In early December 2006 I saw a small diorama of Stonehenge on eBay along with two pewter items that I thought would make nice Christmas presents, there were some other figures I was not interested in included in the lot but it being the Christmas season I was sure they would find good homes. I bid and won the auction as the high bidder for a little over a dollar. As with all my winning auctions, I payed using paypal immediately on December 7th Pearl Harbor Day, and forgot about it until today, the 11th when it arrived. The seller got it out was very fast, the postmark indicates that it began its journey the very next day on the 8th.

The following photos and commentary document the results of what happened between the sending post office and my mailbox, a trip of just a little over 300 miles that took close to 5 days to conclude. Santa needs to feed his reindeer better to move the load this time of year to do better than 60 miles a day average.

In all fairness to the seller, there are several things I should point out. First we are not talking about a lot of money here, the total auction including shipping was less than $10 including shipping. I chose not to pay extra insurance even when the seller plainly warned me in the listing: "If you do not wish to purchase insurance, I will NOT give a refund for damaged items!" it was also stated that "These were souvenirs from a sister's visit to England that we just don't have room to keep and I would like to find a nice home for them!" I had hoped they would have packed them with more care. I do still plan to distribute the other items, to a few good homes where they would be appreciated.

Considering the way this shipment was packed, even if I had taken the optional insurance, it still would not have been covered due to poor packaging of fragile items. One just can not pack plastic items loose in newspaper with 2 pounds of pewter bouncing around inside of the box. A few sheets of crumpled newspaper was not be enough to cushion the impact very much. Had it not been a small package lost in the Christmas postal rush, it just might have made it here in better shape. The condition of the box looks like it was used as a basketball once or twice during the 5 day journey through the postal system.

Thankfully all the pieces were contained in the box, with the assistance of some super-glue I have reconstructed Stonehenge sufficiently to photograph it for inclusion in the Stonehenge Collectibles gallery, which was in fact my original purpose. Lancelot and Guinevere will not be so lucky, super-glue does not work well with pewter. Good news, the Bagpiper may yet live to adorn someones shelf again when the glue dries ...

In a final note the seller attempted to refund the entire paypal amount including shipping, which I refused. The truth being this little project, both the fixing and this write up has provided more than sufficient entertainment value to offset the small cost involved. Heck this has been more entertaining than many of the movies I have sat through in the last year, you know the ones, you get up feeling like like you just wasted 2 hours of your life you will never get back. This is a a hobby and through the skills of Lord High Fixer (a nickname from my other life) only the lecherous Lancelot and Guinevere paid the ultimate punishment for their part in the destruction of the modern Stonehenge diorama. That is unless I find a way to repair pewter... Now Thats a thought .... back to the workbench :)