AAAARRRGGHHH!!! Inexperienced Ebay Sellers

[12pups]

Mine was a meerschaum that the guy sent in one of those envelopes with the bubble wrap inside. I had taken him to be somewhat experienced. Wrong. I saw the package and cringed. The bowl was mostly intact, except for some big pieces. The stem had been left on, so it shattered the shank. Some big pieces, a stem and a bunch of little white gravel.
Got my money back. Can't get reimbursed for disappointment, anxiety if I'd get my money back or not, and the time wasted.

 

[mcitinner1]

I was lucky. I received a pipe in a proper Priority Mail box and that's all that was in it, no padding at all. The pipe banged around all bare for 4 days, and it was undamaged. Mostly

 

[snagstangl]

Got an strait sav. Estella, for $15 shipped. Tennon not broken in pictures. But the padded envelope they sent it in didnt do much and the tennon was broken off . I just super glued the tennon and stem back together with a decent coat of olive oil in the shank to make sure it wont stick and break again.

 

[ssjones]

A few years ago, author Rick Newcombe had a blog entry on shipping pipes. He advocated not removing the stem, which created quite a dust-up from the various camps. In his defense, he ships internationally a lot, which has a longer transit time. I think it is safer to remove the stem, as you discovered.