I've mentioned this on this site before, but I am trying to collect every year/month of the first generation Philips F32T8 fluorescent lamps, in the same way that someone collects coins. Problem is, I've mostly exhausted my local resources as far as getting new dates, which has caused me to expand my search to Marketplace across the country. I have reached out to several different sellers about acquiring these desired lamps, and they've been mostly receptive in trying to ship me some lamps. Of course they are a bit hesitant to ship fluorescent lamps out of fear they won't survive shipping. I was thinking, how can I assure a seller that the lamps will arrive intact, while also being able to control how they are packaged.

That's when I started thinking, if I built a durable, lightweight shipping vessel specifically intended to ship fluorescent lamps, I could send it to the seller with instructions on how to package them, then they send it back to me. I figure I could make the vessel itself out of schedule 40 PVC electrical conduit of my desired size, with plumbing clean-out caps to secure the ends. I'm an electrician by trade so we get a lot of scrap PVC pipe. I would also build it to be disposable if needed, in case the seller decides to blow me off.

I guess my question is would this be seen as a low risk, easy to convince way to ship fluorescent lamps?

That sounds like a great way of shipping fluorescent lamps! As long as the seller is willing to put in a little time, that sounds like it'll work.

That sounds wonderful! Easy to make, cheap-ish, all you need to do is send some bubble wrap or something for the lamp to fit snugly inside the pipe. Very smart!