Strangest packing materials?
jonathanb
Posts: 3,702 ✭✭✭✭✭
Folks who buy online know that sellers can pack things strangely. For example, I've had multiple things shipped to me in glass Riker cases. Oddly, every one of those arrived intact. Even so, as a piece of advice, glass is not a good packing material. Really.
Last week I received something packed in a diaper. To be fair, it was a clean diaper. But still.
What's the strangest you've received?
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I had a small token delivered last week in three inch round cardboard tube, about two feet long. I had no idea what it was until I opened it.
Found a spent Twinkie wrapper amongst the packaging in a box this week.
I got a live bug sent to me from Hawaii. I think the bug was unhappy when I flicked him into his new home (snowbank)
I got an advertisement for Great Collections packed in my last box of submissions to PCGS. No clue how that happened. Well I have a sneaky suspicion, but...
I got a Buffalo in a small priority box the packaging was modern pennies in 2x2's about 80 to them.
Bob Sr CEO Fieldtechs
I use botched PCGS submission forms crumpled up to bulk out my bubble mailers...
Also I could not believe it some years ago when PCGS was returning graded coins to submitters using FedX or UPS (sorry I can not recall which it was) packaging materials. Seemed very cheapskate-ish and probably in some gray zone of legality.
I can guess at why PCGS discontinued the practice....
A bunch of gold coins with no invoice sent to me raw shoved into the binding of a Model Railroader magazine.
Coin Rarities Online
I received a very nice green/white/yellow hand towel. Fairly new. Washed it and still use it to this day. Also receive a lot of recycled bubblers and cut up USPS Priority boxes.
At around a buck for a bubbler, I peel off my addy, shred that and reuse. It saves $$$ and keeps crap out of the garbage which there is enough of.
Later, Paul.
One that I recall was a coin that arrived from Kazakhstan inside a selfie stick box.
I tear the centerfold out of Penthouse magazine, I cut off the bottom and the top revealing the feet and the head/shoulders only and then pack it into the box. I throw out the middle.
Whilst at ANACS I gave a caller instructions on how to send something in. He was afraid it would get broken, so I said put it in a box with some popcorn, meaning styrofoam peanuts. He used real popcorn. Buttered. You could see through the submission form because of the grease!
Worst i can remember is old socks and underwear from a client. They were clean, but very very old, and used. Package was in the 300K range as well. Oh and an old Hawaiian shirt. Classy guy knew how to dress.
Mmmm. Free lunch.
Remember the triangular Priority Mail tubes? Those were awesome.
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Not really strange but I've gotten a couple of packages from a forum member that are packed with Chinese newspaper.
I think it's pretty cool.
"If I say something in the woods and my wife isn't there to hear it.....am I still wrong?"
My Washington Quarter Registry set...in progress
I've posted this one before but still ranks at the top for me. Don't even remember what was in the box for a Breast Milk Pump!
Gold coin in a condom box. Disgusting.
I've used empty plastic bottles a couple of times when I've run out of old newspapers and secondhand peanuts and bubble wrap. It may sound like a strange thing for a coin collector to do, but they were "no deposit" bottles.
Doggedly collecting coins of the Central American Republic.
Visit the Society of US Pattern Collectors at USPatterns.com.
this is a clever and fun thread. thanks everyone!!!
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Roosevelt Registry
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How about no packing material?
I bought a lot of 300 Ike’s and received them in a big plastic bag stuffed into a flimsy box. There was a huge hole in both and a few coins were lying loose on my front porch under the box.
Amazingly I still received slightly over 300.
Got an eBay order - a roll of circulated Morgans - in a small Priority box packed with shredded porno magazine pages. Not too finely shredded.
Wiped the plastic tube down with a dozen alcohol swabs and couldn't stop washing my hands.
Check out my current listings: https://ebay.com/sch/khunt/m.html?_ipg=200&_sop=12&_rdc=1
Makes you wonder what else that person may recycle.
Not coin related but when I was in college I sold an expensive Magic The Gathering card. From working summers at HJB Ltd. I understood secure shipping but resources in my dorm were greatly lacking. What did I do? I put the card into a sleeve and harder case. Then I wrapped those in half a roll of toilet paper. Then I wrapped the toilet paper ball in duct tape. Put that ball in a box which I also sealed with duct tape. The feedback on Ebay ws hilarious
Had a $20k coin sent to me in an old sock
Latin American Collection
So, it didn’t cost an arm and a leg, just a foot?
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
From a Colonel we all know??????
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
This has also happened to me, but was not a gold coin. (And others in the forum, search the magic word)
I have always wanted to try that but could never get to the empty box part.
My late wife once received an antique wrapped in shredded magazines -- not too unusual except they were all adult porn magazines.
This is not an ad!!!!!!!!!!!
just a very unique way of saying thank you. the images are an illustration to show how it was packaged.
Instead of a bubble envelope, 3 coins in small plastic flips and one piece of Merci-dark were neatly taped on to a perfectly cut out envelope size merci chocolat bubble sheet. One bubble sheet on top and one on the bottom. Plus 1 piece of chocolate, absolute super. Merci uses flexible bubble type sheets attached to thin card board to protect 2 layers of super excellent chocolate bars. ever since, these are my and my partners favorite chocolate... the best.
and the best, the envelope was just under 20 mm and did not need to be shipped as a parcel.
Strangest coin wrapping was a slab inside a glove-type pot holder.
Runner up was from a high school teacher - he packed the box with his students graded algebra tests.
Once had currency mailed to me inside of a bible, wrapped in Saran Wrap.
When I mail small boxes, I use pages out of the phone books we still get to fill the voids, about as strange as I get.
"You Suck Award" - February, 2015
Discoverer of 1919 Mercury Dime DDO - FS-101
On recent years EB purchases.
Analog Sci Fi, AARP bulletin, Playboy, Wantads.
Had to pack something and was out of bubblewrap and packing peanuts. Had a bunch of old unpopped popcorn. Popped it up in the microwave - no need for oil or anything - Instant packing materials.
I remember that thread! I was about to post a comment alerting others to it. I would never want to touch that coin.
I received two coins in a USPS priority box.... No packaging inside... the coins were taped, securely, both to the inside top of the box. Very light box... I thought it had been opened and the coins removed...Opened the box carefully... at first glance, saw nothing and thought 'suspicions confirmed'....then felt the weight of the lid and looked there.... Voila'...coins in flips, taped to the lid. Strange one...Cheers, RickO
I've had gold coins taped to the package like that way too many times. Terrible packing jobs.
Not a coin, but strangest / worst packing.
I bought a 4 speed transmission set up and an under dash air conditioning unit, fiberglass and brackets.
Box 1 was the 4 speed, cast iron case, and shifter. No packing, cheap box, with the front nose and rear tailshaft having poked out of the box. The box was leaking oil. The shifter was loose in the box, crushed by the .transmission. The front snout of the unit was broken. The FedEx driver was ticked as there was oil all over the inside of his truck. Transmissions are normally shipped in a wooden crate or specially made heavy plastic container.
Box 2 was the aluminum bell housing and cast iron flywheel. No packing. The flywheel teeth tore the inside of the bell housing apart.
Finally, Box 3, The air conditioning unit with a fiberglass case was packed in a Target lawnmower box (thin cardboard). The cast iron brackets were packed loose in the box, and smashed the unit to pieces. The condenser (looks like a radiator) was taped to the outside of the box, beat to snot.
Took pictures, filed with ebay, and they backed me up. Ebay also blocked the seller from communicating with me due to abusive, profane, and threatening messages. He blamed me and FedEx for conspiring against me, and among other things, said FedEx had destroyed all his OTHER packages. He was informed to pay FedEx to have the transmission drained and crated for return (about $200 plus shipping). and for him to pay FedEx up front to box up the other damaged / destroyed parts. He refused, and FedEx just abandoned them with me. Ebay made me 100% whole.
He is no longer a registered person on ebay.
Well that was a cunning stunt!
When I first got back into collecting... around 2001... I bought a bulk lot of IHCs (20 or so) that arrived in a tube sock...
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I imagine that those who lost coins in shipping would have gladly had the shipping materials inside to turn off potential thieves, or had "machine parts", "fragile electronics" or "scummy adult material" scrawled on the package to deter would be rip offs.
I had a piece of silver once shipped in a cordless phone box. 😂
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This thread contains some interesting packing media ideas. I can relate to some of them, and I utilize the taped coins (in flips) to the insides of mailing boxes quite regularly. And I staple padded ziplock bags to the inside of padded envelopes to this day, not unusual, just in case.
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