ImacG3 shipping recommendations?

[Certificate of Excellence]

I've got a couple clean imacg3s going out and am curious if anyone has any experience in and thoughts on:

Packing materials
Shipper
Rate tier

Neither machine has their orginal box or foam inserts, so was thinking about a thick cardboard box, high density foam on all sides tightly, packed CRT down. Any concerns on pacing CRT down? Perhaps I should be using something more rigid llke 2" styroam on the weight/load bearing bottom? Additionally, this topic seems like a good resource thread topic to help minimize broken macs in transit. You dont hear much about A+pack jobs but you sure hear about the damaging abuse LTL carriers put vintage macs in transit through.

 

[stealer0517]

I was watching a video the other day where someone mentioned that shipping CRTs with the glass down is typically the best.
Plastic is most likely to break at the mounts, and the sheering force of dropping it with the machine upright is much harsher than the pressing force of the CRT on the mounts.
I'd just make sure you put a LOT of both hard and soft packing material under the glass if you ship it that way.

Other than that I can't provide too much more insight on shipping a tube.
Good luck!

 

[68k]

If you have to transport a CRT in a truck or van, face down is the way to go. However, there's no guarantee it will stay that way once it goes through a mail center. You should generally assume it will be dropped from every possible angle and package it in at least two layers. The best way I've seen it done was an inner box cradling the CRT in dense foam, and an outer box filled with 5+ inches of bubble wrap and packing peanuts to provide cushioning. I don't recommend using the original box even if you have it because often the styrofoam becomes brittle and useless with age.

 

[Certificate of Excellence]

Good info, thanks! So I will look at double boxing and fast shipping options. Thanks again.

 

[neverendingsigh]

A bit of a necro, but hopefully someone can learn from my eBay (mis)adventures. I've bought four Kiheis in the last four months or so with varying levels of success. All of these were packed bottom down (i.e. not front down as talked about earlier in thread).

#1 came double-boxed, but maybe a little under-padded. The bottom shell had popped out, but was fine once re-installed.

#2 came in a single box, but was packed by the seller's FedEx store. They used those expanding foam packets to fully surround the iMac. I think this had the best outcome of all, so double-boxing in addition to this tactic would further ensure safe shipping.

#3 was the worst of all. The seller claimed in their listing that they knew how much padding to use. Maybe they had someone else pack it for them, because it arrived with a couple thin layers of bubble wrap, a couple fistfuls of peanuts, and bubble-wrapped peripherals doing the rest of the void fill. The bottom CRT mounts were absolutely pulverized; no surprise given the lack of attention to the bottom. Somehow, the external plastics arrived unharmed (and still in the best condition of all of these).

#4 came in a single box with a boatload of soft void fill that performed surprisingly well. Unfortunately, there was still some compression on the bottom, and this may have contributed to damaging the bottom CRT mounts. (At least they weren't obliterated like #3's.) The top shell also came unclipped from the outer front bezel on the right side.

All of them experienced some degree of inner bezel damage during shipping. #4 may have damage that's externally visible, and that may have been there before shipping, but I've tried to only buy units that don't.

tl;dr Confirming the best strategy is to double-box. Wrap computer well with bubble wrap. Surround computer with expanding foam packets inside inner box. Surround inner box with 3 to 5 inches of void fill that won't collapse. Alternatively, if you value peace and sanity in your life, only buy or sell where you don't need to ship.

 

[skate323k137]

Confirming the best strategy is to double-box. Wrap computer well with bubble wrap. Surround computer with expanding foam packets inside inner box. Surround inner box with 3 to 5 inches of void fill that won't collapse. Alternatively, if you value peace and sanity in your life, only buy or sell where you don't need to ship.

This is pretty much a verse of gospel. It's always a risk trusting anybody you don't know no matter how much they say they know what they are doing.

I have had stuff arrive with incredible padding on 5/6 sides, which of course does not end well.

If you have to ship a CRT, double box. I personally go pretty H.A.M., wrap the monitor in bubble wrap, cut thick cardboard or 1st box closely around that, wrap that in more wrap, then put it with peanuts or foam in 1st box, and then an outer box with proper material between as well. Getting someone else to do that, if it's not their actual job... good luck.

 

[retr01]

Want to pack EVERY Mac well? DOUBLE BOX it!

The sender packed it well when I got my SE/30. Look at the pics and how the packaging protected the screen.