packaging

I prefer the foam.  I just feel that it provides better protection overall.

I have several cars that were packed in the formed plastic and I thought they were well done.  The cars that I have that were packed in styrofoam I thought were a bit hard to get out.  I worried that if the cars had any delicate detail like brake lines they might get damaged by having to push too hard to get them out of the styrofoam.  So, I vote for the plastic.  And another thing is that you can somewhat see the car in the plastic and avoid grabbing delicate parts.

Rick

I prefer the foam...but with the cars wrapped in that soft clear plastic liner that the Masterline cars come with.  After I weather my TTX cars, the plastic packaging will go bye, bye, and be replaced with thin bubble wrap material. I do not want the weathering abraded by molded packing.  Plus, I am going to replace the Atlas couplers with the new(er) Kadee #746 long shank couplers, so the supplied packaging won"t be usable.

I agree about placing cars on bubble wrap or any other kind of plastic.

I had my HO cars stored in slide-out plastic storage bins with "rubber shelf-paper" between 2 layers of cars.  Even the weight of the HO cars caused pressure on the lower layer, resulting in the rubber shelf-paper to stick to the roofwalks causing minor damage to the paint.

A couple of months ago I went out to my shed to get something out of an old tackle box and all the rubber worms inside had melted thru the plastic trays in the box!!!

If you haven't saved the original packaging materials (I save all the packaging materials for all engines), wrap your items in gift-wrap tissue and then in some sort of plastic or other outer wrap.  I have done it this way for many, many years and have never had the finish of an item marred or damaged in any way.

Thanks for the suggestions!   Tissue paper sounds like a good idea to me also.   Yes, bubble wrap is a no no!   Fine for ***** decorations, not for models.  

I had someone mail me a car in bubble wrap and it stuck to the stirup and one stuck and broke. Like I see most curators seem to place that tissue paper between items so id go that wayand then bwrap outer in future.