I contacted somebody I know at
Supermediastore, and invited him (or somebody else from SMS) to respond here, if they wanted to do so. As expected, he gave me a reply!
While I won't share emails between myself and other businesses, I don't think there's any harm in sharing this:
Quote:
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...we use biodegradable peanuts for our packaging. These biodegradable peanuts are environmental friendly. They are starch-based peanuts and nontoxic and much safer for humans and pets. The drawback compared for these biodegradable peanuts is that they are lower resilience and are soluble when come in contact with water or humid weather..... We use biodegradable peanuts as our initiative to stay green as oppose to using the polystyrene-based packing peanuts.
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This confirms that SMS uses cornstarch peanuts.
As previous guessed, it's most likely nothing more than the starch in the peanuts. Somewhere en route, humidity affected the materials.
Even dampness in a person's own hands -- be it sweat, dampness after washing hands, etc -- can start the reaction. So if your hands were not 100% perfectly dry, it could explain the sticking.
The aforementioned powder was likely loose starch, either from the bottom of a peanut supply container used by SMS, or due to the breakdown process.
If the package was not sealed completely by
Supermediastore, or if it was opened or damaged in transit by UPS, then that may explain how humidity could have gotten in. (But even then, humidity leaches through cardboard.)
And while people often equate humidity to summertime, there's quite a bit more humidity in winter air. It's a humid time of year, for sure. My own packages from
Amazon have cardboard that feels mushy compared to normal dry cardboard. These kinds of materials -- cornstarch or cardboard -- all attract and store dampness.
Being a stand-up company, it appears
Supermediastore gave you a full refund.
If you like
Newegg better, then go ahead and use them. Sometimes they have good prices, too. However, it will not be much longer before more merchants start to also "go green" and use the environmentally-friendly starch peanutes, too! You may run into these again.
In the end, it sounds like everything worked out for you.
Thanks for the posts, it's been very useful.