Bad Lazy sellers with poor packaging...

I ship lots of sheaths and a few knives here and there. I buy a bubble wrap and tape for about $30 total every couple of months. The rest of the supplies are free if you use USPS. Hell, they ship it right to your house for free!! Anybody else a little weird and kind of enjoy packaging things? I do.
 
VJT said:
I ship lots of sheaths and a few knives here and there. I buy a bubble wrap and tape for about $30 total every couple of months. The rest of the supplies are free if you use USPS. Hell, they ship it right to your house for free!! Anybody else a little weird and kind of enjoy packaging things? I do.
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I do enjoy when I fill one of those bubble mailer envelopes all nice and perfectly.
 
I'm a crappy packager, as I reuse stuff from shipments ive gotten.. maybe I'm more of a recycler....🤔......but even i tape all the seams and try to put some filler in to keep the box in shape and give some buffering and shock absorption.

like the microfiber wrap part, but thats about it.
 
I just received a BOTM knife I purchased 3rd party.
They seemed to think the box the knife came in was a shipping box.
Everything arrived crushed and ripped up.....
Knife ok, but wtf?

Trying to decide on my feedback.
I'll keep the knife, but good grief.
 
luethge said:
There is a weird satisfaction that comes from making a package apocalypse proof 😂. The post office lady’s laugh at me often 👍👍
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^^^Same here vvv, haha...

My neighbor, a retired USPS clerk, gave me a few tips to mitigate nosy postal workers who might want a little "look/see" into your parcel. His best tip was to apply some unusual novelty tape on the flaps. Postal workers have access to oodles of common packing tape, but the outlandish tape designs can make some think twice about messing with something they would have a more difficult time covering up.

I've used bacon novelty tape from the big river site for a long time now <even before Busse did it themselves, btw ;) > to tape down seams. Clerks used to ask me if it was "scratch'n sniff." 🤣

There's also little holographic "Tamper Proof" stickers that are very cheap that I use sometimes.

It's a delicate balance, however, between making your parcel look low-key protected mode vs. making it a flashing neon sign "STEAL ME = VALUABLE SWAG INSIDE." :oops:

Some hacks he gave me that aren't visible from the outside: pack with stuff that falls out and makes a mess like shredded papers or confetti.

Last stealth tip shared to me: tape the goods to the inside of the box so it can't be secreted out easily.

Unfortunately, as one of the members above already noted, some of the tampering countermeasures make it more difficult <read: aggravating> for the buyer to open their parcel.

Although I've had a couple entire packages get straight up jacked before touchdown and had to be turned into Paypal-- I've never had a blade I sold arrive MIA from it's package with just the hull of the package arriving.

But, conversely I have had a couple BF members cuss me out for making the package to hard to get to when they were in the midst of blade fever. :p

Mission accomplished, I guess. 🤷‍♂️ sorry so long, but if it helps some members, maybe it was worth the time.
 
jbmonkey said:
I'm a crappy packager, as I reuse stuff from shipments ive gotten.. maybe I'm more of a recycler....🤔
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I don't think that's crappy. I think it's smart. Saves money, and you are clearly conscientious about how you do it. I do similar. I have to admit that when I first started out, shipping anything was really new to me, and I did put a handful of items in those bubble mailers. Years ago. But then I started reading the GB&U and smacked myself on the forehead. I started collecting cardboard wherever I could find it in good shape, and making makeshift boxes with it. They sucked at first, because they were ugly, BUT they were secure. I do the same thing now, but have given some serious thought to the notion that if I care about the product, I need to care about the packaging. So I have found the perfect bin inside the local Walmart to find nice, big, clean cardboard, got explicit permission to take from it any time I wanted, and refined the methodology of my box making. You can still tell the box was made in house, but was done so with purpose and care, and lots and lots of tape.

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This kind of stuff does irritate me. I wonder about folks mind-set / thinking when they sell a $100+ knife and refuse to spend the 10cents on tape / packaging to ensure it arrives safe and sound. I mean, I don't know about anyone else but I have tons of random foam, air bubbles, and air pockets from amazon orders just sitting around. It actually makes my life easier to re-use it for sales / trades rather then having to recycle it.
 
I"ve had a few go-rounds with lazy sellers and crappy packaging, but this one's an extreme example of good packaging saving the day. The pic below is the last set of Wilkins scales I bought a year ago last fall. Kevin had some issues with DHL over there and had to send Fedex. When the local delivery guy handed the package to my wife, he apologized profusely and said he was ashamed to deliver a parcel in such condition. This came all the way from Germany and looks like it was inspected by bears going through customs and subsequently dropped from the plane at 20,000 feet when it arrived Stateside. How the scales didn't fall out I'll never know. I never even opened the box--just reached in through the hole and pulled out the contents which were carefully rolled up in their bags wrapped in packing tape.

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