Times must be getting tight at Blue Note!

I took advantage of a Blue Note Records sale to grab some Tone Poets last month, their special offer besting all prices I could find and, of course, encouraging me to pick up one or two I might otherwise have let slip by this year.  Yes, I do have that Joe Lovano album on CD from back in the day but when you start browsing and adding up all the money you're saving, resistance is somewhat hard to muster. 

I waited til today for delivery to have them all shipped in one package. I knew this saved me some costs for both me and Blue Note but I was rather surprised to see how a box of 7 LPs arrived on my doorstep from UPS. 

One small, single layer cardboard box, with no internal padding or support, left at my front stoop with a visible split and bend on one corner. As is so often the case, the UPS driver was off and away before I even opened the door.

As I picked it up and the cardboard folded in my hands, I expected the worst but fortunately, the records all seemed to survive without damage. But compared to the packaging provided by Music Direct, Acoustic Sounds, or hell, even Amazon when shipping most LPs, this felt downright flimsy. I expect better shipping from individuals selling via Discogs. I do understand companies want to reduce costs but this seems to me to be asking for trouble and a lot of returns if it's the new normal. Thank goodness it was not raining.  Hopefully this is a one off, but be careful when ordering more than one or two records at a time here.