Another hint:  Use a straw to blow air into the plastic Ziploc bag and you
have an air cushion.  This method has never failed for me.

Sylvia S. Edwards
Huntsville, Alabama

----- Original Message -----
From: "Thomas E. Eichhorst" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, July 20, 2001 11:56 PM
Subject: Re: Packing shells


> After 25 years in the Air Force, I have had a lot of experience with
packing
> shells.  I even let the "professional" packers to the job the first couple
> times.  I ended up with a 10 lb piece of coral packed on top of a bunch of
> murex.  It was amazing how many were not smashed.
>
> I then started to always pack my own.  I use dish packs for the boxs.
This
> is a box that comes with inserts to devide it up into small sections as
well
> as inserts that devide it into layers vertically.  They work great and are
> well worth buying.  I start with each shell in a plastic bag and then wrap
> that in tissue (toilet paper works great).  This package is then wrapped
in
> moving paper (like newspaper without print).  Small shell are wrapped with
> several tissue wrapped shells together in a single newspaper wrapping.
> Larger shells are wrapped with bubble wrap and then the newspaper.  I put
> the larger shells on the bottom  - not because they would crush the
smaller
> shells as the verticle partions prevent this - but because it makes the
> boxes easier to handle.  The newspaper seems to pack really well and
> provides great protection.  Any open spaces are filled with wadded up
> newspaper.  In some 20 moves using this method I have yet to have a single
> shell damaged (except the couple I dropped when unwrapping them).
> Unwrapping is a huge mess, but very much like Christmas - only who among
us
> has had a Christmas with all shells!?
>
> Tom Eichhorst in New Mexico, USA
>