Soft Plastic Red WE 500 4-55

[jsowers]

Re. squished packages: seems to me the thing to do is insure all of these shipments for a high value that reflects the total amount paid or the total amount you valued the item for per your Ebay bid, and then make the shipper pay up for damage.  Nothing is quite as convincing a way to stop misbehavior (such as using packages as wedges to prevent trucks rolling downhill) as having to pay for the damage.  Also the paperwork itself will cost the shipper added $$ in labor for admin overheads.  If everyone does this it will begin to have an impact, if nothing else, by way of insured packages getting treated more carefully. 

There's one problem I see with that scenario. In this particular case, had the phone been damaged by the PO, the entire phone would go back to the PO and they would throw it away and give you the money, which is a pretty poor substitute. I had that happen to a friend of mine. So they not only got to wound it, they got to kill it too. This isn't the case with UPS or FedEx, or at least in the past when I had it happen, they paid and didn't want the phone back. But the PO wouldn't refund until the phone was in hand.

Has anyone had an insurance claim paid out with the USPS and gotten to keep the phone? It's the reason why I always refuse insurance from the PO. I don't want to give the phone back. It can be used for parts. I totally agree with what you said about each one of these we salvage is a victory for longevity over obsolescence. It's a piece of history. It should be preserved.

[Craig T]

Excellent work there.   Every one of those that any of us salvages, is a victory for longevity over obsolescence.  Agreed about the dial gear train.  IMHO that's why they changed the dial design from the '48 to the production model: make it adjustable to take up wear over its typical 40-year lifespan. 

If I were trying to repair a crack on a soft plastic housing, I'd first clean the entire area inside & out with a soft toothbrush and just a little plain liquid dish soap & plenty of water.  Let it dry, then use krazy glue on the crack to get it to seal up.  Then (this may seem heretical but what the heck) cut out a piece of modelmaker's plastic or some similar material, or find something that would conform to the interior contours of the housing around the crack, and krazy glue that to the interior.  The point of the piece of plastic on the interior is to provide some rigid material without a crack in it, to reinforce the area where the crack is and prevent it splitting open again.  Then let everything harden up overnight, and then draw a thin line of krazy glue over the crack on the exterior, let that harden overnight, sand down to flush using 600 grit sandpaper, and buff with white compound.  The goal here being to make the crack disappear amidst the reflections of ordinary light off the buffed surface.  And of course, continue to treat that phone as inherently fragile despite the repair. 

Re. squished packages: seems to me the thing to do is insure all of these shipments for a high value that reflects the total amount paid or the total amount you valued the item for per your Ebay bid, and then make the shipper pay up for damage.  Nothing is quite as convincing a way to stop misbehavior (such as using packages as wedges to prevent trucks rolling downhill) as having to pay for the damage.  Also the paperwork itself will cost the shipper added $$ in labor for admin overheads.  If everyone does this it will begin to have an impact, if nothing else, by way of insured packages getting treated more carefully. 

Thank you GG, I will have to practice once on a beater 500 I have around here and I then I will take the leap on this red one.

Jonathan, I think they prefer people to turn in both the item and all the packing materials when making a damage claim.