Since we’ve seen our share of outrageously huge shipping boxes for tiny items and waterfalls of packing peanuts for the smallest of products, it’s only fair that we cast a spotlight on the more minimalist side of things, courtesy of one reader who ordered a shovel online.

Consumerist reader Mark. S writes that he paid nearly $20 in shipping and handling costs for his snow shovel. It arrived, via FedEx, “barely wrapped in a couple layers of plastic with an address sticker and packing slip.”

Good ol’ easygoing Mark adds that he wouldn’t have been too mad, except that shovel was “pretty badly dented on the sides,” and he also received a battle wound in the form of an aluminum splinter in his finger from one of the dents in his attempt to unwrap the shovel.

Obviously, a shovel is a strangely shaped item that will likely cause troubles in packing and shipping. So, especially after reading Mark’s story, we’re thinking it might be best to make this kind of purchase in person.

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