Tiki Mug Misfortunes

On 2012-07-02 16:24, underdog wrote:
I think my husband posted this in another thread, but this seemed to be a more appropriate place. Sorry for the duplication, but we're really upset and I'm not sure our disappointment can be truly captured in a single post.

We live in North Central Florida, not by any means a mecca of tiki culture. We rarely make finds 'in the wild' because there's just not that much around. Therefore, we often have to rely on ebay to scratch our tiki itch. We're also on a budget, so we can't spring for many of the mugs on our wish list at the going rate.

So imagine our glee when we found a Hoffman Kahiki Moai mug in an auction missing most of the common search terms, starting at 5.99. And no one bid against us. We've had mugs shipped to us before, and aside from one tiny chip we've been pretty lucky. But this mug, which we will probably not find in our price range again, which is such a great piece of tiki history, which we were so excited to find, arrived like this:

A few big pieces and some dust. No chance of gluing back together. Our first big tiki misfortune.

What a crime! My condolences...

Thanks for the condolences bigbro. We're still trying to figure out an appropriate way to honor the remains.

Well I'm posting again. I made this purple Tiki Bob bowl for my husband Dan. It never even made it from the garage to his collection.

Why because I set it on the car hood which was slopped. Since I glazed the bottom of the bowl it was slick enough to slide off and crash on the floor.

I'm so sad, Wendy

Gosh, over a month since the last accident. I hate to be the one to bring this topic back up to the front of the line, but today in the mail I received some recent wins off eBay. Should have been 2 coconut mugs, a Harvey's Sneaky Tiki and a Harvey's bucket...three of them made the trip across country safely...

RIP poor little coconut mug. I'm sorry I never got to know you. :( The seller was quick to refund the cost of the mug so at least that worked out. Funny thing is that this mug was the only one wrapped in bubble wrap. The other three were packed into a box wrapped in newspaper.

Wendy,
At least two of the Bob's look like they could be salvaged! I hope you didn't toss them. I love that glaze, too.

This is the only broken mug/bowl/carving I've been sent and it was quickly replaced. The prow had broken off on the Armada Geddon so I glued it back on, but I think it would still display well on a wall shelf.
If anyone local (LA/OC) wants it you can have it for free along with the tiki treasure map that came with it. I don't have the heart to throw it in the trash. It's just sitting in my closet.

The GROG Moai Mug---GROG' personal mug. Hand-made by GROG at Babalu's awesome clay jam with Squid, Bai, Bowana, Buzzy, etc.
http://www.tikicentral.com/viewtopic.php?mode=viewtopic&topic=24647&forum=18&start=330&hilite=babalu%20clay%20jam

Here's some of the pieces. Hiphipahula is using the rest of the mug for a picture for her website for a drink she made called THE MUG CRACKER.

Thankfully it broke into a few large pieces, so when GROG get the rest of the mug back from Kelly, then GROG try and fix it and bring it back from the dead.

WHAT!? NO! WAS GROG DRINKING AND USING THE WHIL?

I was going through photos and came across this set that I realized kinda fits this thread...

This was a batch of greenware from a few months ago that should have come out of the kiln as bisque. A freak accident, where two fail-safes failed simultaneously, resulted in runaway temperatures that reduced everything inside the kiln to piles of goo.

This was a tiki menorah and a PNG drum bowl. The menorah exploded then melted, and the bowl melted into a puddle resembling thrown pizza crust dough that the thrower failed to catch.

This shelf of the kiln holds the sad remains of a Shrunken Santa Head mug with Santa Hat lid. (the lid is the pointy puddle), two Tiki Bob's bucket mugs and two different styles of Stockton Islander mug. The Islander mugs managed to retain their shape, but they were covered in horrific, painful-looking blisters and cracks. And they were fused to the kiln shelf, like everything else.

The annoying thing (or, one of the annoying things) about this mishap was that a couple of the pieces I had completed and had sitting around for months... the menorah was sculpted and sitting around for almost a year... curses!

Oh well... every time something goes into the kiln, it's like a crap shoot anyway!

I purchased a set of 6 vintage Honi Honi mugs on ebay, but despite the use of bubble wrap and crumpled newspaper, two of them didn't survive the trip.

I understand that sometimes accidents happen and things break in shipping, but it seems like such a tragedy when they're vintage items. :(

Another bad packing job, I hope you complained to the seller
you should always request shipping peanuts when you buy any vintage items.

The seller is actually being difficult about it. I'm politely reminding him that he doesn't have a leg to stand on with ebay or PayPal. What a hassle.

Edit: After insisting that I pay to return ALL of the items to him, I ended up having to open a dispute through eBay. That's the first time that's happened to me in 14 years of selling on eBay.

[ Edited by: TikiTacky 2013-06-01 19:23 ]

A few years ago, I put additional bamboo around the edges of my home bar. Thinking ahead, I took every single mug [about 35] into the garage before the construction started. The work was done and I brought the mugs back. The very last one was an early Kahiki-marked mug in shiny gold. It slipped from my hand, and I felt that icy spike of dread in my stomach. I heard it hit the concrete garage floor from about three feet [luckily I'm not tall.] I looked down. The mug was completely intact! Not one crack, chip or mark of any kind. I was amazed.
Jump cut to this past March. Bar now gone, far fewer mugs, new place [long story.] The 1970s apartment-kitchen shelf-support let go. The Chinese-made blue warrior survived, as did a Ku and a Suffering Bastard. But a Munktiki Moai split into a few pieces. I really like that mug, and have kept the front piece, pictured here.

[ Edited by: johnnyvelvet 2013-06-14 06:20 ]

I've recently learned about kintsukuroi, and I'm dying to try it out on a tiki mug some day. I'll practice with some broken pottery at the ceramics workshop as soon as I get the supplies. Perhaps I'm speaking prematurely, but if anyone's up for me to have a go at your tiki mug sherds, or don't mind me buying them off your hands, please let me know. I'll just leave this here, for your inspiration.

What's wrong with this picture... let's see...

1 Trader Vic's Hawaii Tonga mug...
2 Trader Vic's Hawaii Tonga mugs...
3...D'OH!

We've been ordering Tiki mugs from all over tarnation for years without a problem 'til now, so I feel pretty fortunate. I was able to glue this guy back together, so that's something, but it sucks seeing a somewhat-rare vintage mug make it 50-60 years in tact only to get busted up due to a stupid packing job in 2013.

Seller on eBay had tons of positive feedback, and I will say he shipped FAST, but I don't think tiki mugs were his forte (these were listed strangely, which was why I was able to nab 'em for pretty cheap.)

When I picked up the box and heard the "clunk, clunk" of mugs rolling around, my heart sank... sure enough... 3 mugs wrapped in a single sheet of paper with the scourge of tiki mugs everywhere... air pillows...UGH.

At least it was glue-able, and at least the damage is on the back side, and
(most importantly) at least his buddies made it! Coulda been much worse.

--Pete

Thanks to my cat

Pele blew her top from Disneyland's Enchanted Tiki Room's 50th anniversary mug.

One of my shelves came crashing down in the middle of the night. Scarred the poop outta me

It may not be a tiki mug but I lost a nude cutie glass last night.

UUGGGHHH... so bummed to have to post here again...

Thanks to a level of packing incompetence that is absolutely unparalleled in my
17 years buying and selling on eBay... I FINALLY won THIS guy for a reasonable price...

...but got, instead, this PAPER ENVELOPE of pottery shards!

!!!

Yes, folks... a 60 year old piece of fragile ceramics wrapped in one, thin layer of bubble wrap
and stuffed in an ENVELOPE made for mailing PAPER.

Worth every cent of the $12 shipping, I tells ya.

I thought I'd seen it all... but there it is. A new level of absolute incompetence with the US Postal system.

Poor little skull... if anyone tells you you can't kill the undead, here's your proof to the contrary.

--Pete

That hurts my heart. :(

At least the seller is responsible for damage due to bad packing, so you can get it all refunded. It takes away a little of the sting.

WOW!!!!!! That would totally piss me off if someone mailed me a mug like that. Hope you get your money back. NO GOOD!!! :(

Thanks for the kind words...

I feel bad, because the seller is EXTREMELY nice and has been right on top of responding to my messages (did I mention I stole the TC language
for our annual mug swap and messaged them BEFORE they shipped to say "please assume this will be used as a football by the postal service?")

I told them I wanted my money back - no arguments, no back pedaling, but instant apologies and a refund.

They said the person at the post office told them that would be "the best way to ship it." UGH. I think the real scourge of ceramics
everywhere, here, is the USPS itself. I see the lackadaisical employees at our local branch telling people to stuff all kinds of things in
envelopes that shouldn't be in them every time I'm there dropping off eBay stuff (our local branch boasts an impressive 1 star average review on Yelp... it's
pretty damn rough... for those playing at home, that's the lowest you can give anything.)

This lady meant well... she trusted the PO's judgement. Maybe the PO in Maryland didn't break it, but frankly, a light toss and a land in a postal bucket on a concrete floor would've rubbed this guy out.

The only fortunate end of the story is that the guy's face is still in tact, so we'll prop his face up next to our busted Steve Crane Ku mug 'til we can find a
proper specimen.

Oh yeah... anybody got an OMC Skull mug like the one above they wanna let go for $35 shipped to Chicago?

I know... I know...

--Pete

[ Edited by: Ragbag Comics 2014-05-27 23:41 ]

Anyone who thought fragile ceramics would be protected in such a thoughtless
packing job is truly a mentally deficient individual, sure maybe a sweet mentally deficient individual
but one none the less.

There's a reason the P.O. tells 'em to pack them like that. Next time the poor soul will purchase the "insurance" the P.O. offers. I swear, sometimes i think that place is run by ex mobsters. "Chou want insurance fo dat? Be a shame if anyting should 'appen to it whilts shipping?"

howlinowl

Not a tiki mug, but a nice resin mold arrived at my doorstep, from ebay, in pieces.

Sadness. Rage. The tiki gods shall avenge their loss, I hope.

At least he looks decent from a front view, for the most part.

EDIT: oy! Anyway to turn these pictures the right way?

Follow me on Twitter and Instagram! @EPCOTExplorer

[ Edited by: EPCOTExplorer 2014-05-28 10:25 ]

Here you go

On 2014-05-28 18:11, hiltiki wrote:
Here you go

Thanks! How do I get it to do that, in the future?

The GROG Mug is being resurrected from the dead. Thankfully it broke into several large pieces, so it wasn't so hard to put back together.

Unfortunately, GROG not get a picture of the whole mug with the pieces missing.

Used paperclay to put it back together. Here it is after the bisque fire:

GROG coat the inside with clear glaze, and now it's waiting until GROG have enough pieces to fill the kiln for a glaze fire.

GROG should have piece ready for swizzle to add to firing.

Oh! And GROG do good job. swizzle like that GROG mug.

[ Edited by: swizzle 2014-06-21 19:47 ]

The GROG Moai Mug survived the glaze fire. GROG take it out last night for a test drive at the Tonga Hut, and no leaks. It performed great. It has been officially resurrected from the dead. Yay!!!

YES!!!!

That sure is some great news!

whoa, that's not good...

Doesn't that grinding clanking sound just send chills down your spine?

I'm starting to think it was a bad idea to mock that Gypsy fortune teller.

Does this look familiar?

Yeah, that's right, I'm 0 for 2 on these )&#$#^ Drei Moai volcano bowls.
I contacted the seller before paying and explained that I wanted extra packing because I had one of these arrive DOA before. She assured me "oh don't worry, I pack things good".
I'm starting to wonder if these bowls are cursed.

[ Edited by: Philot 2014-07-23 18:22 ]

Grog- that's cool
Philot- dat sux, sorry

:( poorly packaged Don The Beachcomber rum barrel. Not expensive, but I really wanted it.

On 2014-07-22 20:26, Philot wrote:
whoa, that's not good...

Doesn't that grinding clanking sound just send chills down your spine?

I'm starting to think it was a bad idea to mock that Gypsy fortune teller.

Does this look familiar?

Yeah, that's right, I'm 0 for 2 on these )&#$#^ Drei Moai volcano bowls.
I contacted the seller before paying and explained that I wanted extra packing because I had one of these arrive DOA before. She assured me "oh don't worry, I pack things good".
I'm starting to wonder if these bowls are cursed.

[ Edited by: Philot 2014-07-23 18:22 ]

I always ask the seller to use both bubble wrap and packing peanuts, no newspaper (and offer to pay for it if necessary).

I am always amazed at the lack of shipping skills
most eBay sellers show, Newspaper does not absorb impacts during shipping
and tends to settle and compress.

You need to pack these bowls/mugs in a box inside a box with lots of bubblewrap and peanuts. It sucks that people would be so lazy to just throw it into a flat rate box with some newspaper.

I have only recently started collecting mugs and have yet to make any serious investments in the rarer older items, but this thread has opened my eyes to a reality I never really thought about. Beyond just being a little corner of TC where collectors can co-miserate over mug tragedies, the thread highlights how easy it really is for some of these already very rare pieces to become even more scarce due to incompetent and lazy packing and shipping by sellers who usually care very little about the item being exchanged beyond the quick cash they may make.

On 2014-07-26 07:39, Sunny&Rummy wrote:
I have only recently started collecting mugs and have yet to make any serious investments in the rarer older items, but this thread has opened my eyes to a reality I never really thought about. Beyond just being a little corner of TC where collectors can co-miserate over mug tragedies, the thread highlights how easy it really is for some of these already very rare pieces to become even more scarce due to incompetent and lazy packing and shipping by sellers who usually care very little about the item being exchanged beyond the quick cash they may make.

I've been an eBay member for 15 years (January 1999 geez has it been that long?). I've seen everything you could possibly imagine in packing, from the gold standard double-boxed with peanuts and bubble-wrap in between, to a single sheet of newspaper inside the box. S&R you are absolutely right, it is heartbreaking to receive a vintage piece that has been damaged or destroyed, they're not making them anymore!

To be fair, I have to say, some people honestly think they've done a good job with the packing. It's not always about indifference, that they got their money and so what happens after that. As with anything, the quality of the job is subjective. When I've pointed out the sub-quality packing, they honestly think they did a good job. I've learned for precious pieces, to tell them how I would like it packed, most people will take some extra effort, if you emphasize how valuable the piece is to you, and I offer to pay any extra shipping cost.

I swear cardboard boxes must be getting less durable or the machines they are using in sorting have decided they hate packages now because every box looks like it has been sat on.

One of the times a seller put a ceramic piece in a box with no packing, the box comes (looking sat on) and amazingly the piece was not damaged at all.

I'm not sure if anyone here has ever filed a claim with the postal service, but it is actually really easy. I ordered something and the seller required 2-day USPS shipping, it took over a week to arrive from shipment and the box was squashed again (contents were fine). I was more pissed at how long it took so I sent a claim in and they paid the shipping cost.

I don't know if they have been forced to change how mail is routed but it seems like everything is taking longer than it used to for delivery. In the past I send a box out to someone in NorCal and it will be there the next day, now it takes at least two.

One time i bought a mug on eBay & the seller just put it in an non-padded manilla envelope
no packing materials, newspaper, no anything, yet I received it miraculously undamaged!

Although the seller did charge me a premium for packing & shipping...

OK, so it's not a mug... and it's not exceptionally valuable but I sure wasn't pleased to find one of my two new Lemon Hart shot glasses shattered.

To the sellers credit they were wrapped in bubble wrap and the box was loosely stuffed with extra paper but obviously not enough. On the bright side, I now have one Lemon Hart shot glass...

Ok, here's my sad tale. When I purchased my very first home, I was sprucing up the basement, making it the delectable tiki hide-a-way that it is today. One of my aspirations was to finally have enough wall space to display my huge collection of mugs on a series of shelves lining the walls (shelves placed just below the ceiling).

After having the shelving all mounted and the mugs on display, I walked downstairs one evening and almost tripped over an entire 10 feet of shelving that had worked itself loose from the wall, creating a nifty sliding board that dumped almost the entire contents into a broken pile at the end of it. I can only imagine the horrible sounds that must have accompanied this accident - I was thankful I wasn't home when it happened!!!

Turns out, my carefully mounted shelving, attached to what I thought was sturdy wooden molding, was lacking any type of "bite" beyond the thin molding and the cheap particle board is was attached to, the weight of the mugs actually split the molding - and I'm very handy with repairs/tools, etc. but NOT this time.

I would've loved to have seen my face at the "moment of recognition" I yelled "Oh no!" and fell to my knees, running my hands through the wreckage to assess the damage. My favorite Mark Thomas Outrigger Moai with a beautiful glaze variant smashed, blue orchids surfer guy smashed....I began the sad task of throwing out mugs, and making piles of mugs I felt I could glue back together.

Some mugs split right in two, some horizontally, some vertically, others became intricate puzzles made of several shards both big and small. Some cracked but remained whole, some chipped (some of the newer Tiki Farm ones, obviously made a little more sturdy).

I rescued most, although they are now valueless, replaced my Mark Thomas with an inferior one whose glaze isn't quite as nice and it has the infamous "hairline crack," and I have yet to replace the blue surfer guy mug (arm down) from Orchids of Hawaii which was an early run and had exquisite detailing. I still have that pile, and the Outrigger pile, just can't part with them........

I shook my head and marveled at just how delicate these mugs are, they obviously were made with the cheapest of materials to keep costs down, and it's remarkable that as many as there are have survived without chips, cracks, etc. WHY am I collecting such touchy stuff!?!?! I asked myself.

BTW, I've mastered the repair aspect, using glue, caulking the chips, cracks, etc. and paint matching the mug colors to paint over the caulked areas. A lot of my mugs, from their perch shelf-side you'd never even notice as "Wounded in Battle!"

-Nate

I have way too many posts in this thread. Ouch. New cat, new broken mug. I guess it was my own fault. She was just playing and I had the mug in a vulnerable place. It survived a tumble down the carpeted stairs but not the tile floor at the bottom. At least it wasn't very valuable or too sentimental. The tiki didn't break but I don't think it is wortht of a repair. I will just toss it on the broken ceramics pile for future mosaic projects.

What's this?

I never saw this before, really.

I'm totally innocent.

Who wouldn't believe a face as sincere as this?

On 2015-08-10 16:08, 8FT Tiki wrote:

Who wouldn't believe a face as sincere as this?

My cat is Frank Gorshin reincarnated????

Yes. Photos don't lie.