- KatLondon
- Key Master
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- From: London
- Registered: 11-10-2014
- Posts: 995
Re: Another machine destroyed in the post
Oops, no edit function! I meant to say, what are the other issues? No way should you assume it will all be fine. It was more than jostling - sounds like it's been dropped - or tossed.
- Uwe
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- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,410
Re: Another machine destroyed in the post
Typewriterlv wrote:
It came damaged and it had the shortest distance to ship.
The distance something is shipped doesn't necessarily relate to its risk of being damaged. There's no difference in the amount of handling a machine will have to endure if it sits on a plane for 10 hours compared to 1 hour. And because of how shipping hubs work, you'd be surprised at how much even a local package has to go through before it arrives at your door. A typewriter that's sent to you from across town can face the exact same risks if the last person delivering it likes to throw boxes around.
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
- KatLondon
- Key Master
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- From: London
- Registered: 11-10-2014
- Posts: 995
Re: Another machine destroyed in the post
There's a shop I like to look at typewriters in locally. The guy in there told me a terrible story that still gives me almost a physical pain just to think about. His father, an antique dealer, bought a rare Delft tile that he had been wanting for years to find one of at the right price. He was really excited and had the conversation about shipping... he is a guy who basically ships glassware for a living, so he knows what's what. Well, the tile made it all the way to the guy's father's house, and then he heard the posman drop the post through the letter box - and he heard his tile break as it hit the front hall floor. It had been sent, unwrapped, in a padded envelope.
- Typewriterlv
- Platen Punisher
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- From: Los Angeles, CA
- Registered: 25-9-2015
- Posts: 90
Re: Another machine destroyed in the post
It came damaged and it had the shortest distance to ship.
The distance something is shipped doesn't necessarily relate to its risk of being damaged. There's no difference in the amount of handling a machine will have to endure if it sits on a plane for 10 hours compared to 1 hour. And because of how shipping hubs work, you'd be surprised at how much even a local package has to go through before it arrives at your door. A typewriter that's sent to you from across town can face the exact same risks if the last person delivering it likes to throw boxes around.
you are absolutely right. the first two packages came from one country and 2 states away and they arrived perfectly fine.
the good thing is, we reached reached an amicable resolution. i didn't have to ship it back and the seller wasn't out the whole amount. he was really apologetic about the whole thing and because we worked it out, the details about the machine probably doesn't matter anymore.
- ztyper
- Key Master
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- From: Somewhere in New Jersey
- Registered: 01-10-2014
- Posts: 773
Re: Another machine destroyed in the post
Well I'm glad everything work itself out. Compared to some of the other stories in this thread, you got extremely lucky!
A high schooler with a lot of typewriters. That's pretty much about it.
- Typewriterlv
- Platen Punisher
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- From: Los Angeles, CA
- Registered: 25-9-2015
- Posts: 90
Re: Another machine destroyed in the post
Well I'm glad everything work itself out. Compared to some of the other stories in this thread, you got extremely lucky!
i think so too but if anyone has a spare sage green platen knob for an Olympia SM, please let me know. I'd love to buy it. 
- Valiant
- Touch Typist
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- From: Toronto
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 153
Re: Another machine destroyed in the post
There's a shop I like to look at typewriters in locally. The guy in there told me a terrible story....
Kat: inspiration for an O Henry story here, I think.....
"Now is the time for all good men to come to the aid of the typewriter."
- KatLondon
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- From: London
- Registered: 11-10-2014
- Posts: 995
Re: Another machine destroyed in the post
Yes, it's exactly that! On the other hand, that's why I can't read O Henry. ;)
- Repartee
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- From: Brooklyn
- Registered: 12-10-2015
- Posts: 683
Re: Another machine destroyed in the post
After going back to the beginning of this long thread, I see my minor experiences in this line are... well... minor. I can only hope the foolish woman who removed all her husband's packing material in order to save on postage was made to pay for her sins - by taking back the typewriter at a total loss. How is that for savings?
On a more general note, I've bought a number of irreplaceable items on eBay that had survived into old age in good condition - before they passed through the negligent hands of a thoughtless seller. Like a 100 year old lead based printing block with an intricate pattern, showing in the photos no more than normal "age related wear"... until it was shipped loose in a small padded envelope. Who could have thought that a heavy soft object might have been easily damaged? There are excellent, careful, thoughtful people selling out there - and then there are those to whom the objects only represent an opportunity for short term gain. Not curators of the past but the moral equivalent of key-choppers.
But I digress.
"Damn the torpedoes! Four bells, Captain Drayton".
- Uwe
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- From: Toronto, Canada
- Registered: 12-3-2013
- Posts: 4,410
Re: Another machine destroyed in the post
Kat: inspiration for an O Henry story here, I think.....
I've always enjoyed the nuts that you find inside an O Henry...
The pronoun I has always been capitalized in the English language for more than 700 years.
