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Thread: eBay shipping by non brass sellers

  1. #1

    eBay shipping by non brass sellers

    Just curious how many of you have purchased a horn from a "non musician" on eBay. How did they do on shipping? Was the horn damaged upon arrival? Big fear of getting a torn up horn. Would like to hear about your experiences.
    John 3:16


    Conn Victor 5H Trombone
    Yamaha 354 Trombone
    Conn 15I Euphonium

  2. #2
    Join Date
    Dec 2011
    Location
    Central North Carolina
    Posts
    2,368
    About six or seven years ago I bought my Amati euph on eBay from someone in Bulgaria. They shipped it, wrapped pretty thoroughly in bubble wrap, in a cardboard box with packing peanuts added. It must have come to the US by air freight of some sort, but I don't remember the details. I THINK it arrived at my door by UPS (though it may have been DHL). There was NO damage to the instrument from shipping.

    The only problem with the packing was that some of the plastic peanuts had migrated into the bell, and thence downward into the narrower tubing. But application of water from a garden hose was effective in dislodging them.

    From other stories I've heard, your experience will depend largely on the care and effort taken by the shipper. If I were to ship a low brass instrument, I'd do it via the "box within a box" method, and make sure it was as protected as possible from various kinds of shocks -- which means preventing it from shifting within its packing. There are various techniques to at least attempt to accomplish this. If I were to ship a tuba, I'd probably make a crate for it.

    Many years ago, when I ordered a Cerveny tuba from WW&BW, it arrived in a wooden crate that I picked up at a nearby truck freight depot. The crate had warnings on it about "this side up". Somewhat against my better judgement, I put it in the back of my pickup in that orientation -- which was fairly stable but subject to wind buffetting.

    About two miles from home, as I'm cruising up the highway, a large semi goes by me FAST in the opposite lane/direction. I think "Oh, crap." Woosh!! I look back to see my new tuba sucked up and out of the pickup bed, do a perfect 180-degree rotation in the air, and smack down in the middle of the lane behind me from a height of at least 4 feet. In a gymnastics competition you'd give it at least a 9.0 on form alone. Luckily no one was following me.

    I retrieved the tuba, laid it in the bed (this time on its LONG side), and went the rest of the way home. I expected to open the crate to find a really nice Czech tuba with a crushed bell or worse. I opened the crate and found ... drum roll ... EXCELSIOR ... Hadn't seen any of that for decades. It was so thickly packed that it formed an impenetrable wall around the instrument. Old world packmanship.

    I pulled (with some effort and some tools) the excelsior free and extracted the tuba in its plastic bag. Nothing damaged. NOTHING!!

    So you CAN actually pack these things to avoid damage. Just a matter of time and effort.
    Gary Merrill
    Wessex EEb Bass tuba (DW 3XL or 2XL)
    Mack Brass Compensating Euph (DE N106, Euph J, J9 euph)
    Amati Oval Euph (DE 104, Euph J, J6 euph)
    1924 Buescher 3-valve Eb tuba (with std US receiver), Kelly 25
    Schiller American Heritage 7B clone bass trombone (DE LB K/K10/112/14 Lexan, Brass Ark MV50R)
    1947 Olds "Standard" trombone (Olds #3)

  3. #3
    Thanks Gary. I agree completely about the "box within the box" concept. Unfortunately I wouldn't have control over how the horn is shipped. My concern with the non-musician would be poor packing and then dealing with the headaches of return or repair.

    Glad your Cerveny was ok! Whew......that would get the heart rate going!
    John 3:16


    Conn Victor 5H Trombone
    Yamaha 354 Trombone
    Conn 15I Euphonium

  4. #4
    Join Date
    Jan 2006
    Location
    West Palm Beach, FL
    Posts
    3,853
    I have the same concern with buying an instrument from a non-musician. There are so many nightmares about damaged instruments during shipping. I would much prefer in traveling several hours to pick it up in person.

    Gary’s description about packing is very good. In case someone reading this thread is planning on shipping an instrument here’s a link to a great post by professional tubist Norm Pearson over on tubenet. There’s good pictures too:

    Packing a tuba for shipping (lots of pictures):
    http://forums.chisham.com/viewtopic....=31654#p277419
    Rick Floyd
    Miraphone 5050 - Warburton BJ / RF mpc
    YEP-641S (recently sold)
    Doug Elliott - 102 rim; I-cup; I-9 shank


    "Always play with a good tone, never louder than lovely, never softer than supported." - author unknown.
    Symphonic Band of the Palm Beaches
    El Cumbanchero (Raphael Hernandez, arr. Naohiro Iwai)
    Chorale and Shaker Dance
    (John Zdechlik)

  5. A few years ago, I helped a friend transport home a tuba that was shipped via bus. He had a very small car and we also took my SUV. The cardboard box was huge and too big even for my vehicle so we began unpacking the box in the parking lot. People around us must have thought we were crazy we were laughing so much. The tuba was packed box within a box and the seller had used new in the plastic bag bed pillows as packing materials. There were close to 2 dozen pillows in all. I ended up with a bunch because after stuffing the tuba in its gig bag into his car, he did not have room for all of the pillows. We were offering them to random strangers getting on the bus just to not throw them away.

    Oh yes, the tuba was completely damage free despite the outer box being a little dinged up.
    Weril H980 euph
    Besson 4v comp euph 314xxx
    Besson 3v comp euph 455xxx
    King 3v bari. 20xxx
    King 4v double-bell euph 50xxx
    Conn 5v double-bell euph 355xxx
    Buescher 3+1 double-bell euph 285xxx
    Olds bell-front 3v bari
    Holton alto horn
    Holton 3v tuba
    Belleville Helicon
    Some of the performances of the Mid-Shore Community Band:
    http://www.youtube.com/results?searc...ty%20band&sm=3

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