My gripe for the day: Sellers who package TOO securely. 3 3

[Readcomix]

3 minutes ago, pubmonkey said:

It's part of his charm! 

[Readcomix]

5 hours ago, lizards2 said:

I just got a book in today where the book was secured to the cardboard sandwich with scotch tape, and cardboard sandwich was sealed with scotch tape.  Both the book and the sandwich separated - the tape broke in all locations.

Hey Mike, cellophane, clear/regular/whatever ya call non-opaque scotch tape, or it doesn't matter, all types?

[Readcomix]

1 hour ago, Patriot6 said:

I also bought from him!! Lovely pack job. 

Agreed; all-around great guy to deal with.

[Ottobord]

I had an ebay first after 15 years, a buyer recently requested that I NOT leave positive (of course) feedback for him.   Strange times.

[topofthetotem]

This is a strange tread, I hope there is a FDQ exit to complete the lunacy.

[Aweandlorder]

OP prolly wouldn't last 2 minutes working for CGC

[ThothAmon]

  First world problems. Just bought a $300 raw off eBay. Shipped sandwiched between two slightly smaller than the comic, thin cardboard backers and allowed to float freely within a priority medium box.  Yikes. 

[lizards2]

4 hours ago, Readcomix said:

Hey Mike, cellophane, clear/regular/whatever ya call non-opaque scotch tape, or it doesn't matter, all types?

It does not matter - it is all weak sauce and it all breaks.

[01TheDude]

5 hours ago, Patriot6 said:

16 hours ago, Readcomix said:

I bought from that guy! It looked so hare-brained, I followed the instructions just to see. It did work well and made me laugh. I think each piece of tape was folded over slightly create a pull tab.

I also bought from him!! Lovely pack job. 

Starting to wonder if it is the same guy. Probably is because that 1/4 inch wide masking tape strips with folded over ends + arrows are pretty unique. They did all kinds of creative use of priority mail cardboard--- creating  4 separate corner straps to go over the cardboard sandwich- the end product slid into a padded envelope. I think there might be two who do this-- the attached picture is slightly different the guy I am thinking of with the arrows--- but you get the idea.

And let me just say that I am not complaining about the effort, just wondering who would go to such extremes, especially for a book that wasn't very expensive. I figure it must take them at least 30 minutes to put all that together.

And for those who keep coming on here and laughing at us for talking about this "over doing it with the packing" -- we are just talking about some of the ways sellers do things that are either harmful or overboard.

[Readcomix]

2 minutes ago, 01TheDude said:

Starting to wonder if it is the same guy. Probably is because that 1/4 inch wide masking tape strips with folded over ends + arrows are pretty unique. They did all kinds of creative use of priority mail cardboard--- creating  4 separate corner straps to go over the cardboard sandwich- the end product slid into a padded envelope. I think there might be two who do this-- the attached picture is slightly different the guy I am thinking of with the arrows--- but you get the idea.

And let me just say that I am not complaining about the effort, just wondering who would go to such extremes, especially for a book that wasn't very expensive. I figure it must take them at least 30 minutes to put all that together.

And for those who keep coming on here and laughing at us for talking about this "over doing it with the packing" -- we are just talking about some of the ways sellers do things that are either harmful or overboard.

I do think there's two! I've definitely opened a book out of a similar rig before, and there's the similar approach in packing OA deployed by the guy Patriot6 and I both bought OA from. CliffR too, I think. Guy has a boatload of Archie pages.

[Patriot6]

1 minute ago, 01TheDude said:

And let me just say that I am not complaining about the effort, just wondering who would go to such extremes, especially for a book that wasn't very expensive. I figure it must take them at least 30 minutes to put all that together.

I have to say I agree with this. However, I am not one who has the time nor the patience to attain the above packing....'superiority.' Having said that, I applaud the seller because he is schooling everyone out there. I guess he is living by the ol' if you're going to do it do it right motto. ALSO, if one intends to make selling comics a serious business, packaging is of the utmost importance. We all know how a packing slip up can result in a damaged reputation. Perhaps this fellow is simply protecting his business. Impressive, to me, never the less. 

[Patriot6]

2 minutes ago, Readcomix said:

I do think there's two! I've definitely opened a book out of a similar rig before, and there's the similar approach in packing OA deployed by the guy Patriot6 and I both bought OA from. CliffR too, I think. Guy has a boatload of Archie pages.

Yes, the fellow we are speaking of uses corrugated plastic as his sandwich 'bread.' Same arrow type system and folded over tape however.

[01TheDude]

I go a little overboard when I send record albums--- primarily because while reading how to pack them I hear so many stories of what people did wrong. Here are some pictures of that procedure. I send them usually via media mail as they are allowed and I can beef up the packing to two or three pounds.  These pictures do not show the level of packing done inside the cardboard sandwich either--- which included packing the records separately wrapped in newspaper, album sleeves wrapped in clear plastic and then one layer of paper, then the whole set wrapped together in one more newswrap, securely taped with blue painters tape to one of the over sized THICK cardboard then that gets wrapped in an additional jacket of cardboard that covers the entire package. Taped securely, it is then wrapped in a heavy duty tarp-like material and labelled warning the people that it has vinyl recordings inside.

I think I have this process down to about 15 minutes. Been a while though. No complaints though some joked that I went a little overboard. Come to think of it-- perhaps it is better to go too far than not far enough.

Spoiler

 

[N e r V]

1 hour ago, lizards2 said:

It does not matter - it is all weak sauce and it all breaks.

[Readcomix]

23 hours ago, Readcomix said:

Agreed; all-around great guy to deal with.

@1950's war comics that was you? It was off of eBay, so I didn't realize! Cool! 

[namisgr]

On 2/14/2018 at 11:10 PM, FSF said:

But that's just the thing, I'm not sure it is all that safe.  When you're securing the packing tape at least a dozen times against a cardboard backing, trying to free it from the board and taking off the tape from the comic bag is not an easy task and I could easily see spine stress marks occurring while trying to separate the tape from the comic bag.

Agree.  It happens infrequently, but when a stack of raw books has so much tape around it, especially on the edges of the bags themselves, there is a real danger of damaging them in the process of freeing them up from their tape-linked brothers and sisters.  You've essentially got to bend one or two of the books to get a pair of scissors into the stack to cut the tape and not the comic inside.  It's much better that the boards used to protect the stacks have a bunch of tape to prevent the books from moving around, rather than the bags themselves be hermetically sealed to one another with the stuff.

Slabs? Tape away, all you sellers.

 

Edited February 17, 2018 by namisgr

[chrisco37]

On 2/15/2018 at 6:54 AM, Readcomix said:

I bought from that guy! It looked so hare-brained, I followed the instructions just to see. It did work well and made me laugh. I think each piece of tape was folded over slightly create a pull tab.

Oh mess.  That’s exactly how I package books up (with the folded tape and arrows).  I always preferred that over having to take a knife to the tape.  

[Readcomix]

1 minute ago, chrisco37 said:

Oh mess.  That’s exactly how I package books up (with the folded tape and arrows).  I always preferred that over having to take a knife to the tape.  

Maybe it was you on eBay? Either way, thank you! Safe shipping AND low-risk unpacking! 

[chrisco37]

1 minute ago, Readcomix said:

Maybe it was you on eBay? Either way, thank you! Safe shipping AND low-risk unpacking! 

No, not me (don’t sell on eBay), but I use that method.  Although the above pics with the blue tape seems a bit excessive.  I don’t typically use that many piece of tape.

[Readcomix]

22 minutes ago, chrisco37 said:

No, not me (don’t sell on eBay), but I use that method.  Although the above pics with the blue tape seems a bit excessive.  I don’t typically use that many piece of tape.

Well, I love your playbook! That kind of packing hits the sweet spot (though I agree the example above is probably overkill). In fairness, as someone said, we are discussing first world problems. But then again gang, the privilege of collecting pricey funnybooks for leisure is pretty much in that context, whether we are talking pricing, packing, condition etc.