Your recent acquisitions, or what retro have you bought lately?

I'm almost convinced courier companies have destroyed more CRTs than any other means. You see this happen all the time.

Like... do you know what "fragile" means, you morons?

 

Hmm, pretty sure they don't know what that means... They throw boxes, literally.

 

makes crunchy sound when dropped?

 

Unless you are packing a CRT in it's original box and packing material, I find it hard to blame courier companies as much as people like to. They have millions of packages to deliver, and we pay them far less then we should to get the level of care people seem to be wanting. Writing fragile on boxes is pointless, the postal workers do not have time to read them or do anything other than move parcels around as quickly as possible. If that means throwing them about, then the parcel itself has to be able to withstand it. If it is too fragile to do so, then postage isn't a suitable transport method.

CRTs are just fragile as hell, and time has not been kind the plastics these are built from.

Overall however, I actually don't see any damage on the vast majority of domestic or international parcels I receive, in spite of generally insufficient packaging. Of course, I have never tried shipping a complete system or CRT via post, and would probably avoid it.

 

there's a reason CRT's shipped in enormous boxes with huge chunks of styrofoam when new.

 

Which is why I ring up courier companies, explain that I'm shipping a giant ball of flimsy plastic and glass, and ask them what I need to do specifically to make sure I can ship it with them when I don't have the original packaging from six million years ago (who keeps every enormous box for 20+ years???).

Even then, you follow the instructions, and end up with broken shit. I'm willing to pay more to prevent that. So what can we do?

 

I haven't shipped any crt's, but plenty of PeeCees and LCDs etc. Gotta say, only once did I receive a unit that had extensive damage in transit, and when all was said and done, eBay refunded me the purchase without having to ship the slightly bent powermac back to the seller.

Pretty good record so far.. but yeah.. my purple O2 had a crack in its skin, but that could have been there before shipping. Some of the sellers are dodgy as hell, Thier packaging even more so...

Elvis, I try and package the items KNOWING they will be thrown/dropped. If I can't make it work, then I won't ship it. I've gotten pretty good at boxing shit up.

When in oz, ive used in the past a courier service that just did computer stuff, and know how to handle such gear, can't remember the name, but I am sure such services still exist, although prob more expensive than Aussie post.

 

local pickup only due to size and fragility.

i mean yeah, i've only bought 1 CRT lately and I was damn sure it was going to be picked up by me in my car.

 

Yeah well that's pretty much all I've been doing of late. But it sucks if you're regional and just want a CRT.

I used to contract to a place that sold full sized arcade machines. For a while there Border Express would delivery one anywhere in Qld or NSW for $150, which was amazing. Then overnight something changed, and they just stopped doing it. That sucked.

 

Sadly, the customer support people really cannot talk to the people doing the actual transporting work to make sure your package is properly cared for. It is unrealistic to expect special treatment for any package in a high volume courier business.

I agree with power, pickup only for CRTs, especially older more valuable ones.

 

Fair enough. So what's the alternative for people who genuinely need shipping? Take a couple of days off work, jump in a car and drive it yourself?

 

In fact, working at a company that does deal with the transporting of fragile materials (glass sheets), we actually use wooden boxes and proper foam packing to handle it. And special couriers that handle these large and heavy boxes of glass.

If you packed a CRT into a solid wooden box, and correctly packed the insides with foam, then you could probably get a high sending success rate. However, this is really expensive and time consuming, and if the plastics have deteriorated, then, may still not be good enough.

 

I drove an hour and 40 mins each way to pickup up A1200.

So, maybe yes?

 

This would absolutely be an option if it was a valuable enough CRT (eg Commodore 1084S)

 

40 minutes isn't a lot. That doesn't even get me out of my city.

I'm talking about you spotting a really rare or "bucket list" item on the other side of the country. Is that worth a few days off work, fuel and motel costs to pick up?

What all of this makes me wonder is - how do people with actual real preservation needs do this? Who do museums and the like turn to, to not screw this sort of stuff up?

I used to work for a place that shipped computer equipment nationally and internationally, and why ruggedised road cases were a must, the big part of it was a good understanding with the logistics company that our stuff was valuable, and they'd get return business if they didn't screw it up. Not much of an option for a one-off transaction of course.

 

Obtain a standard sized pallet, put the item in the middle, not protruding over the edge. Shrink wrap, label "top load only" and I reckon no one will throw your CRT again. Just don't expect $20 freight.

 

We ship quite a few CRTs both standalone and all in one systems locally but mostly overseas without having any issues, pretty much anything from PETs, Lisas, the stupidly fragile Colour Classics to giant 35kg industrial displays.

Receiving on the other hand, never had one received correctly. Had everything sent to us in a craptastic condition, the best recently was a Compaq All-in-one 486 which was shipped literally sitting in a mango fruit box 'padded' on the bottom side with a flat newspaper and a garbage bag over the top. The delivery driver left a trail of plastic from his truck to our front door like breadcrumbs..

Generally when we pack, unless the CRT is in a metal case (think like the boxy security monitors) it's tube facing down with with several layers of bubblewrap to ensure that the tube and external housing share the load evenly. In between is at least 1 layer of double thick cardboard followed by more bubblewrap. Around the entire screen once wrapped several times over with bubblewrap we will fill in all the spaces either with tubed cardboard, sealed air bags, foam or styrofoam so that the device is almost suspended in the middle of the parcel but cannot budge or move any either way. I always think back to the high school experiment of dropping an egg without cracking it using bits of paper and paddle pop sticks. You've basically got to pack it like it will be literally be dropped off the back of the truck.

 

an hour and 40.

mmmm, i'm going to say i've seen some items and thought, ooh i'd love that but it's in X city - pass.

I guess to a degree i'm used to travelling to buy items. I grew up in semi-rural QLD and well nothing was close by.

I had to ride my pushie into town to buy magazines with demos of games i was too poor to buy, travelling to the nearest city just to look at games was a thing too so having to drive a couple hours to buy a thing doesn't seem like a big deal to me personally.

I also quite like driving so I can make a day of it.

 

Yep, face down on the tube is probably the best idea, the front of the tube is pretty tough and in this orientation, any bangs the bottom of the CRT experiences are less likely to be transmitted to the more fragile parts (the unsupported plastic outer casing on the back, or the neck of the CRT)

 

There's a vague, rural listing about 4hrs from me that might be a gem. I've flirted with the idea. Throw in a cheap pub room and bistro meal, and that's a bona fide getaway!

People drive to Mudgee just to drink wine.