Well I have been eagerly awaiting a sword purchase of mine - the price of which, at least for me - was quite a stretch (>$2000). So you can imagine my heart palpitations when I got the call that my box was here but Mr Brown needed to talk to me........ as you can see the box the sword was in, arrived , well, it was quite beat up. the following picture doesn't even do it justice - all of the interior packing was out, there were multiple punctures through the cardboard, box was flattened, and a large breach/flap existed on half of the box. It actually looks like the contents had fallen out and been put back in and retaped. the UPS guy already had the paperwork for "damaged shipment" ready for me by the time i got to the front of the office.

Now for the good news..................

The person who shipped me the sword, our fellow forumite Mr Vay Duong, had the foresight to package the sword in a gun case. Because of this, the sword arrived in a safe condition. Otherwise I shudder to think what would have happened, and also how dangerous this could have been for the UPS folks handling this box as well.

tr

ps now that i am staring some more at this box i also see what looks like rubber tire marks on it. :evil:

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Thom,

Sounds like Mr Duong did you a solid, mate. Without that gun case, things could've been tragically worse. Everything happens for a reason, tho, and it looks as if your sword was shipped with a guardian angel to supervise the shipping.

Christian

We have swapped some swords teh past two years and I can positively state that Vay is a totally stand up guy!

Ouch. I had the same problem after I ordered an antique M1881 Russian Shashka. The box was completely destroyed! Not only were there puncture marks, but is was also flattened! It looked like someone sat on top of it for a period of time. I was, like you, lucky. The seller had either had this problem with overseas shipping before, or had enough sense to see this coming. He cut a large (very large) piece of hard styrofoam in half and cut out the shape of the sword in each piece. He then put the sword between the two and covered the entire thing with tape. Needless to say, the sword arrived in perfect condition (or at least perfect condition for an antique). I am now requesting that all those who sell too me MUST protect the sword inside the box.

So much for "Handle with care" :(
Glad to hear everything worked out,
Dan

Wow, I heard horror stories about UPS, but this goes beyond that.

On a positive note, Vay Duong rocks. :)

I've had several dealings with him and he is always going above and beyond.

I'm glad your sword arrived undamaged. I bought the other one he was selling, due here tommorrow. I hope the box fares better than yours! :)

Problem was probably the "fragile" tape on the package. ;)

Vay is very cool. I've bought a couple swords from him too. I feel bad that he's had to part with a lot of his collection. I'm guessing that you bought his Svante? I'm glad you bought it and saved me the temptation. How about a few pics?
About a year ago I bought a Crecy from a forum member. It was shipped with the Postal Service. A week went buy and it didn't show up. It turned out that the sword punctured the box and sliced up a postal employee. It also got a bent tip in the process. It was returned to sender. He ended up shipping it to me in a rifle case by UPS. I guess if you don't have the original Albion box it's worth the extra money to ship in a gun case for peace of mind at least.

Thankfully I've never had a problem with swords or daggers being damaged during shipping, but I do feel that I should add something to this topic. Although we all love our swords and feel that they are very valuable to us, we should also think of the postal/shipping workers who handle them. Without wanting to sound too soppy, I'm more concerned about an innocent man working to feed his family, getting stabbed by a poorly packaged instrument of death, than I am about my replaceable toys being bent or scratched. Of course we could argue that with "FRAGILE" or "HANDLE WITH CARE" tape wrapped around it, the worker in question should have been more careful, but I don't think I'm alone in having been careless, overly tired or just plain unlucky at work (and no, I don't work for a freight company :D)

I would assume that most manufacturers or retailers would take care in packaging their wares appropriately but I think that this is an issue that must be taken seriously. The last thing that any of us needs is for our governments to ban sword imports based on a danger to those workers who may well be unaware that what they are handling is potentially dangerous.

I'm sorry to find the humor in this Thom,

But that picture is just hilarious! With the "FRAGILE" tape on both ends that's just rich!

I can only say this because your sword was fine :eek: :eek: :wtf: :lol:

Jeremy

Well my Ritter just got here, with the same fragile tape Vay used on the other box, no damage at all. Maybe it's a regional thing.

Sword is terrific, btw. Exactly as Vay described.