Well, I came home today excited to find that "Brown Santa" had been here and delivered my new-in-the-box Flaming River stainless steel steering column!
Excitement quickly turned to upset when I opened the end of the box and saw THIS:
Pulling it out of the box and yes, it's brand new and all looked good except the head unit which had been damaged in shipment and flat spotted badly on one side:
I've PM'd the seller and hopefully he put some kind of insurance on the shipment or UPS will do something to make me whole for this damage. We'll see. Wish me luck, gentlemen!