not that i didn't believe all the horror stories i've read about the silver sandtrooper being shipped out sans packing material (
eveybody knows i could have a thread to myself just for bitching about sws.com
), but a few of my friends actually asked me to order one for them since they were not members of the fc/hs. since matt picked me up one from sdcc, i didn't need to order from this godforsaken club, and i was happy. but, to help out some buds, i did. so, i ordered 3. 2 buddies wanted one, and i figured i would get an "extra", either to use as a loose display piece (i don't open silver figures tho, for whatever reason) or to help somebody else out if they needed it. i thought that maybe there was some kinda note on my account with them that said "this guy is an *******, so take good care of his shipments from now on", or something like that.
wrong.
first, and i can't believe i'm actually going to compliment them on anything, but they did actually ship these out fast. really fast. maybe that's why they have no packing materials, because they don't have a chance to put any into the boxes before they ship?
anyway, they arrived today. and guess what? there was some bubble wrap inside the box. unfortuately, as others have said, it was wrapped around the "free" items, the pin and the promo card. wtf? why bother to put bubble wrap around those items and not around the items i'm actually paying for? does it make too much sense to do it that way? and in sws.com's defense (again? wtf is with me today?) the box was actually crushed slightly when i got it. one side was crushed in about an inch or so. didn't look good from the start.
that said, out of the three, i ended up with:
1 - completely crushed. really only good for an opener.
1 - slightly creased on the upper right corner, otherwise okay.
1 - mint.
don't ask me how these three figures, put in the same box, arrived in 3 different conditions. beats me. there is some speculation that maybe sws.com is actually shipping out non-mint figures, rejects from comic-con that other people didn't want. i would have to say, at least in this instance, that this was not the case. the area where the box was crushed in on the side was where the top area of the card was on the figure laid on the bottom. this was the only figure that was really damaged. check out these pics i took:
this was the side of the box that was crushed. i'd like to think that it did not leave sws.com's shipping warehouse looking like this, but i guess i can't say that 100%.
this is the inside of the box. i removed the bubble wrapped free gifts, but the rest remained untouched. you can see that the crushed side of the box barely touched the two figure laying on their sides. sadly, the same cannot be said for the one on the bottom.
this is the new chase variant, silver accordian trooper.