I recently bought a small barrel organ from England via an eBay
auction.  In packing the organ for shipment the seller simply removed
the crank and wrapped the organ in bubble wrap.  There was no attempt
to immobilize the heavy barrel.  It sits in a sort of trough and is
held there by gravity and a pin on the right hand end through a hole
in the case.

This organ was laid on its back in a box and sent to me.  When it
arrived it was apparent that the barrel had banged around inside the
organ.  The metal keys which read the notes had gouged the barrel
in several places.  The barrel had bent two of the keys far out of
alignment and broken loose one of the stickers at the leather hinge.
The barrel pins had also shredded a small patch on the inside of the
front panel and apparently struck the panel hard enough to crack it at
its weakest point.

I think that, at the very least, the barrel should have been padded to
immobilize it in the organ, or, probably better, it should have been
wrapped and placed outside the organ for shipping.

Has anyone else had experience shipping barrel organs?  Am I wrong to
feel the packing of this organ was deficient?

David Sharpe

 [ Several MMD articles about damaged shipments are indexed at
 [ http://mmd.foxtail.com/Archives/KWIC/D/damaged.html
 [ -- Robbie