Jay, direct has always been this best method for getting points across to me. From what I can find there have been these posters for the Treehouse of Horror episodes 16 and up. I have been email-ing with the seller and she is truly awesome. She was extremely apologetic (even though it was the incompetence of the usps).
Conor
You can't blame it all on the USPS. If this person has any background selling and shipping, she should know better.
Go ahead and buy something from one of the auctions from emovieposter.com, movieposterbid.com or Heritage Auctions. Compare how they package. Bruce at emovieposter sends his rolled material out in a tube that is fully 1/4" thick. You can stand on that tube without damaging it. A bit extreme, but Bruce auctions 600-800 items 3 times per week and claims he has less than 10 items a year damaged in transit. Other reputable shippers go so far as to use PVC irrigation pipe with glued on end caps.
The triangle tubes are a joke. The tubes the studios send out aren't much better. The white ones you buy at fedex are only marginally better. A poster needs some very special care in order to put up with the abuse the postal system or UPS puts them through.
Putting a poster into a triangle tube and then blaming the post office is kind of like giving a sixteen year old boy a Porsche Turbo and then blaming the highway department when the accident happens.
