(FYI: I only do it for Breakables and Customs.)
As long as the model in question gets where it needs to go with little to no damage, in a timely fashion, most hobbyists are fine with whatever packaging method gets used.
But there are two hard and fast rules that we all agree on.
The first: when using bubble wrap, you wrap the model with the bubbles facing outward. While I’ve found that it’s more of an issue with Customs and newer Glosses than with the vintage Original Finish pieces I usually deal with, I still do it out of common courtesy and to keep myself in the habit.
The second: no matter how great the temptation, you never, ever ship Stablemates in a bubble mailer. You’d think that was patently obvious: break resistant isn’t the same as unbreakable, especially when you are dealing with thin legs and tiny tapered ears and tails. Right?
Apparently I got lucky – real lucky! – that when my Gwenevere and Blind Bag Magnolia came in their bubble mailer(!) from the Breyer warehouse earlier this week, they arrived unscathed:
Back to the shipping issue: I don’t have any more insight into the current Reeves warehouse and shipping situation than the rest of you. I’m an eleven and a half hour drive away, folks, and I haven’t physically been to New Jersey since 1992. Whenever we have occasion to communicate, those topics don’t usually come up. As long as whatever I order gets to me undamaged and without extended delays, that’s their business, anyway.
(Though I would absolutely love to spend a day or two poking about the warehouse, just because. That’s a dream vacation right up there with a horseback tour of Iceland, attending San Diego Comicon, or visiting the alleged family castle in Hungary. But I digress...)
While I am absolutely certain that they have received plenty of feedback about this serious violation of the “rules of shipping”, I’ll add my voice to the chorus, for whatever it is worth.
It doesn’t matter if the percentage of undamaged pieces is greater than the damaged pieces, and/or that it might be cheaper to fix the damaged items as they happen rather than go back to more durable packaging you were using before.
Unless you are shipping models where condition is irrelevant (in other words: bodies) you ship Stablemates in sturdy boxes. End of story.
7 comments:
I received mine the same way- my jaw dropped open when "the bag" arrived at my house. Shockingly none of the blind bags were broken, but I do have a big scratch on Gwenevere's box.
One thing is for certain, I will NEVER buy blind bags to ride along with my SM club models again, ever! My nerves can't take it!
-Sterling Stock Horses
I got the same blind bag, my mare has a stress fracture on a hind leg. Gwen's box was crushed, to the point her nose put a HOLE in the plastic front. I emailed Breyer, they stated they will not be shipping in mailers anymore, and will be replacing my damaged models. Whew!!
Wow! I got exactly the same as you, Andrea. I added the blind bag and got a padded envelope. The suprise SM wa also the palomino Magnolia. They seem to be fine, but I'm not happy with the risk.
My poor Gwen's box was annihilated (she was fine), the Breyer rep I talked to said they'd send a replacement box but I haven't heard anything since. Oh, well.
So glad to see yours got there unscathed!
I ordered a Mini Whinny, which arrived just fine, and Gwen was fine although her box was crushed. My daughter, who just got Gwen, got her about 5 days faster AND in the regular box.
I emailed Breyer, even though I don’t need replacements. They said they won’t be using envelopes anymore.
Thank goodness they arrived safely!! Reminds me of when I purchased a couple of the teeny tiny and very fragile Hagen-Renakers miniatures from a seller on eBay and they arrived in a bubble mailer. My heart just about stopped when I realized what the package was, yet somehow they made it through unscathed.
On the other end of things, I had asked Reeves for a replacement cowboy hat for one of my rider dolls and it arrived in an extra sturdy corrugated box that was so large, I was wondering if they'd gotten my order confused with someone else's. But nope! After pawing through all the packing paper, I finally located the one itty bitty hat that had traveled to me in style from New Jersey.
I emailed Breyer too, just in case they thought this was okay. They offered to send a replacement box, which I was okay with but not desperate for - what showed up (in the usual SM Club brown box) was a Gwen and box, surprise, surprise. I think the new Gwen is one with the tweaked neck. From certain angles it looks normal, from others the neck looks different - and she's tippier than usual.
Now, if they could get thicker white mailer boxes, I'd be even happier. The Lancelot boxes are downright flimsy.
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