I need to ship a receiver. should I pay fed ex and cover myself or risk with my own packing?

I've got a few things to ship coming up. I'm wondering if I should take it to a FedEx or UPS place, give it to them, and have the buyer be their customer instead of me. So the buyer is the shipper, and he makes contact with the shipping company, pays them directly, and is responsible for everything after I drop it off -- packing, payment, etc. If it doesn't arrive to his satisfaction, it's between him and the shipping co. I want to be the seller, not the shipper. Think that has a chance of working out like I want?

Chip
 
Ebay? If going international, I've heard sending to ebay's packing center is a must. Having Fedex or UPS pack and ship will make insurance claim a snap. Shipping on customer's dime means they file claim and not you. However, none of this immunizes the seller against ebay return policy and the wicked SNAD. Like you, I am dreading selling audio on ebay but the day is coming.
 
Foam peanuts shift, and if the box is holed, they run away. The ONLY way they work is if they are contained in small bags, and those need to be sucked clean of air by a vacuum cleaner - THEN they form a resilient enough mass to be useful.
Otherwise they are only useful for volume fill on LOW DENSITY items.
A Receiver is NOT a low density item!

I have also had "professional" packers tell me THEY KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING, yet these arrogant asses are the ones that do the WORST packing jobs with the MOST damage, as evidenced by the claims they have filed and have had denied on the damaged gear floating around here. Stuff that was supposed to be a quick turnaround, good profit item turned into a cosmetic basket case.

Double box, with inner box bubble wrap, reinforce the outer walls of the outer box with sheets of insulation foam.

Foam peanuts are basically worthless IMHO. Maybe to fill a small void in the otherwise solid packaging, but for bulk volume fill, no thanks.
 
I read that UPS is getting hard to impossible to collect insurance.
I've seen their handling docks and spoke to employees.
NEVER, NEVER, NEVER, EVER use UPS.

USPS insurance is hit and miss, its getting to be a miss.

FedEx seems simple at $100 and below, no problems. File and collect.
Above $100 can be a pain. They want to inspect. But they do look at photos sent in on the claim. Make sure the damage is obvious. I had one denied because they couldn't really see much damage.
Hint, go get a BPC at GW and throw it off the roof, put it on a box, take photos. Make sure damage is obvious on photos.

Best to pack well and ask shipping gods to watch over you.
 
I've shipped a few pro video tape machines -- like 70-90 pound units -- and I always use factory packaging. I can, because I always keep factory packaging for stuff like that. I've even sent empty factory boxes for new acquisitions to be shipped to me in. Why? Because during that time, UPS was rejecting any damage claim that wasn't shipped in their approved factory packaging. (Shippers work with mfg's on that stuff.) Don't know if that's still true, or if FedEx has the same rule, but you stand a lot better chance of being compensated if you can say, "Look, it's the very packaging you and the mfg. worked out originally."

This afternoon, I shipped a consumer product back to mfg. for warranty work. Used their original retail carton, and boxed that carton in a larger box with bubble wrap around retail box -- exactly like Amazon shipped to me. Except my outer box was an egg box. Took it to the local UPS shop, and they asked: "Are you really shipping eggs?" To which I replied, "Yup. They're fragile, you know...) ;)

Chip
 
your parcels are seldom shipped solely by the carrier you hired
stuff shipped priority or over night or same day day ... what ever
is packed on a plane or truck with many carriers parcels headed for the same destination
ups, canada post, dhl, ats, fedex over flow,amazon, will all be mixed in all the pits of the the plane
its done like this cause the plane/ truck runs out of room be fore it runs out of weight capacity
fedex is a little different ... they do try to keep their stuff on thier trucks and planes
but they also bulk out daily and use other carriers
 
Double box, cut and shape pool noodles to protect all edges and corners, also use them to fill extra spaces. They are easy to affix the the units or boxes, have great resiliency, and are cheap!
 
Double box, cut and shape pool noodles to protect all edges and corners, also use them to fill extra spaces. They are easy to affix the the units or boxes, have great resiliency, and are cheap!

Ha,and I thought I was the only guy using pool noodles:thumbsup:
 
I've been preaching them for a while in this thread. I thought I was the only one. Using pool noodles makes packing much easier adds great protection! Can't say that invented the concept, I read it somewhere...
 
Remove BIG tuning/volume knobs and cut to fit a sturdy piece of styrofoam insulation to cover and protect the faceplate and any protruding switches.
 
Agree to begin with, but styrofoam only protects against one impact, it disintegrates, thus creating a void, which facilitates further movement, then more damage. Pool noodles, made of open cell foam, can absorb shock and return to its original volume to protect again, that's the beauty of pool noodles!
 
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High-density polyurethane foam (the stuff pool noodles are made from) can often be had for free. Businesses that get a lot of glass displays (furniture stores and large optical stores are good sources) usually receive said displays packed in large quantities of this foam, which usually goes into a dumpster behind the store. A little creative scrounging pays dividends....over the years, I have collected several Hefty bags full of the stuff.
Probably the best packing material in existence.
 
I wrap my amps in Hefty bags and use bubble wrap and tape the heck out of it then use a heavy box (not shipping box they are a bit thin) and use Styrofoam on the corners...I had a guy ship me a preamp using empty water bottles with the caps on and egg cartons to protect it...it worked well!
 
High-density polyurethane foam (the stuff pool noodles are made from) can often be had for free. Businesses that get a lot of glass displays (furniture stores and large optical stores are good sources) usually receive said displays packed in large quantities of this foam, which usually goes into a dumpster behind the store. A little creative scrounging pays dividends....over the years, I have collected several Hefty bags full of the stuff.
Probably the best packing material in existence.

Furniture store near me would have mountains of styrofoam sheets from time to time. It is the medium density stuff which is ideal for furniture and therefore ideal for audio. I priced the stuff at a shipping supply store and it is too expensive to buy. Customers would balk at the extra cost. I use large cell bubble wrap with cardboard re-enforcement for the corners. Then at least two inches of styro all around packed snugly so the irem cannot wiggle. Single sturdy box up to 40 pounds is good, IME.
 
Furniture store near me would have mountains of styrofoam sheets from time to time. It is the medium density stuff which is ideal for furniture and therefore ideal for audio. I priced the stuff at a shipping supply store and it is too expensive to buy. Customers would balk at the extra cost. I use large cell bubble wrap with cardboard re-enforcement for the corners. Then at least two inches of styro all around packed snugly so the irem cannot wiggle. Single sturdy box up to 40 pounds is good, IME.

I would not use bubble wrap on anything heavier than about 15 pounds. One forceful impact would likely defeat those bubbles, creating movement of your fragile, valuable item, which should be avoided at all cost. My personal philosophy, when shipping something heavy, like a receiver, R2R deck, etc., is to keep the item suspended, centered within a box, with all corners and faceplate protected by the foam, so there is ZERO movement within the box. Then, put that inside a second box, with another 2 or 3 inches of padding (preferably foam), and seal it up with several complete wraps of fiberglass-reinforced 2-inch wide strapping tape.

On heavier items (SX-1250, etc.), I will also cut the corners from several other boxes, and using construction adhesive, glue those corners in place, overlapping them leaf-style, as added reinforcement.
 
I would not use bubble wrap on anything heavier than about 15 pounds. One forceful impact would likely defeat those bubbles, creating movement of your fragile, valuable item, which should be avoided at all cost. My personal philosophy, when shipping something heavy, like a receiver, R2R deck, etc., is to keep the item suspended, centered within a box, with all corners and faceplate protected by the foam, so there is ZERO movement within the box. Then, put that inside a second box, with another 2 or 3 inches of padding (preferably foam), and seal it up with several complete wraps of fiberglass-reinforced 2-inch wide strapping tape.

On heavier items (SX-1250, etc.), I will also cut the corners from several other boxes, and using construction adhesive, glue those corners in place, overlapping them leaf-style, as added reinforcement.

I've shipped many 50 pound receivers and amps using my method and have never had one get damaged in transit. I have successfully shipped the boat anchor of all boat anchors Pioneer SX-1980 which IIRC weights 86 pounds.

You didn't say what kind of foam you use but that stuff is designed to compress which is exactly the opposite effect of what you are trying to achieve. Use too hard foam and the shocks are transmitted directly through the packaging to the unit resulting in cracked PCB's and broken speaker cabinets. Seen this over and over again in my ebay purchases which is why I no longer buy online.
 
Has anyone ever tried this method? It seems like a good idea, since it forms to what ever shape is in the box.

 
I've shipped many 50 pound receivers and amps using my method and have never had one get damaged in transit. I have successfully shipped the boat anchor of all boat anchors Pioneer SX-1980 which IIRC weights 86 pounds.

You didn't say what kind of foam you use but that stuff is designed to compress which is exactly the opposite effect of what you are trying to achieve. Use too hard foam and the shocks are transmitted directly through the packaging to the unit resulting in cracked PCB's and broken speaker cabinets. Seen this over and over again in my ebay purchases which is why I no longer buy online.

If you re-read my post, you`ll see that I specifically mentioned "polyurethane foam". The strong suit of this material is that while being fairly stiff (about halfway between regular foam rubber and Styrofoam), it has a good measure of resiliency, it will compress a bit, then return to it`s original shape without being crushed.
This "spring effect" is what makes it so valuable. It can also be easily cut to shape with a sharp knife.

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If it hasn't been mentioned, look on the bottom of the boxes to make sure they are rated to transport the weight of the receiver. If they aren't, good luck trying to collect on the insurance if the package arrives damaged.
 
Another place to find dense foam blocks is appliances. They use them on the corners inside the shipping box. Also you find them inside washing machines and dishwashers to hold the inner moving parts in place. So try an appliance store. These corners are great for suspending the inner box inside the outer box. I then fill the spaces on the flat sides, top and bottom with foam sheets or rolled up flexible foam sheeting. If they drop it on a corner, those dense blocks don't crush.
 
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