I've also had pretty dismal luck with ebay shipped eggs. At least half the problem is the ham-handed folks at USPS... quite a few dented packages and actual broken eggs. But on 2nd thought , I would say 75% of the blame lies on the packaging methods of the senders. I'm now at the point that I will not order any more ebay eggs until fall (I've done at least 4 shipments).. as our weather here is often 100 degrees in the summer ,... all summer...sigh.
The one shipment that had MUCH BETTER SUCCESS was packaged using a much better method. Here's the deal, the best method is to put all the eggs in a standard carton, then DOUBLE Wrap with BIG BUBBLE WRAP...IT'S ALL PHYSICS (MASS AND MOTION) AND INSULATION..(others were individually wrapped with wimpy small bubble wrap or put inside foam).
So now I will specify that eggs get shipped this way or I will look elsewhere.
I'm also fairly convinced from my ebay experience (and talking to others) that MANY of the eggs you get from ebay are infertile from the get-go. Simply because I have obtained fertile eggs from local folks after a few days incubation...walked around with them while talking... gave up on some for easily a day and half...fired up incubator again just for heck of it... forgot to move to lockdown incubator (actually the local got the days way off so they hatched 5 days "early"...etc etc...and nothing bothered them...I had over 90 percent hatch rates every time !
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