Just curious, I'm selling a Marantz receiver on ebay and I'm wondering if anyone could share advice on packing methods so that I don't damage it in shipping. I can get a box that is the right size, but protecting such a heavy thing is going to be a pain. I used to work at an electronics repair center and they had a special foam that was poured into plastic bags that expanded and fit to the shape of the receiver...but I haven't seen this technology anywhere else.
Obviously, packing peanuts and newspaper isn't going to work haha.
See if you can find 'ShockWatch'. It's a 'g' meter attached to the box. They are dirt cheap and will show if the box was dropped or otherwise exceeded the 'g' limit of the sensor. Everybody wants to sell a bunch of 'em, so I haven't found singles or just a few at a time.
Shipping peanuts will do fine or you can buy sheets of styrofoam at any art supply shop or a mail center. You'll need to double box the receiver to put as much space between any intrusions and the amplifier as possible. Wrap the receiver in a bag to prevent any stray styrofoam from entering the receiver through its ventilation holes and then place a strip of cardboard across the front and rear panels which can be the most sensitive areas for intrusion damage. If all of those layers are breached, then you have more problems than most conventional shipping containers will provide.
After you've bagged the receiver pour in your packing material, set the receiver on top and then fill around the amp. I prefer bubble wrap to peanuts for several reasons but you can decide which suits your needs. Checking with a mail center for materials might be your best choice.
Going one step further take three or four sheets of cardboard of foamcore board (either found at an art supply store) and position the amplifier on top of the board while marking the positions of the component's feet. Cut the boards to the correct size to fit your inner shipping box and then cut the four holes for the feet. Remove the component's feet and using the screws as guides buy a few new screws long enough to go through the cardboard but not long enough to go any further into the chassis than the original screws. It's important that you not buy screws which could contact anything inside the amplifier. Replace the feet with the cardboard between the feet and the underside of the component chassis. A good sized washer would also be useful between the feet and the bottom layer of cardboard. This keep the amp in place inside the shipping box and prevents the most possible damage from careless handling.
Going further still, you can build a simple wooden box and then place the cardboard shipping container inside the outer box. This really takes your shipping cost up but provides protection from nearly any type of damage short of dropping the amp from a two story building. If constructing a box is more than you cazre to do, check a local pro sound/musical instrument store to get a price on a road box meant for amplifiers. This sort of box provides the same sort of protection travelling bands will use. The inner core of these boxes will typically be an open cell foam with removable sections to custom fit your amplifier. This might be more expense than you care to incur when selling a used receiver but this is just about your best protection overall.
You can also find a replacement OEM box from the manufacturer of your component, replacement boxes normally run about $40-60. This provides the same level of protection as the manufacturer thought was appropriate for your amp.
The expandable spray foam isn't very convenient for home use. But any home improvement store will sell cans of this stuff. This sort of spray can application only really works well when it is trying to fill a gap of no more than a few inches total. You might call a local repair shop to see if they can provide you with some custom fit bags for a reasonable cost if you bring your amp to them.
Finally, who you ship with and how you ship the amp will be the most effective protection you can buy. I've had more things destroyed by UPS than any other service. Fed Ex won't take items over a certain weight and they are typically my port of last resort when I ship heavy items. I've actually had very good luck with the US Postal service. Shipping the amp "ground" will have the amp pass through many more hands and locales than shipping a more express route. If you can afford two or three day freight charges, this means the amp gets put on a single carrier and minimizes the number of places where it could be dropped or damaged.
Just to go bit further with what you mentioned about carriers. I generally stay away from UPS. The problem with UPS is that they will only your package against damage if you chose to let them package it for you (for an exorbinate fee, of course). I like the postal service since you can insure your package for whatever amount you chose. Canada Post charges 1 dollar per 100 dollars coverage, I believe.
I've never had anything arrive to a buyer damaged with Canada Post, with UPS.... not so much. Actually, way back in another life I worked as a shipper and became pretty good friends with a lot of the UPS guys. They used to call the "Fragile" stickers "Kick-Me Stickers".
These posts have been remarkably helpful. I was somewhat at a loss as to how to ship the receiver despite researching google.
I skipped out on the wooden crate as that's beyond my skill, but the double box/packing peanuts/bubble wrap/plastic bag thing was the best.
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I've had more things destroyed by UPS than any other service.
Completely agreed. And what David Mitchell said completely resonates with me as well. The way UPS treats their ground boxes is absolutely horrendous. I've had some really nice PPI PC2350 (top of the line) amps damaged through UPS, but were hardly scratched via USPS (the amps were sent in for some repair work multiple times in the same boxes, but different carriers). I have other damage stories from UPS, but the PPI amps always get to me the most.
Indeed Jan is right that it has to go through many more hands AS WELL as most (if not all, right?) travel is done on semi trucks which constantly bounce around and have the boxes sliding all over the place. Plus the price of USPS Priority Mail is equivalent to UPS Ground! What's more is UPS Ground is very slow, relatively. I've commonly had priority mail packages delivered early (within 2 days), but UPS Ground parcels typically are delivered on the VERY LAST day they could be delivered before being late (4-6 days). Rarely, if ever have I received a UPS Ground box early (and I've had 700+ transactions on ebay plus more using other online services).