I received a badly damaged New Point Loma via UPS yesterday. The seller brought the piece to a UPS store and asked them to package it carefully. As a matter of fact I paid a rather high $20 for shipping and handling.

The make-shift box they packed it in was sufficent, I guess, and there were plenty of styrofoam peanuts around the original HL Box containing the NPL. I carefully opened the box and removed the original HL Box. I then opened the original box and found that the NPL had been placed in that box with no packing whatsoever. In other words, the NPL was bouncing around loose in the box for its trip halfway across the country.

The final result: two severely bent palm trees with the ceramic material broken away from their base; lantern room railing broken off and may be available on eBay for a "toe-ring"; although the ventilator ball survived the paint on it came off; several other nicks.

I contacted the seller who was very understanding. She told me she took it to the local UPS Store and told them to pack it carefully. Apparently, they never checked the inside of the original HL Box. End result...a once rare HL is now worthless. Such a shame...

Bob