OK I guess I'm the idot buying 2 hard drives from a guy on EBAY. This guy finally got the drives to me after 2 weeks. The time frame isn't that bad but his choice of packaging sucks.
This guy sells lot's of hard drives.He buys them in bulk from a rebuilder and resells them. I doubt that they ship drives to him in USPS envelopes like he did with mine. I install refurbished drives all the time so I have no problem with that. Especially since the model I bought is exactly like the one I just bought retail.
The way shippers throw things around, manufacturers always ship hard drives in some sort of foam to protect the drive from shock. I have seen some pretty torn up boxes have hard drives survive the experience just because of the foam packaging.
As I'm writing this, I am testing one of the hard drives to certify it before I put it into use. I'll do that to the other one also when this one is complete. Since these drives are slated to be used on my Linux box for file storage...I need to be picky from the beginning to ensure my data is safe. that means thorough testing before committing.