I had a pretty good scare a few months ago buying a rod and having it shipped. I bought a Powell max 3D 714 from a guy off of here and he shipped it in a pvc tube and when I got home from work and saw it in the garage I got a really sick feeling. What I found was the end of the pvc tube broken off with about 6 inches on the rod tip sticking out but by some miracle the rod was not broken or damaged in any way.