justingrosche]

Had a mihec 4 cav sent to me, new unused that was not taped or banded together either. I was not as fortunate, one of the corners of the cavities was bashed by an alignment pin. The little "wing" left on the Boolit sizes away for the most part. Just kind of discouraging given what I paid for it.

[JeffinNZ]

Just goes to show I overpackaged the mould I shipped last week. ;-)

[nanuk]

reminds me of when I shipped a double rifle through the post office

the receiver thought I had crated it with wood, it felt that solid to him.

I always build a box for rifles and cut NUMEROUS supports so it can't possibly move

for moulds, I wrap with several bands, and then wrap and stuff till the box if FULL!

[zuke]

I like to use twist tie's on shipping mold's, then pack the box well.

[uscra112]

On eBay, many sellers of things like molds have no idea what they are. . . .

[stubert]

When I ship a mold, I put a couple of peices of paper between the mold halves, then a rubber band, wrapped with plastic that has air bubbles in it.

[Ziptar]

On eBay, many sellers of things like molds have no idea what they are. . . .

It wasn't a mold but, equally as bad.

I bought an old brand new never used Lee Pan Lube and Hammer Size Kit on eBay a while back. The seller put an address label on the Lee box and then wrapped every square inch of it in clear packing tape and sent it. :rolleyes::roll::shock: Granted it was all of $12.00 with the shipping but, part of the reason I bought it was because it was new and unused in its original box, I already 3 of them at that point that had been used.

I know there lots of sellers selling casting and reloading equipment that have no idea what it is but, thats not the point.

I don't care what kind of widget, thingamagig, or dooddad you are selling or if you know the slightest thing about it. If someone is putting something up for sale and getting money for it then they should be packing it and shipping it in a manner that insures it arrives safely and in such a way that they wouldn't themselves be horrified if they receive it.

I think some sellers are just lazy, don't care, or just lack any sense of pride in what they send out.

[scb]

but as it should be obvious

To us. Not to someone's widow or heir, and not to someone who's never cast a boolit. After all they are made out of steel, how can you hurt that. Glad it worked out OK.

[mdi]

On the other side, I must comment on an excellent job of packing done by one of our own. I purchased 50 lbs. of lead from TheCaptain (Kathie) and the packing was perfect. 50 lbs. of lead ingots surrounded by 3" of corrigated cardboard kept the ingots immobile. Great job!

[Mk42gunner]

I think some sellers are just lazy, don't care, or just lack any sense of pride in what they send out.

Its not just sellers, I think it is most of Society today that is like that.

Robert

[nanuk]

It wasn't a mold but, equally as bad.

I bought an old brand new never used Lee Pan Lube and Hammer Size Kit on eBay a while back. The seller put an address label on the Lee box and then wrapped every square inch of it in clear packing tape and sent it. :rolleyes::roll::shock: Granted it was all of $12.00 with the shipping but, part of the reason I bought it was because it was new and unused in its original box, I already 3 of them at that point that had been used.



Yeah... why would they ruin a box? perhaps that is what you were buying. perhaps a complaint with ebay would educate the seller

[dnotarianni]

When I ship a mold I first spray it with some gun lube then wrap it with cardboard between the faces then tape it together and pack box with newspaper. Never had a complaint or problem.
Dave

[alamogunr]

I bought a 2 cavity Lyman on Ebay several years ago. The seller just put it in a box and shipped it loose. There was lots of room in the box for the halves to rattle around in. When I complained he said to ship it back to him(on my nickle) and he would credit Paypal. I did not have a Paypal account and had paid by USPS money order. I logged a complaint and forgot about it.

This happened before mold bids on Ebay went crazy.

[L1A1Rocker]

For real horror stories about shipping pop over to a vintage stereo web site and read about the nightmares of shipping/receiving vintage turntables. Really makes you cry.

[rockrat]

I ordered a couple of riflescopes from Cabelas, they put the 3 scopes in a box that would have held 12 of them. No other packing in the box, just the scopes.

Amazing they survived.

[mroliver77]

I have sold tons of things on ebay over the years. Car parts, motorcycle seats, books, glass, lead etc. I always try very hard to over pack an item. I have 100% feedback. I have had many praises for well packed items.

I bought a Dillon 550 a couple years back. It arrived in a box with one sheet of newspaper wadded up and thrown inside. The platform that the empty case rides into the shellholder was broken off and something else minor was broken.

I wrote the seller. He was all kinds of sorry and could not understand as he packaged it carefully. I even sent pics of it being unwrapped and of the one sheet of paper. He still maintained it was a good packing job.

He very freely paid for the new parts and confessed that maybe he needed to try a bit harder(two sheets of paper?) I ended up satisfied so nothing lost but gee whiz! Common sense seems not so common anymore!
J

[evan price]

The last press I shipped out was a Lee 3-hole turret. I disassembled the press so it would fit in a medium FRB. I wrapped everything in newspaper and taped. I put the hardware in a thick ziplock bag and then banded it to the press with zipties. Then wrapped cardboard around all the edges and corners and the ends of the handle and linkage. Then it all got stuffed with newspaper. Then I used air-pac bags to lock it in. Then taped every seam and corner on the box. And it was only going across Ohio!

I still interact with the buyer and he still talks about how the press was packed to survive the Apocalypse.

Lots of people selling on eBay know nothing and care nothing. They only want to dispose of what they bought from an abandoned storage locker or found in Grandpaw's basement when he passed. They want fast turnaround and know you likely won't be a repeat customer so who really cares.

A good friend works in the IT dept. of a large company. They closed a branch and had the last manager send all the computer equipment back to the home office. I have pictures of how they shipped the computers. Imagine a large carton in which a half-a-dozen 21" LCD monitors were just dropped inside. No packing, no newspaper, nothing. What was surprising was half of the monitors still worked. The box arrived with power cords and a monitor hanging out the ripped side of the box.

[kelbro]

Eye-opening post for me. I have purchased several molds that were not packed like fine china with no ill effects. I have sold a few and did not even think to band the halves together since I have never received one that way. I didn't get any bad feedback but now I know better.

[beagle]

You'd be amazed at what you can get away with at some of these small ***. I once received a can of powder in the mail that was shipped from one.

We have a one man PO here. On days off, the rural carriers fill in for the postmaster and he closes for lunch and the PO is closed.

But, he's easy to do business with and there are no lines even at Christmas.

I always pack my stuff so there's no chance of damage....even if they play football with the package and I've never had a mould damaged./beagle




Surprising that the USPS shipped it that way.

[MT Gianni]

I ordered a couple of riflescopes from Cabelas, they put the 3 scopes in a box that would have held 12 of them. No other packing in the box, just the scopes.

Amazing they survived.

I recently spent a Cabelas gift card on a new fishing pole. The box was a better quality than most rifle boxes and the tube it was in was nearly indestructible.