So we were recently told a story that we have permission to share, but the gentleman in the story prefers we don’t use his name. We’re going to call him Wilbur, because that’s not his name, but it is the name of the pig in Charlotte’s Web, which is a very good book.
Wilbur needed to ship a guitar. He’d found the guitar for $35 at a yard sale, and sold it online for $7,200 because it was a very special guitar, signed by a famous musician who is now dead. The only problem – Wilbur needed to ship this guitar cross country, and he didn’t have a shipping box.
“This is where I was perhaps a little stupid,” Wilbur confessed. “I actually called the packing and shipping service near me to see what a guitar box would cost. And it wasn’t so much money, but I wanted to save a few bucks. So what I did was go down to the music shop and checked out their dumpster. They had the boxes all broken down, so I took one that looked like the right size, taped it back up, put the guitar in there and mailed it out.” Wilbur shook his head. “I actually felt good about this. I thought I was so smart, saving that money.”
To say WIlbur’s guitar arrived damaged is a huge understatement. “Heavy things had been stacked on top of the guitar, and the box just collapsed,” Wilbur explained. “The neck was broken. The buyer refused to even accept the shipment, that’s how bad the box was.” The sale was cancelled and Wilbur had to refund the money. “I was disappointed, of course, but the buyer was even more upset. He’d been looking forward to adding that guitar to his collection. And it’s not like the musician is around to sign any more. It was a sad situation.”
To avoid this type of experience happening again, Wilbur is committed to using his local packing and shipping service for any musical instruments he sells. “No more dumpster diving for shipping boxes for me,” he said. “It’s really not worth it.”