Jack Baruth has a photo of a guitar he bought on eBay in its shipping container, which is a box with some peanuts that could not accommodate the guitar properly.
About fifteen years ago, I was embarking on my video game collecting bit (and by video games, I mean the full size arcade games, not just consoles and electronic games). I got my first two from eBay: A Thunderblade (which featured a suicide battery that has committed seppuku in the intervening fifteen years) and a bartop Trivia Whiz IV.
The Thunderblade came crated and strapped down, shipped via a freight service that required me to get a friend with a pickup truck and a strong back to pick it up at the airport. It was a professional job.
The Trivia Whiz, on the other hand….
It was shipped UPS heavyweight. In a cardboard box. With some bubblewrap pressed against the glass and wrapped with pallet wrap and a half box full of peanuts that had settled, of course.
It arrived with the whole heavy wood case akilter, especially the glass and framed front with the controls and glass that covered the monitor. I complained to the seller, who suggested that I take it up with UPS. I didn’t bother because the fault lie not in the shipping but the packing.
I did my best to straighten the case out, but it’s still a little wonky.
And it’s still cluttering one of my desks in my office. I should try it out one of these days to see if it still works.
Those were the only two games I bought off of eBay; the others I got at in person auctions. Video games are one of those things I’m wary of ordering online.
(Not that I’m planning to do that any time soon, honey. Although our youngest son has informed me there’s a spot of room in the office in front of the filing cabinet. I don’t need to open those drawers as much as I need another video game in my office.)
