Barchettaman

My Jan Ullrich frame arrived today, and I though some of you might be amused to see what the seller considered acceptable packaging:



No bubblewrap anywhere. Downtube and seattube ´protected´ by thin plastic. Seatpost collar had ripped through the plastic and is scratched up.

€20 he charged me for that. Grrr.

It gets worse.
The ´autograph´ he boasted about on the top tube is, as I suspected, just a decal.
The headtube bearings are all shot so that will have to be redone.

Ah well, negative feedback it´ll have to be.

dokydoky

This whole mess was what it looked like AFTER you pulled it out of a bigger box, right?

...

Right?

...

Oh dear.

mkeller234

I feel your pain, here is the entire packing contents for my Raleigh professional from ebay. Note the 2 paper grocery bags...WTF! There was nothing in the dropouts to reinforce them either.

mkeller234

I would say that your entitled to a refund, at least some money back.... and to echo an earlier point, please tell us all of that was in a larger box

Barchettaman

No, that was exactly how the frame arrived. The frame was not enclosed in any larger box.

Gotta love some eBay sellers, eh?

Oh, and if any of you can direct me towards an easy online guide to dissembling/reassembling the front fork and headset (and bearings) I´d be really grateful. It sounds like a right old rusty bag of bolts whenever it turns.

Thanks all,
Simon

prettyshady

what do I win? 25euros shipping from around 80km's away.







edit, at least it came in a box! (this was the last ebay purchase I made)

Chris_in_Miami

That's awful! It reminds me of a purchase I made a few years ago- it came wrapped in a paper bag, which was in turn wrapped with tape. It looked like a wadded-up ball of paper with an address scrawled on it. No padding whatsoever of course, and when I complained to the seller about the damage inside, he explained that the only feedback he cared about was God's and quoted a few lines from the Bible. Aggravating.

divineAndbright

Im still waiting for the guy who covers the top tube with postage stamps and the shipping adress written on the downtube and leaves the frame outside leaning against a mail box somewhere to be picked up by the post man he next day.

sonatageek

This thread sums up my fear of buying bikes or frames via the auction site. That said, I am waiting for the arrival of a vintage mountain bike that I won last week. Waiting and a little nervous.

I can't image doing such a slipshod job of packing. I try to take my time and get everything nice an snug, and I still worry that it is going to arrive with damage.

treebound 

The seller just stuffed it in a baggie and stuck a stamp on it**********

When I sold my Raleigh Comp Carlton I wrapped all, I said "all", the tubing in pipe insulation, bubble wrapped the chainrings and derailers, turned and rotated and bubble wrapped the handlebars, zip tied spacers between the rear dropouts and front as well, shipping tape wrapped anything that looked like it could separate or come off with rough handling, bubble wrapped and cardboard surrounded the wheels, secured wheels to they wouldn't bounce around in case the box did a tumble down some stairs, and inserted extra cardboard on the inside of the sides of the box. Probably took the buyer a good solid 30-60 minutes just to unpackage it. But the bike got there intact and in the same condition as I sent it. I also had put any extra small parts into small bags and secured them to the bike close to where they were removed from with small notes stating what the small parts were for and if they required any special handling or assembly when reinstalling. Probably overkill. The next bike I sell on ebay I will just say I will deliver it to an LBS of the buyer's choosing and have the shop pack and ship it.

I once bought a rear differential/axle housing for an old Willys Jeep I had, the seller wrapped and shipped it via UPS, it was packaged better than your bike was. Yeah, your seller _needs_ some comments in his feedback rating. Neutral or Negative depends upon how he responds to your comments to him.

And check the parktool web site for rebuild instructions on your headset, they're usually pretty good with documenting that stuff. Or find the links to the Sutherland and other shop books that gets posted to the site here fairly regularly, probably overkill for your needs but very indepth if you take the time to read them. Or head down to your best local bike shop and talk to one of the better wrenches there and ask for a hands-on after hours training session in exchange for a 6pack of soda or other beverage and $10-$20 in cash. A lot of shops are in their slow season now so it's easier to get a little extra attention if you approach them in the right way.

miamijim

Be carefull with that. Shipping charges are simply to get it from point A to point B in undamaged condition.

miamijim

This may or may not be over packaged but this is a frameset I sent to China.....

At each end of the box I layered the cardboard for impact protection. Most of the time I leave the fork installed and turn it backwards. When the fork is turned backwards the headtube will make contact if the box is dropped versus the fork.

If I leave the fork installed I'll 'L' shape the end cardborad so the bottom of the box, where the fork ends rest is layered. I try for 6 to 8 layers.

What it comes down to is an hours worth of time and ~$8 of materials. How would all of you feel if $20-30 was added on top of the shipping fee?

cudak888 

Pretty good, except that the steerer, even if canted at a 45 degree angle, may be damaged by that method of fit in the box (I usually tie-wrap with some extra padding to the top of the downtube, and let the fork blades rest on the top of the padded BB). I also prefer to keep tape off of all surfaces.


^
This is not including the BB reinforcement.

Just my 2 cents.

-Kurt

miamijim

Do you charge extra for that and if so how much?

cudak888 

No charge - that's why I don't usually ship frames (and fewer complete bikes). Might add a $10 fee if I end up eBaying the '71 Continental.

All I want is for it to survive everything short of a FedEx truck driving over it (I still remember that Pinny that ended up with that fate).

-Kurt

jfmckenna

I'll vouch for Kurts shipping. Man it took me about three hours to unpack my frame (not the one above)

But anyway my god what are some people thinking. I had some one ship me a complete bike in a box, yup thats it - a box not even a single page of newspaper. One of the wheels was shot. That is pretty bad in the OP but I guess at least the mail handlers know what they are shipping

cudak888 

Someone sent a frame in a bike box with no padding a while ago, IIRC. The unbelievable bit about it is that it arrived completely intact.

-Kurt

SoreFeet

I don't think a bicycle should cost less than 50$ to ship. There is time and materials. Cutting a box, taping the box. It takes at least 45 minutes to do a good job. Removing the fork etc...I used old quick releases to secure the drops.

Time and materials should easily be a 25$ factor. Shipping a frame without fork is so much easier to deal with.

miamijim

I remember that!!! It was a bare frameset that was sent from Italy!!!!

CV-6 

I received my Carre track frame wrapped in plastic and nothing else. It was bouncing around in the box. Fortunately no damage.

miamijim

It costs more to ship a frameset than it does a complete bike. Figure that one out!!!

I charge a flat rate of $75 to ship my ebay bikes. I usualy make $25-35 profit on the shipping which covers my ebay/paypal fees, packaging materials and some of my time.

dbarnblatt@usa.

The materials, with a box, look costly! I have three frames I want to sell and I am still reluctant because I am not sure what to charge for shipping materials and shipping.

People here on this forum say that paying more than $30-$40 packaging and postage to send a frame is robbery. But I can't see charging less than that! I mean a box is $5-$6, packing materials and tape could run another $10. And postage on the frame might be $25-$35 or more with insurance and tracking... what should I charge if I decide to sell these frames?

Barchettaman

Miamijim, I think negative feedback might also be valid on the Jan Ullrich frame because:

1) it´s not an original autograph as stated in the item description, rather a decal
2) the headset needs a complete rebuild, also not stated in ID
3) €20 is considerably more than the standard frameset charge on ebay.de. In fact I only bid because the seller stated Frankfurt (where I live) as his item location, unfortunately he then said it was the OTHER Frankfurt (by the Polish border!!!)

sailorbenjamin

I just shipped my first bike on monday. I was pretty anal about it but I'm still on pins and needles hoping it gets there ok. There's so many things to go wrong and if some dumb little thing does get busted off I can't just say "bring it over, I've got one of those in the bin."

gridplan

The king of bicycle packing is IMO eBay seller bpei180 in Poland. I have yet to see a bicycle that is better packed than his. Shipping to the U.S. is reasonable, too ($70 economy, $160 air mail). I feel bad for the OP. That is shockingly inadequate protection for your frame.