I once bought an A-Trend Technology Voodoo Graphics in a small box (original packaging). The seller wrapped brown paper very tightly around it. I thought the box would be smaller so when I cut the brown paper open with scissors, I accidentaly cut into the original box and then went on to tear it further off. I noticed it pretty quickly, so I didn't destroy the box completely; the front has a clean cut which turns into a tear.

That, was the saddest day in my collecting history ever. I felt bad for weeks and still feel like crap when I think about it.

Edit; wait, humour thread. This ain't humour! 😢

Edited title, I take things pretty lightly most of the time so I considered these to be humorous experiences for me. Humorous from the dafuq factor of it all.

Happened to me many times. Fact of life. 😀

I ask the seller every time to ensure my item is packed in a box and not a protective bag/envelope to prevent any damage to my items. I put this request in the PayPal add message section and also contact the seller directly to ensure he/she gets my request. Ever since I've been doing this I haven't received 1 damaged item.

I had it twice.. On two AT cases.. No foam blocks at all.. Result: Front panel broken.. (nice to have a case without a good front panel.) People are just stupid..

By far my worst experience is when I bought a C64 from a lady with no prior ebay experience. I was pretty happy as I bought it at a steal.
But then...

She shipped it into an oversized diaper box without any padding. That's right, the computer was just floating in there with like 6 inches of empty air on each sides. No need to tell you it was pretty battered on arrival, including 2 broken keys, that I could never quite fix to perfection. To make it even better, the SID in it was fried and I had to buy a new one. She had told me it was tested and in great condition. But she had not tested sound apparently.

I once received ET6000 PCI videocard in an envelope. Inside the envelope I found a piece of cardboard to which the videocard was taped. It's a wonder how it got no damage, yet it worked fine. btw, it took years to rub the tape off the surface 🙁

RacoonRider wrote:

I once received ET6000 PCI videocard in an envelope. Inside the envelope I found a piece of cardboard to which the videocard was taped. It's a wonder how it got no damage, yet it worked fine. btw, it took years to rub the tape off the surface 🙁

I've received video cards in envelopes before.Small cards will sometimes fit in a business sized white envelope,while larger ones may require a manilla (flat 8.5x11) envelope. I've also had CPU's shipped to me in envelopes with no protection for the pins. I also had two Macintosh computers shipped to me wrapped in brown paper secured with tape and string, no boxes. 🤣

I am especially impressed when I receive a fragile item that has been either a) stuffed into an envelope with no padding around it, or b) tossed into an over sized box with no padding at all. Just left to literally bounce around inside the box for the entire trip! First time it happened, I was quite surprised... 🤣- I shouldn't have been.

In self-defense I began checking sellers other items and if it looked like they were just selling random items, I would specifically ask that extra care be taken in preparing items for shipment- even suggesting "safe" packaging examples and offering to pay extra if needed.

Sometimes an item is an under priced "bargain" simply because the seller doesn't know any better- guess I should have anticipated and not been surprised when they didn't know any better than to just package it any old way at all and toss it in the mail? As "bargain hunters" we run the risk of heart break if we aren't pro-active. 😀

I had this crap happen to me a few times, will never forget when I bought some solar cells on eBay only for them to arrive packed in a box full of what looked to be a rats nest. The envelope is infamous -_- Had a few graphics cards that came wrapped up in paper to cardboard ect. Newegg nearly screwed me on a few new hard drives when they left them to bounce around inside a large box with no packing material. 😮

borgie83 wrote:

I ask the seller every time to ensure my item is packed in a box and not a protective bag/envelope to prevent any damage to my items. I put this request in the PayPal add message section and also contact the seller directly to ensure he/she gets my request. Ever since I've been doing this I haven't received 1 damaged item.

THIS! ^^

PS: but that still does not always help, when the packer does not consider gravity and weight of item.

Got a huge box with a costly motherboard, seemingly well packed. But the pcb had nearly broken off a corner(!), due to it having no vertical constraints, while sandwiched between thick layers of padding top/bottom... hence only the thin box wall between the board edge/corner and outer world.

(must have landed on that very corner during all the tossing the tossers (pun!) do during transport)