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My gripe for the day: Sellers who package TOO securely.
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93 posts in this topic

11 minutes ago, lizards2 said:

I want to be that guy - you never buy anything from me.....,  I'll wrap your package in a full roll of clear tape, interspersed with bubble wrap and packing peanuts, both biodegradable and earth-unfriendly, and ship it to greggy for saucy action, before the final destination is reached! :D

You had me a greggy.:x

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19 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

To be honest I've had one seller package a raw that way...and it wasn't even regular tape it was something like masking tape around the book to the cardboard just everywhere. It was a nightmare of stress diffusing the package. Did it eventually turn out okay? Maybe After a cigarette and a cup of coffee later...

I probably got a little more impatient after dealing with it for a couple of minutes and the spine did bend causing a stress mark but it was a FN book and since it already had a few stress marks already, it really wasn't a biggie.  But the point still stands.

In fairness to sellers, I honestly have no idea how better to package it.  Obviously they could do without all the extra tape but then that risks the books possibly sliding around in shipment and maybe dinging corners.  It would be financially unreasonably to expect them to send $50 type shipments out in double boxes they have to buy so I really don't know what the answer is.

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28 minutes ago, 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.

I've had this experience too. I think your headline is a misnomer, throwing people. A book tightly wound to cardboard with tape that one can't peel without bending the spine or slit without risking cutting the book is not packed too securely.  It's packed in a risky manner.

That said, I prefer to risk the surgery than to open a bubble mailer and find a book not in a cardboard sandwich.

I'm nervous every time I pack trying to hit the sweet spot of max protection without inviting inadvertent damage during the unpacking, and without  pushing someone's shipping cost  up due to the weight of the body armor. (Though with expensive and rare items, I prefer a couple extra bucks in shipping due to the weight of strong packaging.)

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I agree to wanting it secure, then there is entombed and frustration of a NM comic that I might as well take a carving blade to. Package how you want it sent to you. :foryou:

I manned up for sure and got it done lol but for sure I can also man up enough to call it ridiculous and unnecessary!

Edited by ADAMANTIUM
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13 minutes ago, ADAMANTIUM said:

I agree to wanting it secure, then there is entombed and frustration of a NM comic that I might as well take a carving blade to. Package how you want it sent to you. :foryou:

I manned up for sure and got it done lol but for sure I can also man up enough to call it ridiculous and unnecessary!

Did the book get to you safe?

Nuff said....

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I've found packing them a hard foam coffin with bubble wrap around the comic/slab seems to do a pretty good job of protecting from damage but still being easily accessed.  If I'm sending multiple raws, I stick 'em in a magazine mylar.  They don't move, the box can take a blow, and no surgery required

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there is one seller and I can't recall their handle but they must use 50 separate pieces of small masking tape with arrows drawn on them which you have to take off each one to get to the next layer where the process gets repeated for the last layer of protection. Next time I get a book from them I will document with some pictures because it is borderline crazy. I think the last time I got one of their packages, I said to myself-- "oh, this guy." And just used a box cutter knife to slice through all his carefully placed pieces of tape and arrows. I appreciate the effort but the books were not exactly high dollar and knowing where the underlying layers from previous openings made it simple to cut out the multiple tape removals.

I have also been accused of going a little over board on some of my shipments but those items were high grade to begin with and I wanted to make sure they got there the same way.

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8 minutes ago, skypinkblu said:

The trick is to never tape the comic bag that is directly protecting the comics. You put the comics in their bags and then put the one book, or more (however many you have)  in ANOTHER bag. THEN  you can tape. I use magazine bags, or treasury bags, but even a supermarket bag will do.

Drives me crazy when I have to peel tape off a comic book bag. It's also very bad for my manicure;);)

And don't use scotch tape, because it always breaks during shipping.

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I've had books sent to me that haven't had bags,boards, thin cardboard, no cardboard just a A4 envelope and no care factor what so ever, anyone who over packages and thinks about the safety of the product gets my vote anyday of the week

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5 hours ago, 01TheDude said:

there is one seller and I can't recall their handle but they must use 50 separate pieces of small masking tape with arrows drawn on them which you have to take off each one to get to the next layer where the process gets repeated for the last layer of protection. Next time I get a book from them I will document with some pictures because it is borderline crazy. I think the last time I got one of their packages, I said to myself-- "oh, this guy." And just used a box cutter knife to slice through all his carefully placed pieces of tape and arrows. I appreciate the effort but the books were not exactly high dollar and knowing where the underlying layers from previous openings made it simple to cut out the multiple tape removals.

I have also been accused of going a little over board on some of my shipments but those items were high grade to begin with and I wanted to make sure they got there the same way.

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.

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Only one or two experiences with "overpackers" and the limited amount of frustration with that is worth it compared to the much more common "underpackers" who dimwittedly send comics unprotected in envelopes, loosely floating, with no attempt to be careful.  Overpackers rule!

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8 hours ago, Readcomix said:

I've had this experience too. I think your headline is a misnomer, throwing people. A book tightly wound to cardboard with tape that one can't peel without bending the spine or slit without risking cutting the book is not packed too securely.  It's packed in a risky manner.

That said, I prefer to risk the surgery than to open a bubble mailer and find a book not in a cardboard sandwich.

I'm nervous every time I pack trying to hit the sweet spot of max protection without inviting inadvertent damage during the unpacking, and without  pushing someone's shipping cost  up due to the weight of the body armor. (Though with expensive and rare items, I prefer a couple extra bucks in shipping due to the weight of strong packaging.)

This.

It's silly to me when sellers brag about how securely they package books when it's nearly impossible to remove the book from the packaging without damaging it.  These are the people who will put the book between 2 pieces of cardboard that are just a hair larger than the book itself and then brick the whole thing with a roll of packaging tape.  The brick is then taped between two larger pieces of cardboard, which is fine, but I still have to have the hands of a surgeon to free the book from the inner brick without damage.  So the chance of the book getting damaged in transit is minimal.  The likelihood of accidently slicing the book when freeing it, however...

And invariably, these are the same sellers who will follow-up with a message asking how I liked their "bullet-proof packaging".   meh

As others have said, there's a balance.  There are ways to make books more easily removable without sacrificing security in-transit.  For example, whenever I'm sandwiching books between cardboard, I will always fold over an edge of the tape to make a pull tab.  You sacrifice no security, but no blades are necessary to free the book from the packaging. 

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10 hours ago, oakman29 said:

Well, I thought I heard everything around here. You are complaining that someone shipped your package TOO securely?

Thank God for that seller! Who is he so I can buy stuff from him.

I've got my select guys that I buy from, but if he's that good maybe there's room for one more on my list.

I have had (3) books arrive this week that the seller was out of hand with packing tape to secure a book. You risk damage to the book while unpacking and this is a very serious issue. More is not better when securing a book. I use painters tape to hold the book to the cardboard, and blue tape to secure the cardboard together. Anything else risks damaging the book.

 

 One took me ten minutes and I needed to use a razor blade, huge no no!

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I use blue painting tape on all of my packages, works perfectly and easy to see/remove. I wrap the book in bubble wrap, tape it up, place it in a cardboard mailer, tape it closed, and place it in a USPS priority envelope. Works like a charm. 

Edited by rsouxlja7
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I don't see this as being a problem at all. ive had some that were so taped up I just ended up cutting them out of the bag and board with an exacto knife and the book came out much easier than trying to remove tape and risk bending the book.  heck if I cant afford the new bag and board to put it into I shouldn't be buying the book in the first place.

nothing worse than having a crappy packaging job with a floppy book sliding all over the place.

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