Chinese ...

[bigtubby]

... packaging technology must not be up to snuff.

Looking around for that magical 3/4 tuba that sounds like a full sized version, I found two affordable candidates in an online store:
http://www.jimlaabsmusic.com/band-orche ... _7726.html
http://www.jimlaabsmusic.com/used-instr ... _7665.html

Those both looked inexpensive enough to take a chance on so I wrote the dealer asking for specs or Jinbao model numbers so I could research on my own.

Response from the dealer was that both had been sold but they had xyz for $abc.00 ...

Since they could well have been the same horn I wrote it off as a crude bait and switch deal. But then on ebay suddenly appeared:
http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?Vi ... 1049128772" target="_blank

Which would appear to not be the same horn. So is Jinbao really that bad at packaging for the trip across the big pond?