A really crazy story...

[wormwoodz]

My passion for miniatures recently got me into a really bizarre situation... 

I collect finely hand sculpted wood furniture... in real size... one of my hobbies is hunting for beautiful pieces of furniture, often in a state of disrepair, and restoring them back to life. So naturally my passion started to bleed into my miniature hobby and I began searching for vintage furniture pieces. Lundby is a personal favorite of mine, but after starting my 1:24 project I discovered the wonders of Bespaq, Hanson, JBM and so many other fantastic artists that I couldn't find locally. Most of what I managed to collect came from all over the world, previously owned, mint or broken. I'm not exactly concerned with the 'collectors value' of a piece, I enjoy the process of searching for pieces that I'm missing and just mixing it up, if I like it I'll get it and if it's broken it can be fixed. 

So I was “furniture hunting” of the miniature kind and came across this beautiful carved table I had never seen before, great condition and a nice deal too so I grabed it. I kept picturing on my mind where I could place it in my 'mini home', when it finally arrived I open the package with anticipation and..... I find Harley Davidson Merch! My partner is a bike enthusiast, so I ask him if he had ordered anything recently on Ebay... then we check the labels and the receipt inside... it was not ours. After some detective work we managed to piece out what happened, on the journey to its destination someone had switched the labels on the packages, and somewhere out there a bike enthusiast had received dollhouse furniture lol. Luckily I managed to get in contact with the other person, and we sorted out this situation ourselves. I am very happy and grateful that this lovelly table ended up on the hands of a nice person who was kind enough to return it to me, such honesty and kindness is a thousand times better than a refund!

The table arrived with one leg broken, and I imagine the person who first received it thought it was maybe their fault and tried to fix it.... with 'crazy glue' lol! So I've spent a good portion of the day carefully scraping off the bits of cyanoacrylate adhesive from the wood, and put it back together with proper glue. I think it's setting well together now, and the shape on the top is just perfect for the mini radio I made recently. Attached a couple pics of the table after repairs, dunno if you can tell which leg was broken.. there is a very tiny seam but I figured is probably best to not try to redo the veneer since everything else is pretty much in good shape. I think it's a vintage Bespaq piece but I can't find it on their catalogues, its shape is very unusual and I love it!

[chapchap73]

What a lovely table...with a fun story to go with it. My favorite pieces in my houses are the ones with an interesting story attached,

[havanaholly]

Ashley,, you hit pydirt!  I cannot tell that the table has been repaired, nd it is really unique!  I love your wee radio and that bowl of peaches is perfect.

[Debsrand56]

I don't see a crack.  It's really pretty, and what a great story!  I can only imagine what the other person thought when opening his package.  Great find!

[wormwoodz]

Thank you all, I hope this was the first and last time I ever find myself in a mess like this one xD The mail services were no help at all tracking my package, it was thanks to the info on the receipt inside that I was able to locate it. It was a really awkward situation trying to get in contact with a stranger that might or might not have received my item, for all I knew there could have been more packages switched up. Over 10 years of experience purchasing things online and this was the first time something like this happened to me, I've had things lost in the mail but never from ebay and usually they just get returned to sender.

Yep the ridiculousness of the whole situation was quite amusing, just imagining the surprise and confusion the other person must have felt when they opened the box made me chuckle and forget how sad and furious I was with the post office, lol. 

A good lesson to take from this: when purchasing things online always ask the seller to include a printed receipt with your shipping info, phonenumber, email etc inside the package, just in case!