I have bought several machines from Germany and had them sent to Australia.  One in three (apx.) are damaged en route.  The cause is always improper packaging.

My advice:
1.  Review the thread 'Another machine damaged in the post'
2.  Research and understand the correct way to package machines for transport.
3.  Be patient, and only buy from sellers who agree to package to your specifications.  Talk to them until you are assured that they will do things correctly, and drop the sale if you are not confident.
4.  Be prepared to pay for the extra packing materials and time for the seller to pack properly.
5.  EBay Germany is, compared to other places, virtually awash with great typewriters, and you have no need to deal with sellers you do not trust.  Whatever it is you are looking for, another one will be along relatively soon.
Good luck.
 

ztyper wrote:

I have no idea how to do shopping for typewriters that aren't domestic. Even Canada scared me because of the long travel distance.

I'm not following your logic. A typewriter sent from Toronto to you would travel a fraction of the distance compared to one sent from California. Domestic or international, once the travel distance is a certain length the package is going to be processed through a number of hubs and receive the same amount of handling. I'd even argue that distance has nothing to do with it: Even a typewriter sent across town by a local courier will arrive damaged if it isn't packaged correctly.
 

Greetings All

​I decided to try an alternative to the stickers and it seems to have helped. Go to Google and search for "Fragile Stickers", you'll get pages of pictures of all sorts of stickers. Select the images you like, open them is a new tab or new window. Copy the image and paste onto a word document. Print the document on card stock, cut out the images and tape to the package. Saves having to wait for the stickers to arrive in the mail. All the best,

Sky