So long buying directly from Rev HQ...

[nico]

... the European Union just proposed the first nail in the coffin of online ordering records or other goods.

europa.eu/rapid/press-release_IP-16-4010_en.htm

[chungking48]

As a UK citizen, I think this provides the first advantage I have yet seen for Brexit.

[xvx]

I gave up ordering directly from RevHQ some time ago. I had an arrangement with them to get around the creditcard issue, which was nice of them but didn't work very well, shipping was terribly high even before USPS or whoever raised their prices and almost every shipment came in destroyed. Shipping from overseas is always a risky game because labels just don't learn. There are cardboard mailers available to avoid getting records fucked up by shipping, but all except maybe one or two labels use the same old shitty mailers.

[Michel]

^^^

I fully agree about the use (in general) of shitty mailers...

[geoff]

ive been using the same mailers for decades. the design really hasnt changed any. almost all of the ones i have shipped to another county have arrived fine. i think you guys are blaming the mailers when you should be placing the blame on your postal service. in fact, i just reused one of my old rev mailers to ship to europe and it arrived fine.

with that, those who hate those mailers and want better ones, would you be willing to spend $2/$3 more in shipping to get a better box?

anyone have a link to these better mailers? youve got my attention and would like to check them out please.

[Michel]

As to 7"s, no problems in my experiences. Regular boxes for 7"s do their job pretty well.

When it comes to LP's I haven't been very lucky over time as LP's shipped through mail usually arrived with damaged corners, from tiny dents to heavy creases. I don't think that has much to do with different postal services, as every postal service treats their packages like garbage.

For new records, I have arranged other methods of buying and shipping, and recieve multiple LP's double boxed when I buy these.

A lot of sellers do use the larger/wider mailers nowadays, but they are still a small minority overall. I have seen differnent kinds, but they all are larger in width or length, in order to better protect the corners of a cover. Corners less likely dent/crease when these parcels bump into/onto other packages or whatever else they get in touch with.

Here's an example, I think I bought some of these once. Cardboard filler material still redommended. I have received LP's boxed in good quality, wide mailers from the US more than once too, so I take it they are available in the US for sure.

I'm very picky, so when spending a good amount of money on LP's and shipping, I'm definitely prepared to pay extra for higher quality boxes and a bigger chance of receiving a record in the same condition as it was sent in, as opening a mailer that already shows damaging on the outside, is very disappointing... When I do a private purchase, I always ask for double packaging too when a record is rare, or valuable. Always having to ask for stronger packaging is pretty tiring though. It would be nice if quality packaging would be the standard.

These are just my own experiences. When I read your post, Geoff, you have been more lucky and don't seem to recognize this at all, haha...

[xvx]

geoff, I'm sure we are all aware it's the postal service's fault. The question is, what can be done about it. Fucking shipping is not going to change, I can guarantee that. And I'm sure that all these small labels can confirm to have gotten their fair share of emails about busted shipments, which is a lot of fun to deal with, I'm sure.
As for the better mailers, I seem to remember 6131 Records using similar mailers to the ones linked in the above post, possibly even better ones. As mentioned before shipping is already stupidly high as it is, so if I go out of my way to order something from overseas because it is some stupid limited edition I can't live without, I'll gladly pay the extra 60 cents for the mailer that gets those records to me as I would like to have them. And I'd rather pay the label for a better mailer than the shipping service for safer handling, because it's never going to happen and if it is, shipping will be through the roof.

[pkrhq]

I switched over to these for label mailorder and ebay/discogs: www.bagsunlimited.com/product/7979/album-mailer-folder-ships-1-or-2-records

They're cheap in bulk, I got 700 for $500ppd on the first batch I ordered. I've run through about 500 of them since this summer and haven't had any customer complaints yet.