The last three locomotives I have purchased on eBay, an Athearn GP-35, an Athearn GP-38-2, and a Front Range GP-7 have all arrived destroyed.
In all cases, this was because the seller put no effort into packing them correctly.
I have been an eBay user since September, 1999, and this has never been a trend before.
Are other people seeing this?
-Kevin
Living the dream.
Nope.
https://tstage9.wixsite.com/nyc-modeling
Time...It marches on...without ever turning around to see if anyone is even keeping in step.
As a seller, I have all of my original boxes and foam inserts for all of my locos. When I sell a loco, I repackage it the same way that I received it when I bought it new. Then, I place it in the outer box for shipping and fully insulate it. There is no excuse for sloppy packaging.
Rich.
Alton Junction
This was the undecorated Front Range GP-7. It was just placed into a bubble envelope and put in the mail like that. The locomotive came out of the box. The motor mounts were broken and wires pulled out of the motor.
This was a bummer, because these are difficult to find.
Whenever I buy an individual golf club new from the manufacturer, they put the club in a box and ship it. No insulating material whatsoever. Incredibly, the clubs all have arrived without any damage. Go figure.
Rich
It always amazed me how many shipping department people would pack boxes with absolutely NO cushioning at the BOTTOM of the box yet have lots of space at the "top" with plenty of padding there.
Generally, the box is going to be tossed, often label-side-up, and if the item inside does not have 360° protection it will recieve a huge shock on impact with the floor, truck bed or my front porch.
I often get packages where the item is laid flat on the bottom of the box with lots of pillows, bubble wrap or, yuck, peanuts dumped all over the top.
Packing 101: CUSHION the bottom!
Regards, Ed
A loco, in a padded envelope? What in the actual...? Can't decide if someone could really be that dumb and not know or if they knew better but were just trying to be cheap. About the only thing model railroading that would go in a padded envelope are maybe soem decals, but even then only sandwiched between a couple pieces of cardboard.
--Randy
Modeling the Reading Railroad in the 1950's
Visit my web site at www.readingeastpenn.com for construction updates, DCC Info, and more.
SeeYou190 This was the undecorated Front Range GP-7. It was just placed into a bubble envelope and put in the mail like that. The locomotive came out of the box. The motor mounts were broken and wires pulled out of the motor.
gmpullmanPacking 101: CUSHION the bottom!
+1
rrinkerCan't decide if someone could really be that dumb and not know or if they knew better but were just trying to be cheap.
I would guess they were just doing it in a hurry. I got a refund with no problem, but that does not cure the disappointment of not having the model.
richhotrainDid you check the seller's feedback rating before purchasing that loco?
Yes, 100% positive. Since he refunded my money I cannot leave him negative feedback. Just another example of how worthless the eBay feedback system has become.
I wonder how much rising postal rates have to do with the problem? Where a medium box would have been the preferred choice in the past, sellers are cheaping out with padded envelopes.
Ebay is pushing sellers to ship faster and they are trying to get sellers on the "free shipping" wagon. Cutting corners along the way.
SeeYou190Just another example of how worthless the eBay feedback system has become.
Still, there needs to be a distinction from a product review or a shipping problem. Maybe not so much with eBay since the seller "score" is an overall performance rating but I have seen many Amazon products get a negative write-up because the box was crushed or the package never arrived.
Amazon has a separate review process for the shipping and delivery but people often ignore the distinction.
SeeYou190 richhotrain Did you check the seller's feedback rating before purchasing that loco? Yes, 100% positive. Since he refunded my money I cannot leave him negative feedback. Just another example of how worthless the eBay feedback system has become. -Kevin
richhotrain Did you check the seller's feedback rating before purchasing that loco?
gmpullman I wonder how much rising postal rates have to do with the problem? Where a medium box would have been the preferred choice in the past, sellers are cheaping out with padded envelopes. Ebay is pushing sellers to ship faster and they are trying to get sellers on the "free shipping" wagon. Cutting corners along the way.
The Company worked for instructed staff that all packages had to be secure 100%.
When my wife sends a package thru the post she has me inspecting it.
A couple of days ago (because of Covid and lockdown) she decided to wrap Christmas presents, so if there was chance to see any family we could give them their presents.
Some of the presents were for our grandchildren. The way my wife had wrapped the parcels, they were 'bomb proof'. Little James will still be trying to open his present on New Years Day.
To the world you are someone. To someone you are the world
I cannot afford the luxury of a negative thought
Nope. Pretty much everything I've gotten of Ebay has been well packaged.
OTOH, I've had a couple of vendors do minimal packaging and fortunately the contents seemed ok despite the lack of padding - in otherwords, they got lucky. By minimal I mean no or virtually no padding around the contents boxes. Hogtrainz and Bobthetrainguy in recent weeks.
Rio Grande. The Action Road - Focus 1977-1983
I have seen that a lot over the past year. I have gotten lucky nothing damaged. Maybe they are following amazon. They never added packing and more recently barely tape the box shut.
Shane
A pessimist sees a dark tunnel
An optimist sees the light at the end of the tunnel
A realist sees a frieght train
An engineer sees three idiots standing on the tracks stairing blankly in space
SeeYou190Are other people seeing this?
In general, I have not had a problem. Almost everything that I have received from eBay has been well packaged. There have been a few that were not but they arrived without damage. However, last week I got a gondola that not properly packaged at all, and there were several pieces broken off. I stated that clearly in my feedback.
Dave
I'm just a dude with a bad back having a lot of fun with model trains, and finally building a layout!
Yes. I bought an Athearn Genesis GP50 from a private seller. It showed up in a padded envelope, which is bad enough, with no other filler. LOL.
The Genesis packaging kept all but a truck hanger detail from falling off. I returned it for other reasons.
The worst way to pack is to let the item rattle around in the box. The model needs to be sure in its factory packaging, and then the factory box has to be secure inside the mailing box. Skip any step and something is likely to break off
- Douglas
SeeYou190Yes, 100% positive. Since he refunded my money I cannot leave him negative feedback. Just another example of how worthless the eBay feedback system has become.
You can still comment about it in the 80-character feedback field - e.g. "Item arrived damaged because of poor packing. Seller issued refund." Yes, it still ends up being a positive review because of the refund but it's better than not commenting about it at all.
I always comment about the packing when I leave my feedback on eBay. I think that's important for both the seller AND for other potential buyers of that seller.
Tom
Ordered some framed pictures of e-bay (Iknow, not train but all my train stuff has arrived with no problems), glass was broken on one, they were bubble wraped but there is a type out there with a lot less gas in them.
tstageYou can still comment about it in the 80-character feedback field - e.g. "Item arrived damaged because of poor packing. Seller issued refund." Yes, it still ends up being a positive review because of the refund but it's better than not commenting about it at all.
After the refund is issued, the item disappears from my "purchase history" list.
I will need to see if I can locate it another way to leave feedback.
I had one a couple of years back where I did a lot of four engines- they all needed a little work BUT they needed more than that when they got to me. They had them bubble wrapped but probably not as well in the fronts of the engine on a couple. However it looked like the post office set an elephant ridden by an NFL offensive line on it...... Had damage to the pilot truck on one and some other damage- alerted post office and they had me provide pics-they refunded half the value (two were not damaged) as well as all the shipping and told me to keep them. Fortunately I had the parts and was able to fix them. Took a little bit of time but came out well.
See You 190, Kevin--
Yes, absolutely yes.
Both Ebay sellers and legitimate, prominent dealers have shipped me stuff, packed it very poorly, and then had to deal with the return. It started a couple years ago for me, but lately the pace of defective returns has picked up dramatically for me.
After well over 100 orders from MBK, a couple years ago they poorly packed an Athearn Chessie SD-60 that my son really wanted, and it arrived damaged. When I complained about the horrible packing job (in a box with only a couple bags of air and no peanuts such that it bounced around and got broken) they said that in Maryland styrofoam peanuts would be outlawed and that they could not use them anymore. Instead of sending the replacement diesel my son asked for in writing (they had plenty of them in stock) they simply refunded my money.
Other than some Kato track they had, that nobody else had all of it in stock that I needed, I have basically ceased ordering anything from MBK. Apparently my 3 total defective returns in well over 100 orders somehow upset them.
Recently I had 4 locos of 5 orders from different dealers arrive damaged.
Two were (separate) orders from a prominent dealer, not just an Ebay seller, but a legitimate website that some folks speak rather highly of. Note: The first Rapido RS-11 was destroyed in shipping because they sent it with no end cushioning in the box at all, outside the Rapido box, and the USPS clearly played football with the package, the short hood nose was broken on arrival. After waiting a few weeks, and attempting to find that scarce roadname (LV bright red) elsewhere, I gave them a second chance, and paid slightly more money for shipping via UPS. The exact same thing happened: short hood nose broken by plastic clamshell support which went through the nose due to no end cushioning in shipping box at all. I got my money back, and the dealer said he'd explain to his shipping person that this cannot happen again, so I won't name the dealer on here. He's trying and was apologetic.
I am getting more and more products packed very poorly, such that they get damaged. I have good glue, and can fix a lot of minor stuff and retouch paint with 10/0 brushes, but this is making me pre-order through my local dealer rather than buy online!
I will note that my recent orders from The Train Station in Ohio and from Lombard Hobby have been arriving intact. Lombard packs economically, but they used enough end cushioning inside the shipping boxes that my 5 recent (Rapido) locomotive orders from them all arrived fully intact. Train Station tends to pack more carefully than Lombard, so they have done an outstanding job. Also, Western Depot is doing a good job of packing, and Hiawatha Hobbies.
John
PRR8259Yes, absolutely yes. Both Ebay sellers and legitimate, prominent dealers have shipped me stuff, packed it very poorly, and then had to deal with the return. It started a couple years ago for me, but lately the pace of defective returns has picked up dramatically for me.
John, that all sounds very terrible.
I have really ramped-down my ebay orders in the past few months now that I have no income. It is disappointing that I am making less than 1/4 of the purchases I used to, but the occurances of damage have actually gone up.
SeeYou190--
Oh, a couple months back in the summer, when I was still on Facebook (I since closed my account due to my personal political views definitely not aligning with Facebooks'), a young early twenty-something brass train dealer posted a thread on one of the brass model groups about how many Ebay sellers were just throwing a brass model into a box and shipping it, clearly without any idea whatsoever what they were doing, without attempting to properly cushion the model at all.
Adam posted a number of photos on Facebook of not inexpensive HO brass models that had been horribly packed and shipped. Some older heavier gauge models by shear luck arrived with no or very minimal damage, and others had incurred significant damage to the point that it would cost considerable time, effort, and paint/finish work to repair.
So this issue is not unique to those of use focusing mostly on plastic trains. The high end brass stuff is getting hogged up as well. (I have a son in college, so brass is no longer my thing.)
Both Adam and a professional model train painter, Jeff, have posted articles and even web pages instructing people how to properly pack (brass but could be any) model trains for shipment. That is where we are now. The brass models typically have very deteriorated foam instead of the carefully designed plastic clamshells now becoming common with new rtr plastic trains, and so they are even more vulnerable to damage than the rtr plastic.
I also was told that Bowser recently had tested their packaging by throwing some models onto their concrete floor even from the stairs, because they know that is exactly what is going to happen during shipping. Then they redesigned their plastic clamshells accordingly to make them better. I see the manufacturers in general doing everything they can to package models safely now--but there still needs to be cushioning especially on the ends, inside the shipping box. Ideally cushioning of 2 to 3 inches all the way around the manufacturer's box containing the model.
Without that cushioning some parts of the plastic clamshell are capable of going right through the body of the model on impact.
John Mock
I have not had any issues with any train items, but about 2 years ago I got a hard drive from Amazon that was packed in its OEM box, then stuck in a mcuh too large Amazon box with zero padding. I specifically mentioned the poor packaging as why I hadn't even bothered to try it and wanted a repalcement. So they sent a replacement - packaged the exact same way! Not an SSD, this was an 8TB spinning rust drive for my server. I gave up. Can't reason with stupidity. But that's par for the course with Amazon packaging, items tossed in a larger box with a couple of ait pillows tossed in which do absolutely nothing unless the box is carefully handled and never tilted or turned upside down.
The track (turnouts and flex) I got from Yankee Dabbler came well secured, as did the RS3 I got from Trainworld. The other RS3 I got through the RCT&HS store, I picked up in person to save the society on paying shipping charges.
PRR8259HO brass models that had been horribly packed and shipped.
I have only bought one brass locomotive on eBay. It was a Key USRA light mountain 4-8-2.
It was packed terribly, only two pieces of wadded up newspaper in the box, and the seller sent it to the wrong address! Fortunately, the eBay invoice was in the box, so the guy that received it brought it to my house, and the foam in the Key box protected the locomotive.
Nearly all my brass locomotives were bought at Brasstrains Dot Com. They do a great job with packaging.
SeeYou190 the seller sent it to the wrong address! Fortunately, the eBay invoice was in the box, so the guy that received it brought it to my house, -Kevin
the seller sent it to the wrong address! Fortunately, the eBay invoice was in the box, so the guy that received it brought it to my house,
i had 2 big boys that i sent out to get sound in since i didnt have time
well the guy sent it back to my paypal address which is my old address in sw cape lucky i was able to go to the guys house & pick it up lol
yes i changed my paypal default address after that lol
John, my experience has largely been polar opposite of yours.
With MBK, pretty much all my orders over the past years within memory have been well packed, very well. Maybe you yours got packed by a guy who doesn't work there anymore - and shouldn't.
I've bought a lot of items on Ebay past few years too and most of those have been pretty well packed.
Really the worst packing jobs I've gotten have been from vendors such as HO Hobbies (sent me a Walthers 2-pack of trailers with the bubble package bent-over and in a bubble wrap. Bobthetrainguy sent me two Rapido models which tightly fit in a cardboard box with no padding around them, and Lombards sent me a Rapido F40PH similarly boxed, basically no padding around.
The boxes were not dented or crushed at all in the above instances, but it's a risky way to send items with no cushioning. All standard vendors. Not ebay.
riogrande5761With MBK, pretty much all my orders over the past years within memory have been well packed, very well.
For as long time, my MBK packages came well packed and full of foam peanuts. Then I got a badly packed one with air pillows and everything was loose in the box.
The recent orders have all been well packed with air bubble pads, and there have been no problems.
Kevin,
i haven't bought much stuff recently so I can't comment about current trends. I have had several problems in the last three years with expensive brass arriving poorly packed and damaged. These were individual sellers on Ebay. Now I specifically state how the items should be packed in my note to the seller with payment and offer to pay extra for it. So far this has worked out but hard to tell if the note has had any effect.
BTW: insurance creates and interesting situation in that the post office will keep the item and give you the money - so a rare brass item is removed from the market if you make a claim with USPS - I chose to repair a couple of items rather than make the insurance claim...
Guy
see stuff at: the Willoughby Line Site