Quote:
Originally Posted by RetroHacker
Yeah, a padded envelope wouldn't adequately protect even a 7 pin tube if it were run through any kind of automated sorting equipment. You'd receive a padded mailer full of glass dust and tiny metal bits.
-Ian
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I didn't consider the automated systems the post offices use these days, but you're right. Anything containing or constructed of glass, be it a vacuum tube or anything else, will be smashed going through those automated sorters. However, I have medications delivered to me from a pharmacy through the mail and they almost always arrive in my mailbox unscathed. The only time anything ever went awry with this system for me so far was once when the pharmacy goofed on my ZIP code. Other than that, it's been very reliable. Of course, the pills are in plastic bottles, not glass, so they can withstand going through the post office sorting gear without so much as a scratch.
There is one advantage to using an oversized box to ship a very small item: I can and do reuse the boxes for storage, once I throw out the bubble wrap and packing peanuts.
UPS can be very rough on packages, as has been mentioned here (for example, last night I related an incident with a rather large radio that was sent to me via UPS from Arizona and arrived at my apartment with two loose potentiometers under the chassis). United Parcel Smashers, though? I remember AK member Nolan Woodbury telling the story in the Antique Radio forum some time ago of how a radio he had won in an ebay auction arrived at his home irreparably smashed, so these things do happen. However, if smashed parcels were a real problem (read a higher percentage of ruined/mutilated packages than those safely delivered), I'm sure UPS would be out of business by now.