Frankenstroke said:
Would you leave your cue in the trunk overnight when its freezing cold out?
Planes and delivery trucks are unheated. Wait till summer. Have someone local look at it. Replace tip. Clean joint surfaces. Tighten weight bolt.
Ship Fedex. They know where your package is at all times, and will deliver next day reliably.
If a cue gets left outside during the heat, it is as bad or worse than the winter! I've seen a shipped cue wind up with a melted finish that looked like bubble wrap! Disgusting!
Our best shipping experiences have been with the USPS Priority Mail triangle boxes. Pack well, so the cue can't move around, inside. The tubes are great, but we actually received an empty tube, once. The guy had it taped up, but he used the lightweight packing tape, which broke. He also sent the item the cheapest route, instead of Priority. Of course, the post office marked the empty tube as package delivered. Well, the package was delivered, but the contents weren't. And, of course, they never found the item shipped! So, my experiences with the tubes are to be sure you really, REALLY tape up the ends. I think that even the ends of the triangle boxes should be taped to prevent unexpected opening, if the box gets a bit crunched.
If you ship USPS, it doesn't cost much more to get the delivery confirmation and make sure you get at least $201 of insurance. That's the minimum to require a signature upon delivery. If it requires a signature, you know someone got it. They won't just leave it out in the rain, snow, sweltering heat, public hallway, etc., for weather damage or for some joker to grab on his way through.
