ebays great for parts...except when....

[N3DRB The Derb]

Well, me an Skip K7Y-UHOH worked out a deal where he has some crackly stuff he's going to send me, a modulator deck, a rf deck, and a supply. So it should b a lot sooner than it was because now I got a lot more building blocks.

Things moving quicker. starting to get a lot of raw material in house. 

[Don, W2DL]

I've had great success for many years using the following system:  Go to Home Depot (or Lowe's) and get some 1" blue faced fairly rigid styrofoam, and some 1" and 2" thick solid white less dense styrofoam (like used in coffee cups), all found in the "Insulation" aisle. Check out both places, if possible, they stock different types and thicknesses of styrofoam. Completely line a box with the blue stuff, every side, top and bottom, now remove the top piece so you can fit the item in. Take some 2" white foam cut to the the exact size of one side or the bottom of the lined box (depending on where you want the front panel to end up) and press the front panel into it to make depressions in the foam, then use a hole saw of correct size (I generally use 1 1/4" saw) to make a deep enough hole for the knobs to fit into. Place this foam piece along with the front of the unit into the rigid foam lined box, then cut white foam (1" or 2") to fill in all of the space remaining - and be sure there is ABSOLUTELY no room left for anything to move around. Never use newspapers, "peanuts" of any type. I've been shipping a lot of things this way for many years now and never, ever have had any problem - in fact, I have a lot of letters thanking me for the great packing job.  Yes, this costs a bit, maybe $10 of foam for a medium sized receiver, but I make it clear to the buyer that he will pay for the packing, and it will be well done.
 If I am shipping a heavy transformer, or anything with exposed ceramic parts I use only the blue faced much more rigid foam with at least 2" of blue foam carefully fitted around each side of the xfmr and have had no problems here either.
73
Don

[steve_qix]

I got a Globe Chief a few years ago.   It was packed in a box that it barely fit it and no packing at all.    It was shipped by the US Postal Service.    The tubes were in their sockets and it was delivered to my door with no special delivery.  No damage at all to any thing.   Might have been a fluke but I think they do a good job.

That's because you used the USPS 

The US Postal Service appears to be the best BY A LOT.  I shipped all but one (UPS at a customer's insistance) of the modulation monitors my company produced via the USPS - never had the slightest bit of damage or any lost packages.

UPS breaks things all the time - the heavier the package, the more the breakage.  Years ago, I ordered a large, rack mounted Uninterruptable Power Supply and the sender used (unfortunately) UPS.  Well, I couldn't believe it - the thing looked as if a truck had run over it.  The front panel was BENT OVER the short way (a thick front panel), and the insides were simply smashed to bits.

I had the next one shipped via USPS - and no trouble whatsoever.  Priority mail gets better treatment (according to my buddy at the post office), and that's what I generally use.