De Bruin wrote:I disagree that crumpled paper (referred to by some in the parcel industry as "bogus" paper) is inadequate for protecting the contents.
Crumpled paper might be ok for cushioning around an Atlas or scale Lionel car in its original foam cradle and box, but that's about it. If you want to destroy a Weaver RS3 then ship it cushioned in crumbled paper.
There are a couple of ebay sellers who regularly have brass up for auction. You can tell which of them pack well by how high their prices go up. Bill Davis did an amazing job of packing the few items I bought from him; you could throw one of his packed boxes out a second story window and the piece inside would probably be undamaged after the box hit the ground. (I'm not going to try, though.) Bidders seem to know Bill's stuff will arrive undamaged because they run his auctions up high all the time, such as the OMI gon he just sold for $404.95: Overland Pennsylvania Railroad G-32C Gondola C/P
There are also sellers who mostly sell Lionel and MTH that handle the occasional brass piece. Those guys will inevitably use crumbled newspaper and free Priority Mail boxes to ship.... and it shows in the prices their auctions close at. Brass buyers seem to realize that they're going to be getting a brass kit or RTR (ready to repair) project from those sellers.
