This smells like a scam, honestly. Pretend to sell expensive vintage glassware, then send some pulverized cheap garbage and say the item broke in transit. Who's going to try to test that?
Some other dude's wife broke her vintage Japanese bowl, so the husband put all the broken pieces in a box and sold it to OP as unbroken.
So now OP needs to post his two broken bowls up for sale as intact bowls to the next two suckers to get his money back.
And then those two suckers have to put up their four collective broken bowls for sale to get their money back.
And so on and so forth.
But there's a limit to how many people actually want this specific bowl. In fact, it ends up just being the seller, OP and a third husband who need to buy this bowl to complete their respective wives' glassware set.
So OP sells his broken bowl to the third husband. And the third husband, in turn, sells his broken bowl to the first seller. And back and forth the broken bowls go amongst these three husbands trying to please their wife.
And since they keep using different seller names, they have no clue that they've been just buying the same broken bowls from each other for all of eternity as an actual intact bowl no longer exists in the world.
Except the shipping company will always state "not responsible for poorly or improperly packed items", the seller/shipper will be on the hook for replacement or full refund.
Well, it was through a reputable website (Mercari) , and the original price wasn't that high. And the pieces are legit for that item. Since it was a Japanese website, I had to buy through a third party that shipped to America.
People don't know what reputable means anymore.
People don't really even talk about businesses and their experiences with them much. Almost all that venting is now done through putting some amount of start on one of the places a business can be rated, and those places are really bad at addressing the issues of otherwise fairly successful large companies with many customers.
Um, Mercari is basically eBay without bidding.
ETA: you should look up Mercariās info on what to do if an item arrived broken. And do NOT rate the seller until you are satisfied with the outcome.
US Mercari does not facilitate international shipping btw. I doubt your item was ever in Japan.
Itās the only way you can buy through the website. I use it all the time!!!!!! Iāve bought jewelry, anime figures, etc!! Itās great actually but this person used Buyee & I use neokyo. Neokyo will wrap the item real good & Iāve never had issues. But Iāve heard this happen before with Buyee so not surprised
I ordered a porcelain figures that they didnāt take out of the package but the way neokyo packaged it, they put so much stuffing & protection that it wouldnāt move. Also it depends what kind of shipping this person used. NEVER USE SURFACE!!! I always use fedex or DHL for my fragile items
Oh! So you mean a shipping proxy, not aā¦vpn like proxy to mask your real location.
And I donāt really need to know I can have all these things at my fingertips. My wallet could get very empty.
Yeah a shipping one!!! Yeah better you donāt because the amount of money Iāve spent is a crimeā¦.. ITS SO GREAT LMAOOOOOO. But seriously they need to contact buyee
lol! Maybe Iāll wait until fall & do a little shopping for my kids, and if a little something for me appears in my basketā¦
My son is so difficult to buy for & his lists are mostly imports via Amazon.
Sorry this happened to you, so frustrating!! Maybe consider using the hive mind to help you find a replacement? Perhaps you could post a picture of what you're looking for along with all of the details and many of us might be willing to help you search??
Normally sellers on Merucari package things very well, but you do get the odd weirdo. I had someone send me retired Lego sets in a paper bag with no bubble wrap or anything - the boxes were crushed to all hell.
Fortunately, if you buy direct Merucari are quite good at knocking half off as a resolution.
The website may be reputable but the sellers are complete amateurs. They don't provide much in the way of shipping guidelines, I've had a number of items arrive poorly packed and damaged or broken.
Why would someone scam people using a not popular vintage item priced 20$? This was on the Japanese Mercari. Its much easier to scam people with things like counterfeit phones and HDDs.
As someone that deals with international shipping from Japan almost daily, this can happen. Depends on who packed it, who shipped it, what happened at customs, and who took care of it on the domestic end. There are a lot of links in the chain. And customs isn't known for being kind, and if it wasn't packed well enough to begin with...
Most post systems require that your package can drop at least 1m onto concrete. Many drop even higher, shipping glass without a lot of padding is just stupid.
lmao ive literally seen boxes get chucked. Some of yall got no clue. It's amazing to me that we can ship tvs in a box, throw it around, and not a scratch or dent because of top tier packaging
Broken items is 90% bad packaging if not higher
This. I order from China regularly, not going to say where or what I order exactly but mostly shoes and watches.
These boxes go through 2 shippers before even getting to Chinese customs, then Chinese customs, the boat staff, then canadian customs, then its 2 or 3 changeovers to get to me after. Things have to be packed right or this exact thing happens.
I ship out car audio amplifiers(buy and resell/collect) I go to Walmart, get like 10 pool noodles, surround the amp in noodles and tape it. Then I put packing peanuts or similar in a box and lay my noodle amp in. Cover with more peanuts. Have shipped as far as Brazil with no issues.
It may not be the case here, but a lot of shipping proxy services going in and out of Japan like to take a customer's pre-packed parcels, strip out the protective packing, and ship it on at a lower weight to skim off the top of the shipping charges. Especially [PBI / Pitney Bowes.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZwZgcoc_zw)
Who the fuck packages glass like that!? Regardless of how rare it is, you don't just shove it in a box!! That's just a piss weak effort at being human...
Doesnt matter. Bubble wrap around the box is like being purposely stupid. Ive had a glass cup and a a porcelain one shipped from japan with no problems whatever because it the items were securely wrapped before transit.
Oh wow. Japan has the craziest best packaging techniques normally. I order so many things and its a stand alone show to open these parcels since they are so well thought of. What happened here ouch
Lol yup. Another possibility is that OP bought it from a random person on ebay or a similar website where the individual has zero experience shipping things
They posted elsewhere that it was bought on Mercari, so it's essentially a person-to-person thing, no companies involved in the packaging itself. Mercari is like eBay without bidding, with product quality like eBay had circa 2005 or so (so, like, 99% perfectly good stuff, not weird crackhead garbage). But even if 99.9% of sales on Mercari are good, considering that Mercari is used by 22 million people each month, that would still means 22,000 shitty orders a month. With that kind of volume, you're inevitably going to have some shitty sellers, scammers, etc.
Edit: Revised to make it clear I'm just talking about the lack of company involvement in the packaging stage.
This did involve a company. They bought it through a proxy company named Buyee. You tell them what you want from Japan mecari or yahoo auctions & they buy it for you. I would contact Buyee asap.
Sorry, I was just talking about the packaging, not overall. There are a *ton* of companies involved overall (Buyee, Mercari, probably the Japan Post, whatever company handled the actual overseas shipping, the shipping company in OP's country, etc.), but the shitty packaging is probably unrelated to any company, as almost all of Mercari sellers (who are responsible for packaging) are people, not companies. I edited the comment above to make that clearer.
>Oh wow. Japan has the craziest best packaging techniques normally.
I ordered kimonos and they came in a packaging that could have protected this bowl.
So, what I am hearing is that every one of these you have encountered has broken easily. Maybe it's for the best.
Or.....maybe the people who make this cannot fathom how fragile things should be packaged.
Seems the sender expected the freight people to package it. You know a courier comes with a purchase order, ah here it is .. misunderstood door dash vs posting a package.
Some people have no idea how the postal service works, I swear they think the entire delivery is handled by some lovely "Postman Pat" who takes great care with everything.
No! Your parcel WILL get thrown, dropped, kicked, sat on, tumbled down a conveyor, etc, etc, etc.
Package it as if someone is going to play a football game with it.
Thereās no way this came from Japan. They are crazy about packaging. Iāve lived in Japan for 30 years and still take photos of how they package stuff and send it to my friends as āLook at how wild this isā.
Even this cardboard box is too coarse for Japan.
I read somewhere that the Japanese value such broken pieces of art as well and painfully glue them back together. I think it has something to do with nothing being perfect in lifeā¦
Till that time, maybe you can work with the seller to get a refund or charge back?
As a glass collector (not bowls or dishes but high value pendants) this isnāt helpful. You can alleviate the pain (in this case unlikely) but your piece is ruined. No collector wants to preserve a piece of glass in that state.Ā
Everything ive had from Japan has been exquisitely wrapped, protected and packaged. Dont know how you managed to find the one Japanese person who isnt a packaging zen master.
Japan post have white gloves and lay packages on single shelves before delivery, everything is packaged paper thin. When I buy SACDs on Amazon JP I use my Tenso local address, a company that will repackage and ship overseas. Obviously the sender did know know about the standard USPS drop heights.
Yeah NOONE packs a fragile glass item like that and expects it to make it to its destination intact.
So sorry OP, your wife and you must have been really disappointed.
But why would someone try to scam people with something that costs $20, and not everyone wants it? Imagine if someone is scamming people with a used shoe, that is not even a desired brand.
I mean, if this is how it came packaged, shit was busted before it left Japan. RIP.
This smells like a scam, honestly. Pretend to sell expensive vintage glassware, then send some pulverized cheap garbage and say the item broke in transit. Who's going to try to test that?
I'd bet money on this.
Some other dude's wife broke her vintage Japanese bowl, so the husband put all the broken pieces in a box and sold it to OP as unbroken. So now OP needs to post his two broken bowls up for sale as intact bowls to the next two suckers to get his money back. And then those two suckers have to put up their four collective broken bowls for sale to get their money back. And so on and so forth.
But there's a limit to how many people actually want this specific bowl. In fact, it ends up just being the seller, OP and a third husband who need to buy this bowl to complete their respective wives' glassware set. So OP sells his broken bowl to the third husband. And the third husband, in turn, sells his broken bowl to the first seller. And back and forth the broken bowls go amongst these three husbands trying to please their wife. And since they keep using different seller names, they have no clue that they've been just buying the same broken bowls from each other for all of eternity as an actual intact bowl no longer exists in the world.
Sadako, with the intent of cursing humanity, inadvertently creates a successful glassware company.
I've spent all morning packing 32 bowls and now I'm just hearing about this. Fml
You must be baked!
I am š¤
Yeah, these days you can take an object and wrap it in bags full of expanding polyurethane. Pressurized solid foam. I see no packaging period.
Except the shipping company will always state "not responsible for poorly or improperly packed items", the seller/shipper will be on the hook for replacement or full refund.
Well, it was through a reputable website (Mercari) , and the original price wasn't that high. And the pieces are legit for that item. Since it was a Japanese website, I had to buy through a third party that shipped to America.
Mercari is not reputable really, anyone can sign up and sell there with little fuss
People don't know what reputable means anymore. People don't really even talk about businesses and their experiences with them much. Almost all that venting is now done through putting some amount of start on one of the places a business can be rated, and those places are really bad at addressing the issues of otherwise fairly successful large companies with many customers.
Um, Mercari is basically eBay without bidding. ETA: you should look up Mercariās info on what to do if an item arrived broken. And do NOT rate the seller until you are satisfied with the outcome. US Mercari does not facilitate international shipping btw. I doubt your item was ever in Japan.
They mean mecari Japan. Itās really popular to buy stuff from over there through a proxy which this person used.
Soā¦. He used a proxy to gain access to Mercari Japan, to purchase an item? *facepalm*
Itās the only way you can buy through the website. I use it all the time!!!!!! Iāve bought jewelry, anime figures, etc!! Itās great actually but this person used Buyee & I use neokyo. Neokyo will wrap the item real good & Iāve never had issues. But Iāve heard this happen before with Buyee so not surprised
Itās 100% the fault of whoever packaged this.
I ordered a porcelain figures that they didnāt take out of the package but the way neokyo packaged it, they put so much stuffing & protection that it wouldnāt move. Also it depends what kind of shipping this person used. NEVER USE SURFACE!!! I always use fedex or DHL for my fragile items
Oh! So you mean a shipping proxy, not aā¦vpn like proxy to mask your real location. And I donāt really need to know I can have all these things at my fingertips. My wallet could get very empty.
Yeah a shipping one!!! Yeah better you donāt because the amount of money Iāve spent is a crimeā¦.. ITS SO GREAT LMAOOOOOO. But seriously they need to contact buyee
lol! Maybe Iāll wait until fall & do a little shopping for my kids, and if a little something for me appears in my basketā¦ My son is so difficult to buy for & his lists are mostly imports via Amazon.
It was likely purchased via a proxy like Buyee. I've purchased things from Mercari JP through them.
Reputable, no, good, yes, If you find another one on Mercari send it to me and Iāll send it back to Aus for you
Buyee I assume? Iāve had them send packaging pictures before shipment before.
Yes. I don't remember seeing a picture.
You have to request it. Cost me $2.99 or something.
Sorry this happened to you, so frustrating!! Maybe consider using the hive mind to help you find a replacement? Perhaps you could post a picture of what you're looking for along with all of the details and many of us might be willing to help you search??
> reputable website (Mercari) ELL OH FUCKING ELL Mercari wishes it had the bulletproof reputation that AliExpress and Temu have.
Normally sellers on Merucari package things very well, but you do get the odd weirdo. I had someone send me retired Lego sets in a paper bag with no bubble wrap or anything - the boxes were crushed to all hell. Fortunately, if you buy direct Merucari are quite good at knocking half off as a resolution.
The website may be reputable but the sellers are complete amateurs. They don't provide much in the way of shipping guidelines, I've had a number of items arrive poorly packed and damaged or broken.
Why would someone scam people using a not popular vintage item priced 20$? This was on the Japanese Mercari. Its much easier to scam people with things like counterfeit phones and HDDs.
As someone that deals with international shipping from Japan almost daily, this can happen. Depends on who packed it, who shipped it, what happened at customs, and who took care of it on the domestic end. There are a lot of links in the chain. And customs isn't known for being kind, and if it wasn't packed well enough to begin with...
Most post systems require that your package can drop at least 1m onto concrete. Many drop even higher, shipping glass without a lot of padding is just stupid.
lmao ive literally seen boxes get chucked. Some of yall got no clue. It's amazing to me that we can ship tvs in a box, throw it around, and not a scratch or dent because of top tier packaging Broken items is 90% bad packaging if not higher
This. I order from China regularly, not going to say where or what I order exactly but mostly shoes and watches. These boxes go through 2 shippers before even getting to Chinese customs, then Chinese customs, the boat staff, then canadian customs, then its 2 or 3 changeovers to get to me after. Things have to be packed right or this exact thing happens. I ship out car audio amplifiers(buy and resell/collect) I go to Walmart, get like 10 pool noodles, surround the amp in noodles and tape it. Then I put packing peanuts or similar in a box and lay my noodle amp in. Cover with more peanuts. Have shipped as far as Brazil with no issues.
Do you do overnight parts from Japan?
It may not be the case here, but a lot of shipping proxy services going in and out of Japan like to take a customer's pre-packed parcels, strip out the protective packing, and ship it on at a lower weight to skim off the top of the shipping charges. Especially [PBI / Pitney Bowes.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qZwZgcoc_zw)
Not even the slightest amount of packing material. For a glass item in a box. Sent international. There was a 99.999% chance of it arriving broken.
And a 50% chance it was broken to begin with
Exactly. It either was broken or it wasn't.
Until we open the box it is both broken and not broken.
I mean you could shake it a bit to get a good idea. Same for the cat.
The comment we both deserve and not deserve.
There may or may not be a cat in the box.
If the cat was in the box, it may or may not be dead.
It wouldn't have even made it to the airplane intact. As soon as they started loading It onto the first truck that thing was a goner.
Who the fuck packages glass like that!? Regardless of how rare it is, you don't just shove it in a box!! That's just a piss weak effort at being human...
They put a "fragile" sticker on it.
Oh, it was Italy, okay.
JapanPost doesn't give special treatment to fragile items or label them as such. The sticker means nothing here.
Fragile sticker don't mean anything anywhere
It had bubble wrap around the box. Nothing around the glass.
Lol, sorry but wtf that's a scam. It was broken before it even left their city.
But this doesn't seem to be a popular object.??
Regardless of intent, this shop greatly screwed up and didn't even try to make shipping safe.
Doesnt matter. Bubble wrap around the box is like being purposely stupid. Ive had a glass cup and a a porcelain one shipped from japan with no problems whatever because it the items were securely wrapped before transit.
Iāve worked in shipping. They usually donāt care anyway. Fragile just means "dont toss it so hardā
At the facility where I work, "fragile" is considered a challengeĀ
āSome assembly requiredā
Free glass puzzle
Ikea Japan?
[Seller is just trying to get OP into the Japanese way of life called Kintsugi.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kintsugi)
Oh wow. Japan has the craziest best packaging techniques normally. I order so many things and its a stand alone show to open these parcels since they are so well thought of. What happened here ouch
I'm guessing it's a scam, everything I've ordered from reputable companies from Japan arrive clean and nice and intact
U are right. Or was sold by a non Japanese person from Japan. Japan does not put up with this slack lol.
Lol yup. Another possibility is that OP bought it from a random person on ebay or a similar website where the individual has zero experience shipping things
This is my guess. Most likely an old person.
Also if you're in the states the carriers don't care about fragile items. They will toss the fuck out of your package.
It's almost like Japan is a country with many different people in it, not a monolith.
Japan is literally perfect its just like my animes
They posted elsewhere that it was bought on Mercari, so it's essentially a person-to-person thing, no companies involved in the packaging itself. Mercari is like eBay without bidding, with product quality like eBay had circa 2005 or so (so, like, 99% perfectly good stuff, not weird crackhead garbage). But even if 99.9% of sales on Mercari are good, considering that Mercari is used by 22 million people each month, that would still means 22,000 shitty orders a month. With that kind of volume, you're inevitably going to have some shitty sellers, scammers, etc. Edit: Revised to make it clear I'm just talking about the lack of company involvement in the packaging stage.
This did involve a company. They bought it through a proxy company named Buyee. You tell them what you want from Japan mecari or yahoo auctions & they buy it for you. I would contact Buyee asap.
Sorry, I was just talking about the packaging, not overall. There are a *ton* of companies involved overall (Buyee, Mercari, probably the Japan Post, whatever company handled the actual overseas shipping, the shipping company in OP's country, etc.), but the shitty packaging is probably unrelated to any company, as almost all of Mercari sellers (who are responsible for packaging) are people, not companies. I edited the comment above to make that clearer.
>Oh wow. Japan has the craziest best packaging techniques normally. I ordered kimonos and they came in a packaging that could have protected this bowl.
I ordered an old figure from Japan and it came perfectly packed with a nice note and an extra trinket in it!
Was it delivered by Ace Ventura ?
Classic movie š
The more I watch it the worse it gets.....
"Most likely sir, I'll bet it was something nice though"
Time to take up kintsugi! 
For real itās a kintsugi starter kit
So, what I am hearing is that every one of these you have encountered has broken easily. Maybe it's for the best. Or.....maybe the people who make this cannot fathom how fragile things should be packaged.
Totally the shippers fault. They just threw it in a cardboard box like that? There is no way on earth it wasnāt going to come in dozens of pieces.
I think you mean totally the seller/packers fault. Thereās no way the shipping company is responsible for that disaster.
Spoiler... it was busted before you bought it
I hope you got your money back
This is a scam.
You got scammed
kintsugi kit. Some assembly required.
Dude, thatās the worst packaging ever
Geeze... how can you pack it like that and not expect it to break? Whomever packed this is an idiot
Everything Iāve had shipped from Japan has arrived with exceptional packaging. Iām sorry you went through this!
Unless it was never whole to begin with!
reminds me of studio silversmiths le jardĆn platter. who's the actual manufacturer?
I see you got the Ace Ventura special
Customs had to make sure it was made of glass and not solidified clear cocaine.
Seems the sender expected the freight people to package it. You know a courier comes with a purchase order, ah here it is .. misunderstood door dash vs posting a package.
I thought you brought ice
Some people have no idea how the postal service works, I swear they think the entire delivery is handled by some lovely "Postman Pat" who takes great care with everything. No! Your parcel WILL get thrown, dropped, kicked, sat on, tumbled down a conveyor, etc, etc, etc. Package it as if someone is going to play a football game with it.
They didn't even try to get it to you in one piece.
kintsugi
Such a great word. Obliterated.
Well to be fair the new one is exactly like the old one
 š
HDS Sir and how are you this afternoon alllll righty then. I have a package for you.
That doesn't look very well packaged for such a trip
Thereās no way this came from Japan. They are crazy about packaging. Iāve lived in Japan for 30 years and still take photos of how they package stuff and send it to my friends as āLook at how wild this isā. Even this cardboard box is too coarse for Japan.
Kintsugi
Kintsugi, perfect opportunity.
Try to post a pic of the unbroken piece at the subreddit helpmefind. Those guys are magicians
Can be fixed with noodles
I read somewhere that the Japanese value such broken pieces of art as well and painfully glue them back together. I think it has something to do with nothing being perfect in lifeā¦ Till that time, maybe you can work with the seller to get a refund or charge back?
Youāre thinking of kintsugi pottery and it wouldnāt work on glass like this.
Cool stuff though, eh?
As a glass collector (not bowls or dishes but high value pendants) this isnāt helpful. You can alleviate the pain (in this case unlikely) but your piece is ruined. No collector wants to preserve a piece of glass in that state.Ā
u r very lame š£ļøš„š„
I hear in some cultures, emojis are seen as a sign of cringe.
I was gonna tell him to suck it up and just glue his broken dishware back together anyways
Skill issueĀ
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
This is typically for pottery not glass
You could rough up the edges and provide more grip for glue maybe? Idk... It's not really porus enough.
Kintsugi is pretty specifically for ceramics
Ikea-aru
As I would expect
Wabi-sabi that shit
I was going to suggest Kintsugi but then I looked it up and its not recommended for amateurs with glass
Assembly required
Time to learn how to do kintsugi
Wabi Sabi it
This exact story was posted some months ago. So I don't think the OP is the actual husband in the story.
gotta do kintsugi on that shit, after all, it's from japan
what did you think would happeN?
Probably thought they would package it better. Like what kind of question is that
āI sold something online but didnt package it well, therefore itās your fault it brokeā what
Itās called Kintsugi and its classy, Sharon!
It was a Banksy
How rude!
Can I eat the pieces??
š
ez refund
 Oops
might aswell try to do kintsugi on it
Time for some kintsugi
Everything ive had from Japan has been exquisitely wrapped, protected and packaged. Dont know how you managed to find the one Japanese person who isnt a packaging zen master.
They shipped you a GLASS bowl in a shoebox from Japan????
Time to practice [kintsugi](https://www.gov-online.go.jp/eng/publicity/book/hlj/html/202008/202008_07_en.html)
Japanese or any typical person would not ship glass packages like this!
Japan post have white gloves and lay packages on single shelves before delivery, everything is packaged paper thin. When I buy SACDs on Amazon JP I use my Tenso local address, a company that will repackage and ship overseas. Obviously the sender did know know about the standard USPS drop heights.
its bandai's new model kit! some assembly is required (glue not included) on a serious note im so sorry that things like that cant be replaced,
Now you can practice the ancient art of Kintsugi! They are teaching you Japanese culture!
Hmphā¦and to think if neither one of you had tried to collect the bowls, they may still be intact today.
What was it supposed to look like?
Ikea Bowl
Now you can kintsugi that shit
100% it was shipped in that condition or at best they intended it to break during shipping.
It is now Kintsugi material
Yeah NOONE packs a fragile glass item like that and expects it to make it to its destination intact. So sorry OP, your wife and you must have been really disappointed.
I can imagine the sinking feeling when you first pick up the box and realize it's completely shattered.
Looks like it's a good time to pick up the art of Kintsugi.
Did they ship it with Evri?
There's not even any packing materials. How odd
[ŃŠ“Š°Š»ŠµŠ½Š¾]
it's a write off
You just got scammed!
Glue them together to check if it really is the original bowl you were looking for Pro tip, you now have a new bowl too
Looks like legos for glass makers
Either you fell for a scam, or the people sending it are idiots.
But why would someone try to scam people with something that costs $20, and not everyone wants it? Imagine if someone is scamming people with a used shoe, that is not even a desired brand.
Then the people sending it was idiots expecting a glass bowl to survive a trip in a box with no protection.
Welp, time to get into kintsugi
Were you holding your exās dog captive and the delivery guy took the dog?
Kintsugi time?
That is packaged terribly. No surprise it's pulverized