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Thursday, November 14, 2013

Shipping minis this holiday season?

Sender (and recipient) beware...according to a UPS truck loader, there are quite a few ways for things to go wrong. (Warning: strong language and some adult content. Possibly NSFW.) Prepare for the worst, miniaturists!

And it gets worse: according to an experiment performed by Popular Mechanics, items marked "fragile" seem to be singled out for MORE abuse. (Ugh, what is WRONG with people?)

I am especially shocked that Popular Mechanics rated the US Postal Service gentler than FedEx or UPS, since I've had more than a few mailed parcels arrive smashed, with broken items audibly rolling around inside, or simply looking as though they'd been used for baseball practice. When I've had miniatures arrive broken, guess what - all shipped by USPS from within the USA. (Curiously, I've never had anything mailed from overseas get damaged in transit...)

Anyway, to cut a long story short - if I ever need to ship miniatures, I'm shipping them in one of those cheap hard-sided coolers...inside a big wooden crate...and if necessary, I'll tuck the crate inside an old Volvo wrapped in a couple miles of bubble wrap and ship that via truck!

9 comments:

  1. LOL..Ive had more than a few things come broken but I've learned to wrap things up snug and I dont write fragile on the package

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    1. I just sent a breakable item to a friend...hopefully using half a roll of bubble wrap and writing "Happy Birthday" on the package will help ensure that it arrives in un-shattered condition. Thankfully, in 10 years of sending her things, they've only broken one item.

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  2. I'm glad it's not just me who has to make repairs ALL THE TIME on newly arrived items! So frustrating!

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    1. Me too! It's especially annoying when a carefully-wrapped artisan-made piece arrives with a leg snapped off because someone who is being paid to deliver it doesn't care. Thank heaven for Krazy Glue.

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  3. It's the same here in England. Royal Mail are atrocious...I've stopped marking the parcels as Fragile because they seem to be broken more often than a plain parcel. DHL lost one of my parcels and sent one to the wrong destination. Very poor! =0(

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    1. DHL is terrible on this side of the Atlantic, too. I've never had Royal Mail damage or lose anything, but my friends in the UK have had plenty of complaints!

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  4. Great post ;) I have found that using a cheap small food storage container is now my go to for shipping inside a box wrapped in.. feathers..sealed in ice...

    well the small plastic container anyways ;P

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  5. Your comment that domestic mail is more likely to be damaged than international is really interesting - Carrie Lavender (blog - A Lavender Dilly) recently said the same thing to me but of course she was talking about Australia Post - she also said that she has no breakages when she sends internationally but is plagued by them within Australia. It's a weird one - perhaps we should get Popular Mechanics to research it ;)

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    1. That would make a great follow-up article in Popular Mechanics, actually - ship sensor-carrying parcels domestically and internationally in several countries and see how they all stack up.

      I do wonder if my good luck with international shipping has anything to do with the fact that I live within two hours of three international shipping ports, including one of the country's very biggest. If parcels bound for my house make fewer stops and transfers along the way than someone further from the coast, fewer breakages would make sense.

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