I bought a outboard motor off of Ebay. It shipped Fedex ground and I've been stressing about it showing up broken. I had almost resigned myself to it showing up broken and I was going to be pissed.
It came in today and I got a call from my wife. She said she was pretty sure it was in one piece.
This is the most brilliant packing job I have ever seen a Ebay shipper do. The engine was in perfect condition. I've already had it in the water and running.
It's a good thing I wasn't here when the Fedex guy dropped it off. I might have kissed him. 
The engine is a 1958 or 59 Sea King 5hp. They were sold by Montgomery Ward and made by OMC or Gale. This engine is identical to the one I had when I was a boy.
I've had a grin on my face since 4pm. It's starting to hurt.
Big shout out to shoecolector617 on Ebay, for a professional packing job and to Fedex, for not drop kicking it across the yard or throwing it across the fence. 
I'll definitely be building a boat now.
As impressed as I am (and I am!) at the packing job, I'm more impressed that you bought a motor from 'shoecollector617'
Neat! My dad had a 5hp Gale of the same vintage - outside of the hood and color Gale, Johnson, Evinrude and Sea King were all pretty much identical. They're great little motors.
related kinda, i just bought a WC T5 (manual trans for the un-initiated) for my thunderbird and the seller also built a box for it out of wood. it arrived unharmed.
-J0N
Too bad that package still had a chance to have a forklift fork driven through it at some point.
IDK if intelligent is the correct word here, honestly attempting to give a E36 M3 is more accurate IMHO.
I once shipped some caddy trim from a 72 coupe to Sweden. I laid it all out, sprayed expanding foam into the bottom of a box and let it settle some.. put a layer of plastic sheet down, pressed the parts into the plastic before laying another sheet over them. I them sprayed more foam over the top of the sheet, closed up the box and shipped it.
Parts arrived safe and sound.. even if the box was a bit hard to open
A well-packaged item...almost brings a tear to the eye...
That was well packaged, but never under estimate the powers of fedex, USPS and UPS to destroy a container.
Good job on the shipper's part! I once shipped a Mk3 Spitfire hardtop with glass across the country. The buyer and I already had an agreement that he took full responsibility for damage, but I just couldn't bear the thought of him getting a busted up hardtop or worse the irreplaceable rear glass. It had to go by truck just due to its size, I built a crate but wasn't satisfied. I took it all back apart and redid it from the ground up, included a super padded 'cell' for the rear glass. I was a week late getting it out for that reason but man was I ever glad when he Emailed a pic of the crate showing forklift damage that it survived. Whew. 
I also went overkill when I shipped my Hodaka Ace 100, that was a no-E36 M3 crate.
If I had bought your damned hodaka, it wouldn't have to have been crated!
dammit! Quit talking about Hodakas until I get enough money to buy one and haul it places!
Sweet sea king! A friend of mine used to live across lake Roosevelt from me and a boat was his primary form of transportation. He had a similar sea king of a similar vintage (painted red and white)
I drove him in to Spokane one day in search of parts for it (cant remember what part it was he needed...). When we got to the shop we deemed "most likely to have what we needed" the old man at the counter got the biggest grin on his face and came back with the dustiest box you'd ever seen.
"I just KNEW someone would come in here one day and ask for this"
Good times.
Ooooh. I had an Ace 100, then a Super Rat.
I'm (sorta) casting about for a Combat Wombat.
You are welcome. 
My first dirt bike was an Ace 100 on a 125 Wombat frame with a chrome gas tank. It looked almost exactly like that one (had a duct taped seat, and a chrome round compartment behind the seat). Bought it with a seized top end (which makes it my first rebuild). That was one great bike.
Cool motor. Good job crating it ebay dude!
Old outboards seem to be nearly free or super expensive.
I'm guessing you got one on the more expensive end if the shipper was willing to do that. Good job by him, and good score by you.
In reply to Brett_Murphy:
The trick is getting the really expensive ones for nearly free.
Kenny, that's the trick for everything on GRM.
It was actually pretty reasonable. Shipping and packing was $85, so I guess I got what I paid for.
I sold a four speed on eBay in college. Built a crate out of 2x6 that supported the inpit shaft, locked the trans down, contained extra parts, was indestructablr, etc. Shipped via truck freight. Got a complaint from the buyer because I used torx fasteners through the entire build and he had to remove about a hundred three inch screws to get to his trans.
Never thought I'd get that sort of complaint...
