every real pinball guy knows the game box is useless for re-use

You must have missed Centerflank's pics of his AC/DC Luci unboxing.

I keep them always. Use them for moving games

as boxes or just as big pieces of cardboard?

Your post made sense. Sorry, I didn't get the right qoute.

Pffff, do you realize how many cats would fit in one of those things? You'd have scratching posts for weeks.

The box will also be what the 5 year old grandson gets the most fun out of because I guarantee that kid won't play the pinball machine more than a handful of times.

Cardboard. Yeah, I box up all my games to move them. Haha

I shipped my old BBB to Europe in a Tron box. Definitely worth saving boxes if you think you may need to ship a game down the road.

I think I’m going to start an LE and CE, ultra limited pinball cardboard box business. I’m already shopping for my own caribbean island.

I do. I don't like crooks, and you guys are piling on the OP about irrelevant issues like his age, his grandson, etc. - i.e., being jerks just for the sake of being jerks. There's no question about Hassle's reputation, and I do, in fact, have a history with Fun! in Mesquite, Texas. Luckily for me, that history doesn't include ever doing a transaction with them.

Now, about your use of the term "keyboard comando"... I find that curious because that's the exact name Craig Hassell called a dissenting Pinside poster in a previous thread, right down to the exact same misspelling of the word 'commando'. That leads me to two possibilities - either you are Craig Hassell, or Craig Hassell was your 4th-grade spelling teacher. Can you clarify?

The backstory is simple. I didn't have an account here, and I wanted to post on this topic. I will most likely want to post on other topics here as well... unless there a community rule against opening an account and posting on a topic? If such a rule exists, can you post a link to it, please?

I'm still trying to get my head around what you are doing. You are saving all the packing material too? The box itself is pointless without the system its used in and the game having to be the same form factor. I mean, putting it in a box just invites the pallet to be handled like a stackable box and still requires it to be palletized. If you are going to palletize it, why limit yourself to the horrible basic protection the factory box gives, instead of actually wrapping the game and providing protection that isn't just a hollow shell?

If I'm putting it down for travel - the box is a complete hinderance vs just protecting the game
If I'm putting it on a pallet - the factory box is inferior to the the kind of packaging you want to use to actually provide real protection.. so why use it?

Geniuly curious what you guys are doing. Because the only thing I see the box being useful as is cardboard stock to be cut up for wrap or slides. And getting a game setup is 5x easier when you just cut the side of the box down and attach legs vs trying to lay it down, slide out of the box, etc.

well, the OP should at least rest comfortably knowing that the one person on his side is a paranoid schizophrenic with no other posting history, and a pre-existing bias against the other party.

Says the biggest shit disturber on Pinside

As a fellow newb pinsider I can tell you there's a whole bingo card of standard newb activities that you need to complete before reaching the stage of blowing your top at a retailer you haven't done business with on behalf of a stranger, which is stage 5 or 6 I believe. For example, arguing passionately in a pricing thread is stage 1, then you'll need to leave enough theme suggestions in every manufacturer's "next pin" threads to accurately guess your age to within 5 years, then in a separate thread declaring you're an original theme guy whilst blithely tossing off a dozen nonsensical suggestions, it's all there in my post history. You'll notice I haven't yelled at mirco yet, which I will despite having never purchased anything from him, and that's because I still have a couple more newb moves to complete before I have clearance to do so.

Good luck, enjoy your stay, and always triple check what account you're posting from before you click the "Send post" button!

i like this guy already.

Read for filth. Now how about a Fortnite pin?

Using the cardboard sides of the box allows me to slide games in and out of my van easily.

Exactly what a keyboard COMMANDO would do. Lets go to criticizing vocabulary and grammar.

Crawl back in your hole troll

Show me on the pinball machine where FUN touched you

As soon as I came across the word "Fun!" in the thread title I knew this was not gonna go well.

Did you think it would be a big Hassell?

That's why I asked if you just used it as cardboard... or as a box That's not using it as a box, just as large pieces of cardboard.

You center the game and fill all the gaps with towels... old beach and bath towels (or new ones, they're cheap). Pack 'em in there good, all around and the game is snug as a bug in a rug. They also can protect against minor fork incidents. The only thing better than the box would be a wooden crate, and those significantly increase weight and shipping costs. "Wrapping" the game doesn't do shit.

My main takeaway from this thread is the OP said he has been in the pinball hobby since 2006...and decided to purchase a game from FUN in 2022...that is baffling.

Except the box isn't really supported and just becomes a thin shell you've taken along for the ride while your towels settle down instead of being secured to the actual thing to be protected. The box isn't structural, it's just strapped on as a thin shell. Might as well have a cadbury egg. The factory packing system works by supporting the box between the game and the rigid corners of the box.

It does when you actually wrap padding or sacrificial layers and secure with wrap or strapping. Which is protection that actually stays with the surface to be protected and you decide how thick, rigid, or soft you cover the game with. That's your protection against abrasion or impacts against the game itself. I'll take actual impact protection over counting on simple 'air space' as you defense against impacts or forks. Armor the game, then block it in to a pallet that is larger than the footprint of the game and strap it up. Being an odd shape strapped to the pallet you avoid the temptation for them to stack anything on it.

Stern boxes are good for one thing... large pieces of scrap cardboard. It's not even heavy cardboard... packing wardrobe boxes work for that if you want some heavy strong cardboard.

... um, that's what the towels are.

No, they don't slip down when they're folded and stuffed in the box all around the game.

Sometimes I think you argue just for the sake of arguing. Blah blah blah...

The game made it to Europe with no damage; I'd say the packing worked just fine.

My main takeaway is that I'll continue to buy games in person with cash after inspecting them and selling them in that same manner.

Shot a man while robbin' his Castle....

You too son

This post should get you multiple stamps on your card, good shit.

Fantastic post. Funny as fuck.

I'm betting the apostle is disgruntled employee.

They are usually #1 suspect in any character assassination.

Can you point me in the direction of said bingo card. I probably have a few squares to stamp as well.

You haven’t compared pins to cars yet, but goddamn if you aren’t off to a magnificent start!

Pretty sure i have that badge.

flynnibus - re-using the old box as a shell when strapping to the pallet is simply an extra layer of protection. The boxes also have great indications of which side is the truck only side. I blanket and shrink a pin thoroughly before the box goes on so it's much better protected than the way it is shipped from the factory. This is what it looks like before the box goes on:

8632DFB4-CB10-48AC-ACC6-4630AE0806CF (resized).jpeg

As for Craig, I've dealt with him on several occasions over the years and he's been honest and professional every time. Providing an in-home warranty at MSRP is actually more service than 99% of us are getting at MSRP.

That is worse because you don’t want anyone to hand truck a palleted box at all and unless you are using the inserts the game and box are not locked together … inviting mishandling.

If you are not using the system of pieces as designed… it’s nothing but a floating thin cardboard shell that doesn’t provide anything but inviting mishandling. The box is not supported and can’t support the contents without shifting itself or the contents.

The Floating cardboard halo is doesn’t help - it only obscures the load inviting mishandling because it suggests capabilities you don’t actually have.

You are better off shipping it just as you showed it bundled up - which looks well protected (but better mounting and larger pallet would be preferable)

The game and box are not "locked" together with Sterns boxing either. I've had numerous decals damaged with NIB games because the heavy legs become dislodged and scrape along the side of the game. I'll put my packing up against Sterns any day of the week and I'll win every time - I've yet to have a game get damaged using my method. The blanketing and wrapping are very snug inside the box.

If you think how you pallet a game makes any difference in whether it's hand-trucked or forked or handled in general - you are fooling yourself.

Thats loose items in the box - nothing to do with the real topic here of using a box without locking it together with the thing that is 95% of the weight and volume inside of it.

Did you see me praising stern’s shipping methods? I’m speaking up about people taking a weak system, then making it worse, and pretending it has some value. You are doing the right thing in how you protect the game itself… but strapping a floating cardboard halo around it isn’t doing you any favors and just invites problems.

Handlers are going to what is easiest and fastest for them. If you give them a big square box… they will treat it like a big box. If your box isn’t secured to be moved around and be handled like a box… you are inviting trouble. Boxes will be stacked, they will be handled using their sides, etc.

You can’t easily hand truck something without sides near the edge of the footprint. But if you have a nice square box… the handcart can be attractive to try to use.

The whole reason NIB are on pallets is to make it more likely to be moved properly by making it easier for the handlers to do the right thing vs taking shortcuts. The pallet isn’t part of the packing system for sterns. It’s just strapped on to minimize potential for damage by making the load more friendly to the most common heavy load tools.. pallet jacks and forklifts.

A stern boxed game can be moved via hand truck… unlike a palleted game with just a strapped floating cardboard halo that will crush the box and risk shifting the load.

The same reasons that make the stern box able to be hand trucked (the cabinet bottom being right inside the one side) is one of the reasons it’s vulnerable to damage and why that choice isn’t used when designing a game to be shipped by pallet to begin with…. Where the load is centered and secured to the pallet - not the box.

Ask HEP why he doesn’t use a box around his loads and builds centered loads on oversized pallets. It’s trying to preempt the dummies and make your preferred way to be the easiest way for them to move your load.

Nothing says “FUN!” like an eight paragraph post about pinball boxes.

No one cares about boxes. Take it to PM.

If you look at my pic, you'll see that the load is centered and anchored to an oversized pallet. The pin is shrinked and blanketed so that the box barely slides over the top - every bit as snug as the Stern system, but much better protected. It's certainly not loose like you are imagining.

Again - if you think they won't stack something on top of an unboxed pin - you are very wrong as I just had this happen last week with a palleted game not covered by a box. I actually keep the Stern styrofoam that goes over the coin door and use that along with "do not stack" stickers on the box - but shippers will do whatever they want.

Palleted items are moved with a forklift or hand forks almost exclusively - in over 50 shipments I've never had a guy use a dolly - the most important part is securely affixing the pin to the pallet.

This system works very well for me and I'll keep doing it as I think it's the best way to ship a pin. I've had *0* games get damaged unlike with Stern NIB games and games shipped on legs with STI.

Actually - the box conversation is more useful than this thread had become, but yea - I'm done now. Continue with the he said/she said...

Just start your own conversation. It’s not hard.

I nominate flynnibus for "most passionate about boxes" 2022.

Check out the super hoops thread if you want to read about some box negligence. Outrageous !

He's definitely an anti-boxer!

Yes, and the way I see it... If he saves just one person it was all worth it ❤️

Most passionate 'Google'r' who knows everything about everything. I've never seen a thread with a question or problem that he doesn't have all the answers to.

I don't know, i'm pretty passionate about boxes as well.