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Topic: Hazards of buying 78s online

31st May 2024, 8:30 PM
	Pridesale Member since Mar 2013 792 Points	I dunno, I had buyers moan at me for sleeves that got crumped at the edges (on singles and LPs). I dont know what you can do about that, the sleeve on the (triple LP) was shrinkwrapped from the factory and basically had tightened over time and in the packaging I used ( thinking about it I should have used the "flip over jacket" LP Mailers but I had run out of any accessible ) . Such LPs do wrinkle though - its a fact that sleeves are "thinner" than the discs (and I am sure company 45 sleeves were considered almost disposable by manufacturers in the 50s/60s/70s) and so you get the ring wear, edge marking , the "clariofoil" splits off , its all part of the patina and therefore one has to be carefull, something indeed may be new - and thus the disc has to be guessed at as being mint, and the sleeve for the LP I called near mint - as in it hadnt been used by ones grandchild as a colouring book ( seen that in places !) and priced below an overall "very good" alternative so It could not be said one gets what one pays for ). For shellacs (and I guess some of the styrene LPs/45s, postage (even carrying themselves on the bus I worry) I use a mix of sacrificial cheap discs, bubble wrap of assorted bubble sizes card and cardboard, but it does mean they go way over the size limits of royal mail etc. I have exported to Australia and Germany (and had a problem once in the US- the mailman couldn't fit it in the "box" at the end of the driveway and left it on the ground - the homeowner came home and ran over the box with their 4x4 car - I told them to claim on their home insurance as the postal person delivered it according to their rules. Generally, no amount of packing is going to prevent issues with postal companies putting large amounts of weight atop things or playing football with them in the sorting offices. Indeed, the issues record companies had with 78 distribution- and that was using their own fleets or dedicated contracts with the likes of what became say British Road Services - with breakages was one reason for developing the LP and 45 formats. While a question for biscuit world has anyone actually managed to find a packet of rich tea biscuits these days that have not disintegrated to lumps or dust as you file them into the biscuit barrel (I have had to swap to ginger creams which are too sugary). Edited by moderator on 9th Jun 2024, 4:46 PM