Model Railroading > Beautiful Models Going to Waste...

Early this month I won two auctions for locomotives on Ebay. In both cases the sellers did poor packing jobs and the models arrived damaged. This first case is kinda minor, but I will cover it briefly. It was a DRGW Atlas GP40 in the red box. While the shipper did a good job of packing the Atlas box inside the shipping package, he did nothing to secure the locomotive in the atlas box. The result was the locomotive sliding around in the styrofoam packaging busting the front plow and breaking handrail supports, as well as causing paint abrasion. I was going to replace the plow, but I'm not very happy about the other damage. Even if I don't get much for restitution, I still won't be out a lot.
The far sadder tale was the other auction. As a railfan of the 1990's, I have always coveted a set of A-B-A ATSF GP60's in warbonnet. I so happened to stubble upon a auction for such a set. For various reasons, the auction was being overlooked by most everyone (and I would end up the only bidder). But from the photos I could tell that the models were some beautiful custom detailed and painted models. It had complete brass handrails, a catalogs worth of detail parts including the underframe stuff like air filters, smokey valley sideframes and on and on. The shells were just absolutely beautiful, and even the solid metal fuel tanks were fully reworked with details. The only downsides, not mention in the auction, but suspected and later confirmed. Was that the locomotives have original blue box drives and MV lenses instead of headlights. That is no big deal to me, as I have the stuff needed to upgrade the drives and I can add LED headlights and decoders with no problems. And the $150 price for all three was a good deal considering the detail of the shells.
The sad part starts with the seller simply wrapping each locomotive in a single paper towel and placing them in a blue Athearn box with some black foam loosely placed. All three of the Athearn boxes were placed in a USPS box with wadded up paper. Needless to say the models suffered considerable damage. The handrails got the worst of it, with the front and rear handrails bent inward on all units. The handrails on the B unit were damaged all around. One of the A units had the drive train and shell separate from the frame. Several the sideframes were laying loose in the box among various detail parts. It's really a credit to the original builder the damage wasn't worse than it was. I can still fix the damage, but I'm seeking to get a good chunk of my money back in addition to shipping charges. Not sure if I'm going to get the partial refund, or if the locomotives will get returned for a full refund. Either way, it's a bitter disappointment to see such great work trashed by a careless seller. Below are the photos from the auction, they don't look so good now.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/14 02:29 by funnelfan.

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Can you post photos of how you received them?

Some people just have no clue about how to pack things safely.

It wasn't a train, but my wife recently bought a coffee mug on eBay for her collection. The seller put the thing in a padded mailer. That's it. It unsurprisingly showed up at our place in about two dozen pieces. Thankfully, the seller did not dispute the full refund credit, but -- seriously?

I do sell on Ebay. I learned my lesson the hard way with my first sale. I shipped a locomotive in the manufacturers original box and the locos arrived slightly damaged. I now wrap the manufactuers box in bubble wrap, then in a large box with popcorn. As for the original buyer, he got a 50% refund and kept the locos. He was pleased with the adjustment. As a seller, I value my 100% rating. Most sellers want to keep the buyer happy and will usually go to great lengths to do so. The ratings you see on Ebay are important.

I have packed many HO things to sell, and what seems to work best if you do not have or use the original box is sponge carpet padding, the light tan-colored stuff. You can cut it sideways to 3/8 inches or so in HO to put behind the handrails and end-rails to keep them straight, then wrap the whole model in plastic wrap or a bag to act as a paint chafing guard (lots of jiggling around happens in-transit). Wrap it in a carpet pad tube that is too wide and too long. Then use rubber bands and tape to make it into a sausage-roll shape, leaving at least 3 inches extra at each end as a crumple zone. Then bury it in packing, the Styrofoam popcorn or crumpled paper in a box that is too large, making sure there is packing all around. I have NEVER had a complaint of damage packing this way, and I have done this around 90 times. Carpet padding can be procured new free from any carpet place, as they always have a lot of it extra in odd-size but large pieces that end up in the garbage bin.

I also have received models that are packed very well, but then bumping around loose in their model box. Or padded like crazy but the model was just thrown into the bottom of the box. Or those goofy mailers with all kinds of stuff stuck into them, even Athearn boxes shoehorned into them, and nothing or inadequate anti-chafing packing inside. A tip - For unassembled kits, be sure to pack the weight taped OUTSIDE the box, or separate in the padding, as that hammering around with the painted plastic is what causes the most damage.

Anybody who has watched how boxes are handled at a loading dock will immediately see how much padding is necessary. For those who haven't watched, expect the worst because it happens regularly, especially before Christmas when all manner of shipping is swamped and many temporary workers are used. === === = === JLH



Edited 2 time(s). Last edit at 04/17/14 15:51 by highgreengraphics.

In 27 years of mail-order selling and 1,000's of packages, I think I have had 2 times where something arrived damaged. Of course we use bubble cushion, plastic peanuts (have now switched to pc-correct corn starch peanuts!) and I just started experimenting with some new foam to make custom surrounds for built-up models that have no boxes. It's not rocket science!

Tom Y

I've had tis problem over and over, Ted. There is NOTHING like buying a highly detailed locomotive only to have it arrive looking like a junk pile. I buy these kinds of models because I can't model. I'm all ten thumbs. So what I do when I win an auction is to e-mail the seller telling him or her to pad the item like it was going to Mars and handled by a rabid gorrilla. If it comes to me in pieces, I will get my money back and leave negative feedback. To me, if you are forewarned and STILL don't do what I ask, I'm gonna nail you for it. I'm not paying my hard earned money to not get what I want.

Corn-starch peanuts may be "politically correct," but I hope they will eventually replace plastic foam entirely. Anybody who has a pet that likes to swipe such things and eat them understands why.

I am wondering if the original modeler that built & detailed these GP60M/Bs was the one who sold them. It's inconceivable how someone could detail up a locomotive so nicely, yet not have a clue about packing it. Either that, or the eBay seller is the 2nd owner of these units.. I'd be extremely disappointed as well.

Cheers,
Harry

toledopatch Wrote:
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> Corn-starch peanuts may be "politically correct,"
> but I hope they will eventually replace plastic
> foam entirely. Anybody who has a pet that likes to
> swipe such things and eat them understands why.


I like the corn starch peanuts....unlike the "other" stuff which sticks to everything!

Any exposure to moisture and the Corn Starch Peanuts glue to any nearby objects. Can stick in small animals throats too..Beware .

It's funny I just got a Bowser C630 exRDG Conrail unit off eBay. It was in its box wrapped brown paper. I was quite pissed about this, but Bowser packaging was excellent so it was undamaged. Having said that, I worked on a project for the Navy involving shipping damaged parts back State side for repair. The rule of thumb was double layer of bubble wrap in a fiberboard (box) will almost always do the trick and I had a very large data sample to back that up. It is what I have used ever since, with no problems. Now once inside two layers of bubble wrap the item should fit snugly in the box so it doesn't move around.
Cheers,
Nick

Posted from iPhone

Been getting a lot of stuff with the OEM box sitting on the bottom of the outer box with popcorn tossed on top and around the sides. Seems pretty weak, but I guess the theory is it's least likely to land on it's correct orientation.

I'm about 99% sure that the seller of the A-B-A GP60's was not the person who made them. I'm sure the person who took the time to make something that detailed would not be that careless in packing them.

Ted Curphey
Ontario, OR

I do shipping for a living and it absolutely amazes me sometimes what people think is acceptable shipping material.

I ship G scale stuff here and there too (thats my scale) and boy does that stuff take a beating if you don't do it right. You think HO or N is bad, try a 16 lb or so object floating around in a box if you don't do it right.

Usually my method starts with some bubble wrap on the bottom or other acceptable void fill. This gives your item in the box some bottom end of the carton buffer to be beaten around in. I make sure the item is as centered as it can be as ultimately I want to have enough fill around the item in the box as possible. Usually once thats done i fill off the top with a layer of fill on the top of the item in the box, seal it up good and off it goes.

Never had any issues doing that.....now other people, that's an entirely different story.

I was in charge of the shipping/receiving departments among others in my last job for ten years. Learned a lot about sensible packaging. I buy and sell brass quite often on ebay and have never had anything that I shipped arrive damaged. If it doesn't have the original box, i give it a wrap of small bubble wrap, then a wrap of large bubble wrap and then surround it with at least 2-3" of peanuts in a substantial box. Most of my shipping has been via USPS Priority Mail, which seems to work well, plus I can print the label and ship from home.
I've received brass engines from sales on ebay with some really scary packaging. I've gotten them in the original box which was just shoved in a box with no packing around them or anything. Surprisingly they survived. Just use plenty of common sense.

Great story but what did they look like when you received them?

icancmp193 Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> In 27 years of mail-order selling and 1,000's of
> packages, I think I have had 2 times where
> something arrived damaged. Of course we use bubble
> cushion, plastic peanuts (have now switched to
> pc-correct corn starch peanuts!) and I just
> started experimenting with some new foam to make
> custom surrounds for built-up models that have no
> boxes. It's not rocket science!
>
> Tom Y


Tom, I have bought many items from you on your ebay store, you are true to your word, excellent packing. Mike

I buy and sell HO scale items on eBay. I have received compliments of nice packing on my feedback. I use a combination of packing peanuts, bubble wrap, air filled plastic bags and crumbled newspaper. Earl...

As a seller, there is no foolproof way to wrap a powered loco with details that results in zero damage, 100% of the time....unless...

you always remove the shell from the chassis and wrap them separately in bubble wrap. The chassis goes back in the original box and the shell sits beside it in a larger box of packing peanuts of your choice.

The shell and its detail parts CANNOT be damaged because there is no weight behind it. A fully detailed shell wrapped 3 times in bubble wrap can be thrown across the room and will not damage...put a chassis under it and its a different story.

I qualify my ebay sales by telling perspective buyers that if they can't reinstall a custom detailed shell onto its chassis, that this model may not be for you.