A tale of two boxes. ("Barcode label unreadable and replaced" is a new one for me.)

Generally an indicator that your package is being treated as gently as it deserves. I used to ship a lot of machine tools, was getting a lot of shipping damage until I started putting shockwatch stickers on the boxes in plain sight. They got better handling then for some reason.

That said, FedEx was always better than UPS for shipping damage.

Good to know, given that the contents of the box are glass... (I think it contains just a ikea.com/us/en/p/trygg-servi… ... which I've found make great fruit bowls and decided I wanted a second one given that I was ordering from IKEA.)

shockwatchindicators.com/imp… are your friend. Doesn’t help when ordering things, and unfortunately usually only available in bulk, and too expensive to use on commodity items.

FWIW, 25G indicators almost *always* got blown, 50G indicators rarely by FedEx. IIRC they guarantee less than 60G impacts during transit. (Label damage can be caused by low impact rubbing on a machine or conveyor belt, tho.)

Should run some experiments on domestic Japanese shipping with Japan Post. I bet the 25G indicators are fine there...

I think I still have some. If I find them I’ll bring them to Japan next time we go (of course having them survive checked luggage will be interesting, they’re not resettable).