Your experience with damaged shipping of complete bikes is the reason I am a frame/fork only buyer and seller. I know a complete bike can be well packed to avoid damage, as I have received some packed very well that arrived with no problems. However, the last four complete bikes I received were damaged in transit.

Three were due to poor packing by the seller (handlebars and stem left to scrape the frame that was not well-protected; wheel laid against the rear chainstay with nothing to prevent the wheel from rubbing off the paint; and completely naked in the box with wheel and bars left to bang it around) and the fourth which was smashed by UPS in spite of excellent packing.

In the first three cases, I asked for adequate protection and detailed the remedy but still got what I got. In the last case, UPS destroyed the box and the bike and wheels were damaged. The seller immediately refunded my money and filed a claim with UPS. After quite a time with them, he just gave up and said the hassle of dealing with them, the time it took, and the aggravation wasn't worth going on with the claim. I didn't want him to get stuck with the loss as he was so good to send my money back and the damage was from no fault of his, so I parted the bike out (with full pics and description) and split the net loss with him.

I am sometimes tempted when I see a nice complete bike on eBay or another internet forum, but if it has to be shipped I will not buy.