Hi all! My first foray into evilBay turned out to be more lucrative than I anticipated, so I find myself in the position of needing to ship these two models from Oshawa to Brampton (a city about two hours drive away from me):
I may end up driving these instead, but if you were me how would you go about packing these to keep them safe in transit? I’m thinking copious amounts of bubble wrap, in different sizes.
Thanks as always,
Dennis
Hey Dennis. I just drove 7 models from Calgary to Houston. A roughly 2000 mile trip with bumps, turns, and I even had to slam my brakes on once.
I cut holes in pink insulation foam the exact size of the vehicle, then stuffed the box carefully with plastic bags. This kept the models from shifting vertically and horizontally. If I were to ship them I’d probably zip tie them to the base of the foam or box
I would not for a second trust Canada Post to ship those to the end of my street let alone to Brampton.
I second Mead’s pink foam and bag idea though. I’ve seen that suggested in other places before as well.
Thanks guys! This turned out to be a scam - my degree program in computer science turned out to be useful after all 
Sneaky, sneaky buggers on eBay these days. I’m definitely using that foam idea though.
K, now you need to give us a story. How did you get scammed shipping models to Brampton?
Oooh, long story! Hold on, I’ll take my time with this and post it as an edit. Storytime…
Sorry to hear that. I would also stick the model inside a sealed ziplock bag. That way any broken pieces stay inside the bag and can be easily be found.
I second (or third!) the use of empty plastic bags. They conform much better to model shapes, and are much softer than foam peanuts. I use them all the time for transporting built models. Also great use for recycling the shopping bags! 
Driving Styrofoam & toothpicks. Thousands of miles without issues using this method.
No idea shipping with any postal service, UPS etc.
Smart ideas guys! This is all really good to know.
Okay, so as promised to @Canmedic , I have now had my curry and done my physics so I can properly explain what happened. It’s going to be a long one, because I have this weird thing about walls of text (as all of you know by now.)
So I’ve noticed this growing problem that I have no room for new models. We’ve all probably experienced this, of course. It’s part and parcel (see what I did there?) of our hobby. And since I’m on Operation Stash Clearance to give my bank account a break, the number of finished models piling up would only grow. For a while, my solution has been to put the overflow in a display cabinet at work. In fact, I have a LAV-III TUA , TS050, and Yamato sitting in there right now. Plus, as I build new models I find that the old ones start to become less exciting (unless I did something really asinine with them, like a Canadian M551 Sheridan). So I thought to myself, “Hey! I see people selling completed models on evilBay all the time!”. So I’ve decided to start a little store on there selling tanks and cars. Perhaps even a 1:32 CF-104.
At any rate, I get everything set up, and start listing models. I’m really just guessing with the prices I’m setting my starting bids at, and I planned on just seeing what kind of view and watch counts I would get with them, then relisting at different prices. Now, cue to today, when I get a really good bid for both the Firefly and R35 scene I posted pictures of earlier. The person was even going to pay extra so I could ship them nicely-wrapped!
I figure that nobody is going to bid better (mistake no. 1) and accept the offer. I noticed the buyer’s account was made the same day, but figured that somebody was browsing around and decided to make an account to put their bid in (mistake no. 2 - seriously, there will be a lot of these).
The person asks to text me to ask some questions about the order (mistake no. 3 - eBay has a protected messaging system where they can look for scams). Okay, and it turns out they want to buy these two tanks as birthday gifts for their cousin, who lives in Brampton. “Huzzah!” I think, “a kindred spirit who also appreciates Canadian Firefly tanks.” Heck, I’d love to get something like that for a birthday. So no problem, I’ll pack it carefully, wrap the box up nicely, and ship it off. Considering how close the cities are, it shouldn’t take more than a couple days, more than enough time for somebody’s wife to intercept the package and sock it away for a special occasion.
So here’s where it gets weird - to the point even the single most gullible and naïve person on Earth starts to raise an eyebrow. The buyer asks if they can pay a couple hundred dollars more and ship raw vanilla to this address alongside the tanks. Of course not. I don’t even know where to get raw vanilla, and if we were looking to scent the tanks, wouldn’t steel wool and vinegar do a better job? So the buyer says okay, how about a prepaid Mastercard? Immediately warning lights start flashing harder than the dashboard of my Prius when I plug into it’s onboard computer and start playing around with the reverse camera. But then again, this person could be legit, just lacking the tact to simply buy the original product?
I proceed with caution, saying that I’m just shipping the models. Even still, the buyer says that’s alright. They say that they’ll pay me through PayPal, and ask for an email address their funds to. Out of caution, I send an email address that I like to keep quarantined. Basically, I’m okay with all the scammers out there knowing it, because it’s completely blocked from doing anything on any of my devices or accounts. Just to see if this person is for real or not. They say that they transferred the funds, so I check my inbox.
Question time for you all now. Do you think a multibillion dollar corporation like evilBay uses gmail.com email addresses?
It was the finest phishing email I’ve ever seen. It had the address of the sender, my email address listed exactly as it would be on a legitimate eBay/PayPal money transfer notification. It was a perfect copy of a real notification email. Save for the fact that, instead of coming from an ebay.com or paypal.com email address, it came from a gmail address. That confirmed to me that I was on the razor’s edge of downloading a virus to my computer. I immediately backed away, flagged it as phishing, reported the user on eBay, and cancelled the orders (not bad either, cause they’ve already been listed again.) Things are all squared away now, but it was a super close call.
So I suppose the reason I’m saying this is to make sure you don’t make the mistakes I make (though surely none of the people on this forum would be as gullible as I was). eBay is RIFE with scammers, and they’re getting pretty convincing. Buy from Sprue Brothers or Great Hobbies (or any other legitimate retailer, for that matter) instead.
Take care,
Dennis
Scammers work hard for YOUR money, how wise not to give them a taste. A++
Nat Geo’s Trafficked With Mariana Van Zeller (S1 E1) has a very interesting look at scamming. She visits the typical 
Jamaican scammer and almost gets her camera 
gear jacked (LOL) before heading to 
Israel where big time financial scamming is a multi- Billion dollar industry.
I advertised my O scale railroad layout for sale. I’m in Australia. I get a text asking for details about the layout etc etc etc. The layout is 20t x 2ft. The text message was sent by a mobile phone which left an area code. Yes I know mobile phones don’t have to stay home. That phones home was in New Haven USA. I text back and pointed out the freight issues. But they wanted to pay on arrival!! Er NOPE.
Was it a scam? Who knows but some of these scammers simply dont think of the obvious issues.
Keep this in mind when packing.
Classic! 
