Much has been said and re-said in recent postings about piano roll
boxes.  As a manufacturer of player piano rolls I am well acquainted
as to the ins and outs of buying, shipping, and other complexities
surrounding the subject.

When I purchased Custom Music Rolls from the Tonnesens there was no
shortage of boxes that came with the deal.  Most of the small ones were
immediately used up by my operation.  I needed another supply as the
former supplier had gone out of business.  Yes, I know, they were
bought out by someone.  More on that later.

Anything connected with music roll production carries with it the
number "one thousand".  Most suppliers will not even talk to you
unless you want a thousand or more.  Failing that, the "set up" fee
for manufacturing drives the price up on quantities less than 1,000.

When those of us involved in the manufacture of music rolls needed
boxes a while back, Bob Billings of Sierra Music Rolls found a
manufacturer in North Carolina that was most happy to provide high
quality (emphasis on quality) boxes at a cost of USD 0.88 cents each.
That price was FOB the factory, of course.

The company that produced the high quality boxes for us was Caraustar
and the plant that produces them is in Burlington, North Carolina.
On their web site look for "Rigid Set Up Boxes" as they are a very
large company with manufacturing facilities in different locations.
Johnny Coffee is the representative I dealt with and you can try the
telephone number I have, 1-336-226-1616, or send email to him at
johnny.coffee@caraustar.com.geentroep [delete ".geentroep" to reply].

Google the company; they make a _lot_ of different things.  The boxes I
got were of the highest quality.  I cannot remember how many boxes out
of the thousand that I ordered but the Fed-Ex freight charges were in
excess of $300!  When you do the math you can see that if I got 300
boxes, the price jumped up significantly from the 88 cents apiece.

In the meantime, I placed an order with a supplier I will call "Brand
X".  They wanted $1.20 for each box.  I ordered 1,000 which was the
minimum.  I furnished them with a purchase order spelling out the specs
for the boxes as well as how they were to be shipped: motor freight.

Motor freight companies do not like to deliver to a location that does
not have a loading dock and will nick you an extra $125 if they must
use a truck with an hydraulic lift.  As a consequence, I have all my
shipments "held" at the freight terminal and take my truck and pick
them up myself.

Imagine my surprise when the boxes arrived and the freight charges were
$731.26!  The factory had used the wrong freight classification code on
the bill of lading and I was paying freight on "piano parts" -- one of
the most expensive classes of freight.  The nightmare was only
beginning.

The only specifications on the purchase order that the supplier adhered
to was they furnished a box.  All other instructions were ignored.
When I opened the shipping cartons, the boxes were of a very inferior
quality: the sides of the top were splayed out and no collector would
want them as they would not sit on a shelf close together.

When I complained to the factory, their only comment was that I could
somehow "make them work".  Fortunately I had paid for the boxes with
a company credit card and I filed a dispute and got my money back.
The ball was now in their court.

In the meantime I had a legitimate freight bill to pay that was more
than double what it should have been.  Fortunately the carrier I use
(Conway Freight) helped me in the matter and I got the charges reduced
to $325.77, which added 32.5 cents to the cost of each box.

Be aware that FedEx has different shipping rates and their "Home" rate
is more expensive than if the shipment goes to a business.  Cartons
full of empty boxes take up a lot of space, and FedEx calculates the
freight according to the size or volume of the shipping box as well as
the weight.

Be careful who you buy from unless you want the box you put the roll
in to cost more than the product that is placed in it!

Ed Gaida - still preserving music by punching holes in paper!
San Antonio, Texas