STOLEN PT-6

[Pakins51]

A few weeks ago I had a Lacquered Rotary valve B&S PT-6 stolen out of its case while being shipped with greyhound. The Serial Number is 380213. It started in Dayton Ohio and went to, El Paso Texas, Richmond VA, Atlanta, and then finally to Savannah Ga. Please let me know if you might possibly know anything!

[ParLawGod]

I put a "sticky" on this topic. I hope the tuba community is able to help you locate the horn.

[bisontuba]

That is it! Having had a 6/4 BBb in hard case 'lost'/stolen over a year ago and now a 5/4 PT-6 taken out of its case and 'stolen'...that, sadly, is the end of using the Dog....I am so sorry for you
Fingers crossed....contact Greyhound at their headquarters in Dallas and have one of their 'tracers' check all possible stops.
Good luck!
Mark

[bisontuba]

PM sent also for help assistance...

[MikeMason]

I’ve used greyhound’s maybe 8 times over the last 20 years with great results, but I think the time for “meet half way and pay in cash” has come. The money saved on PayPal transaction fee,shipping, and damage repairs will mostly off set other costs.

[bloke]

Yes to all…
…and the truck line (seemingly, the “sensible yet expensive“ way to ship) forklift drivers are really taking chances in depots – not only with merchandise – but with others lives, and I’ve witnessed this multiple times.
With an important enough sale or purchase, I would probably be willing to drive as far as western Kansas to meet someone from “out west”.
All of this orchestrated stuff - over the past couple of years, and only the naïve believe that we have seen the last of it - has not only messed up all of our systems, but has also affected civility and care in the workforce. Those who show up for work now believe they are doing everyone else a favor or something…
…and thievery: This (particularly with theft crimes now being mostly ignored, as serious assaults and murders are overwhelming the constabulary - who don’t even have the money to fill up their gas tanks to investigate the violent crimes) is just going to continue to escalate as well.
There’s a book - written and published fifty years ago - with a red cover that outlines all of this as an actual plan, but I’m not allowed to refer to that book, here.

[Sousaswag]

So sorry to hear this. I hope it turns up. Echoing what has been said, don’t use Greyhound anymore… Just drive for those expensive things. Make a trip out of it, do something. We can’t keep risking $X,XXX tubas with shipping. Be as annoying as possible to Greyhound at this point and don’t take “I don’t know” for an answer! I wish you the best.

[Mary Ann]

It's not all bad; I just got a tuba shipped via UPS that arrived unscathed due to proper packing. But the box also was not demolished, and packing can only protect to a certain extent no matter how well done.

As opposed to the Bombino I tried to buy a few months ago, and every single time I tried to start a conversation about how to pack it properly, the seller would simply change how he was going to ship it. After about the third round of that, he accused me of "getting aggressive" with him and said he didn't want to do business with me. I agreed whole-heartedly, and decided some people are just nuts. I've bought several things from people here (that guy was not on here, but his friend who referred me is) and never had the slightest problem with a transaction.

[bloke]

Some people will recall the Buescher helicon that I built,
For a while, it was the only C instrument that I owned, and the only C instrument that I had owned for quite some time.
It’s a wonderful and wonderfully easy instrument to play, and to play in tune. Someone wanted to buy it from me – someone specific – ever since the day I completed building it. I sold it to them just after cleaning it up and using it in that silly Hallmark movie as a prop. I packed it well, and it was going to ship it via Greyhound (this: before the weaponized virus was released on us). At that time, most still considered Greyhound to be reliable. This person didn’t want to use Greyhound, because they didn’t offer any insurance, so I shipped it via common carrier and strapped to a pallet. The truck lines forklift operator ran the tongs of the forklift down the side of the box deeply into the box, and missed the instrument by Ångströms. Of course, Greyhound has no forklifts and nothing is ever more than about two feet off the ground - which were a couple of the “attracts“ for Greyhound.
————————-
With this thread beginning to slightly become derailed…
We will all watch for a rotary PT6, and check any serial number against the one listed here, if we see one… even if it’s not advertised for sale. Those things are fairly rare, and I’m hoping that one of us finds it for you!

[ParLawGod]

It's not all bad; I just got a tuba shipped via UPS that arrived unscathed due to proper packing. But the box also was not demolished, and packing can only protect to a certain extent no matter how well done.

As opposed to the Bombino I tried to buy a few months ago, and every single time I tried to start a conversation about how to pack it properly, the seller would simply change how he was going to ship it. After about the third round of that, he accused me of "getting aggressive" with him and said he didn't want to do business with me. I agreed whole-heartedly, and decided some people are just nuts. I've bought several things from people here (that guy was not on here, but his friend who referred me is) and never had the slightest problem with a transaction.

I shipped a euphonium a few weeks back through UPS. Packaged well (by me ), and was well treated in shipping according to the buyer. But if I recall it was about $400 to ship due to size of box.

[bloke]

yikes...
I just shipped something roughly euphonium-size (domestic, but across quite a few states) for a bit over $100.

It weighed less than a euphonium, but - in that size range - weight isn't really the main factor in pricing.

to the original topic:

I hate thieves.
Were that thief caught - and given a choice between two years in jail or two punches and two kicks from a bloke...
...I would advise them to pick the two years.

[ParLawGod]

yikes...
I just shipped something roughly euphonium-size (domestic, but across quite a few states) for a bit over $100.

It weighed less than a euphonium, but - in that size range - weight isn't really the main factor in pricing.

to the original topic:

I hate thieves.
Were that thief caught - and given a choice between two years in jail or two punches and two kicks from a bloke...
...I would advise them to pick the two years.

Who did you ship through???

[bloke]

FedEx Ground (“Home delivery”)

One of the most confiscatory places is to walk into one of those “UPS Stores”.

[tindalltuba]

Will keep an eye out for your PT6.

For what it’s worth, I have shipped several tubas with great success using uship.com

You can choose your shipper. They will pick it up at your door, and deliver it and hand it to your purchaser. I’ve found that for 2-$300, you can get your tuba SAFELY across the country.

[bloke]

Damage and theft or two completely different topics.
Mr. Tindall’s use of the word “safely“ reminded me of the former, which is far more common than theft.
I don’t completely agree with some previous packing strategy recommendations made on various tuba discussion sites, but I can’t guarantee that mine would always work, because a forklift tongue running through the middle of a box overrules any strategies. (This is why I always used to use Greyhound, before they became sketchy… no conveyor belts and no forklifts.)

Here’s the thing that many do not understand:
When packing something fragile, the idea is not to make it completely immobile inside its carton, but to allow it to come to a stop in motion less suddenly than does the overall carton’s change in speed.

This is a difficult concept to convey to some, and even more – it’s a difficult concept to employ into a strategy, but the idea is for the item to come to a screeching halt burning rubber, rather than slamming against a wall at full speed.

I realize this is off topic, but nevertheless I think it’s valuable, and those who can embrace this concept and employ it in a packing job will likely suffer the least damage in shipping.

Besides a packing strategy which would allow a packed item to come to a stop less suddenly than the overall carton, it’s also important to understand which parts – structurally – of a packed item are the weakest and most likely to bend or shatter.

(I’m a slow learner, I have shipped many tubas, and it took me quite a few years to figure this out.)

[Mary Ann]

This is how motorcycle and similar helmets work. They destruct on impact, protecting the contents. I think MIT still has a contest for its engineering students to design packaging so that a raw egg can be dropped from a height and not break. I think Saabs were the first vehicle to utilize that technology to keep the inhabitants from being squashed. I was driving a Saab 95 (1972 or so) that was third in a line of five in a high speed rear-ended crash, with the five already at a halt at a light. It died, I was fine.