When I saw that it was in Toronto, I thought the same thing Ben.
Yeah, shipping any heavy object is a real tough one. I was lucky since the guy I bought mine from had a custom padded "Road Case" to ship it in (I've added some more padding since I got it). I paid $750 + 80 for the case in pre Tape Project dollars. It was a couple of hundred more than most of the ones I'd seen but after several emails, I felt pretty good about the sellers honesty (and sense). Still, it's always something of a crap shoot no matter what you try to do to ensure getting a good machine in one piece.