Do Fossils And The Mail Play Well Together?

[jbstedman]

This topic was prompted by the teeth that JimInAugusta sent me as the prize for the latest Fossil Forum contest. Though the teeth arrived in great shape (a nice variety of teeth), the Priority Mailer was a mess.

Fortunately, Jim had carefully wrapped each tooth (and the bonus vertebra -- hope he runs another contest soon). Each tooth was essentially traveling in its own cocoon. Last year, I bought a great white from a dealer and it arrived nicely bubble wrapped in a mailer, but it appeared that someone in the Post Office had decided to run a mail truck over it. (The dealer replaced the tooth with a comparable one, asking only to see a picture of the damage.)

Recently, I bought a couple of teeth from Harry Pristis which arrived in perfect shape in little plastic boxes, the kind in which he keeps many of his treasures. I assume that only a direct hit from a cruise missile would trash teeth in those boxes.

Anyway, it prompted me to wonder what sorts of disasters may have befallen members of the forum sending fossils through the mail. Plus, I'd love to hear advice on different effective ways to mail fossils.

JB

[Sharktoothguy11222]

Nothing that dramatic happened to me, but I'm still waiting for the day when a tooth arrives in the mail all smashed up, and my grandmother says "I told you so"

[Megalodon1]

It all depends on how much effort the shipper puts into packing such as extra padding (bubble wrap/newspaper/packaging peanuts). Boxes are also a whole lot safer than envelopes, and even pad packs. I have ordered hundreds of teeth, and only had two that came in damaged due to lousy packaging. It also helps a great deal if each tooth is individually wrapped up in it's own bubble wrap, or like you mentioned some type of container.

hope this helps! USPS priority mail is really good in my opinion because you get your fossils a whole lot quicker.

[jbstedman]

Nothing that dramatic happened to me, but I'm still waiting for the day when a tooth arrives in the mail all smashed up, and my grandmother says "I told you so"

My grandmother would have said, "You paid what!!!!!! for that?"

[PaleoRon]

I never use envelopes for mailing fossils, I always use boxes. The shipping is a little higher but the chances of a fossil disaster are drastically reduced. I also have the postal clerk mark the box with numerous FRAGILE stamps. For a few cents more, having the parcel insured also cuts down on the chance of damaged goods. For high dollar fossils I use my "floating box" technique. I package the fossil carefully in one box and then put that box in a larger one with additional padding between the boxes. Most of the people working at the post office are careful with packages but there are plenty who don't care what happens to your mail.

I once recieved a box of mastadon tooth fragments that had started out as two associated unerupted 5 hump teeth with full roots. It was not a pretty sight.

[Rain1950]

While not fossils, I have received quite a few mineral specs in the mail without damage. Many of these are quite fragile, but we use plastic display boxes and mount the spec in mineral tack. I've had packages arrive almost shredded and retaped by the post office (they put a tage on it to explain) but never had any damage like your tooth. You certain you haven't gotten on the bad side of your local carrier?

[Uncle Siphuncle]

Last month my whale verts and whale jaw arrived in individual boxes from VA in good shape. The box of Chesapecten showed up with 40 out of 100 broken. There were simply too many to individually wrap so they were wrapped in stacks of 6-10. Packing was the issue.

I've sold fossils and shipped them all over the country and Europe. I give the buyer the option to purchase insurance and if they decline I don't give refunds. It makes business sense for me to place the burden of safe arrival on the buyer, state it all clearly up front, and allow them to make the decision. So far no problems. I use envelopes for fossils sturdy enough to be shipped in them safely, but I still like to wrap them in stiff cardboard and tape them before placing them in the envelope. Small stuff gets tissue wrapped, placed in a 35 mm film canister, taped, and then dropped in the envelope. Bigger stuff goes in flat rate boxes also individually wrapped in cardboard etc. I often tape the cardboard wad to the inside of the box to keep it from shifting. So far no complaints.

[Harry Pristis]

This topic was prompted by the teeth that JimInAugusta sent me as the prize for the latest Fossil Forum contest. Though the teeth arrived in great shape (a nice variety of teeth), the Priority Mailer was a mess.

Fortunately, Jim had carefully wrapped each tooth (and the bonus vertebra -- hope he runs another contest soon). Each tooth was essentially traveling in its own cocoon. Last year, I bought a great white from a dealer and it arrived nicely bubble wrapped in a mailer, but it appeared that someone in the Post Office had decided to run a mail truck over it. (The dealer replaced the tooth with a comparable one, asking only to see a picture of the damage.)

Recently, I bought a couple of teeth from Harry Pristis which arrived in perfect shape in little plastic boxes, the kind in which he keeps many of his treasures. I assume that only a direct hit from a cruise missile would trash teeth in those boxes.

Anyway, it prompted me to wonder what sorts of disasters may have befallen members of the forum sending fossils through the mail. Plus, I'd love to hear advice on different effective ways to mail fossils.

JB

A cardboard box is certainly a good shipping container. I like to glue 'em on both ends for the extra rigidity that may impart. When there's room, I like to insert rectangles of styrofoam as reinforcements.

For lightweight items -- up to thirteen ounces total shipping weight -- I have learned how to eliminate four of the six walls of a cardboard carton, substituting styrofoam for those four walls. I think this would work well for most shark teeth and other small fossils.

A few of the subscribers here have already received fossils from me in a "styrofoam sandwich" -- a small slab of styrofoam with a cut-out for the fossils and covered (glued) by two pieces of thin cardboard. I put this sandwich into a bubblepack mailing envelope.

I suspect that it was this styrofoam sandwich which made JB's shark teeth near-safe from cruise missles, and NOT the styrene plastic specimen boxes.

Rigid styrofoam sheets are easy to find usually; check your local furniture store dumpster. Also common is flexi-foam wrapping in various size sheets. An eight-inch square of this foam between Dan's Chesapecten valves might have made a big difference in survival rate.

The materials are inexpensive (free!), white glue is cheap. Recycling this styro-material is a nice gesture. And, it all seems to work. Any testimonials out there?

-----Harry Pristis

[Guest Nicholas]

I have been fortunate enough to have received most of my fossils intact. I've experienced everything from thin layers of plastic barely protecting a fossil to toilet paper mummies! I tend to like my fossils wrapped in a soft material like paper towel or tissue paper before being placed in a box or shipping envelope.

[jbstedman]

I forgot the styrofoam sandwich in Harry's package. Harry's packaging was most impressive. I guess it's what you have to do to avoid breakage and ill will between buyer and seller. I like the advice about multiple layers of protection.

[Northern Sharks]

I've bought all my fossils and 98% probably have come through the mail. Knock on wood, I've never had a problem that wasn't on the tooth to begin with, but the closest call was my 5" megalodon which came from New Caledonia (near New Zealand) in a bubble envelope only. It was fine, but the envelope had started to rip and it wouldn't have taken much more for the tooth to fall out. Some of the best packing involved bubble wrapping the tooth, putting it inside an old necklace box, and putting that in another cardboard box and filled with more bubble wrap or styrofoam peanuts. Another good one was the empty metal coffee tin. That holds a meg quite nicely.

[Carl O'Cles]

Having purchased very few fossils in my early day's as stuff to let people handle(it's hands off the stuff I found unless you’re an experienced collector) I have limited experience with fossils in the mail myself. I do however have some words of advice. The first thing is to NEVER ship any kind of fossil in an envelope of any kind I don't care how sturdy it is. There are a lot of mail facilities out there that when they process mail it rolls down conveyer belts and eventually goes through a roller meaning your envelope gets sandwiched between two rollers. The rollers do give a little but there is a much higher probability of damage. Also I have spoken to several people who have had fossils damaged and even with insurance the U.S. post office has refused to pay out or paid out a fraction of what the fossil is actually worth especially if you found it because you paid nothing for it. That’s why when I bought the twenty or so fossils that I did I only bought them from dealers who were responsible for the product. Meaning no matter what happened between their shop\house to my house they would refund or replace if I did not receive the fossil as it was when I ordered it. After all it is the dealer who packs the fossil and if it breaks they did not pack it well enough so they should eat the cost of replacement not you. So the best thing you can do is ensure that you buy from a reputable dealer and its a good possibility that your fossil will arrive in tip top shape and if not they will replace or refund. If you buy from a guy on E-bay with a seller rating of 5 there is a possibility that your fossil will arrive in a crushed box filled with sparse paper shavings and fossil bits and you will receive nothing from the dealer.

[Harry Pristis]

Don't ya' just love it when guys with limited experience share it so authoritatively! LOL

[Carl O'Cles]

Don't ya' just love it when guys with limited experience share it so authoritatively! LOL

WOW those comments were truly uncalled for. I said I had limited experience shipping fossils in the mail. I do however have a lot of experience shipping computer stuff in the mail and never mind that a close friend of mine recently retired from the USPS after 35 years. Also it's pretty apparent from the pictures above that shipping in envelopes is quite hazardous to fossils. Check out the attached picture of one of my favorite fossil collecting shirts to see how I really feel

Oh i almost forgot LOL

[bone digger]

I've only had 1 bad experience with the postal destroyers!  A very very very bad one!!!  Imagine my horror when I opened up the box and found poor Prisci's tail severed    He was wraped fairly well, not the best, but they must have been really rough with the box as it was all crushed in.  With a little work I got him looking good again though!

[Harry Pristis]

I've only had 1 bad experience with the postal destroyers!  A very very very bad one!!!  Imagine my horror when I opened up the box and found poor Prisci's tail severed    He was wraped fairly well, not the best, but they must have been really rough with the box as it was all crushed in.  With a little work I got him looking good again though!

Nice work, both on the fossil and on the images, bone digger!

Vertebrate fossil repairs often don't require a lot of attention to esthetics (color blending, etc.). In fact, museums prefer that repairs be obvious so that later workers are not confused by what is restoration. (Collectors may have a somewhat different preference.) These Green River fish are certainly clear exceptions to that museum standard; esthetics are everything!

It appears that you have restored this Priscacara to its former glory -- good job!

[Gatorman]

Man good thing you are so good at restoration, I would have been so upset if that was my fish.