I am a big fan of minimalist shipping. I like the form fitted styro pack of Pops but as Purdie said-----the packing accumulates and a lot of it is actually purchased. I have received over 700 shipments of drum related items and 99% of it is from overseas----U.S. , might as well be overseas because there is no postal ground freight from the U.S. to Canada now, anyway. About 100 of those shipments have been cymbals, from as far away as Turkey. I have never had a cymbal damaged or broken or lost; the minimalist packing has been faultless------in fact, I don't think I have ever had any drum stuff lost-----there has been a little bit of damage.
There are a lot of klutzes out there when it comes to shipping. The big problem I have, is when the shipper gets obsessed with covering their A. They want to use a huge box with mountains of styro peanuts and bubblewrap , or, sometimes the shipping is as heavy as the item and they seem to not understand that shipping is based on volumetric weight.
There is a formula attached to that. If the volume says the item should weigh 7 lbs. but it only weighs 3 lbs., then you pay for 7 lbs. All shippers need to be frugal ,otherwise they are asking their buyer to pay money for nothing---- and certainly not your expertise as a shipper.
The best way to ship a cymbal, is this. Cut two circles out of corrugated cardboard, just bigger than the cymbal. Put one on the top and one on the bottom and then wrap the seam with about three wraps of packing tape, then about 6 times across the top and around with packing tape and that package could go to Venus and back . The important thing is the volumetric weight is as low as possible and therefore the shipping is as low as possible. Shippers always need to consider their customer's pocket book. You get the money back as a seller but they don't and surplus security has no value.
