The advice from a well known local luthier, Frank Ford, is to make sure that the neck is well supported and well padded. He said that in his experience the neck/body and pegbox/neck joints are the areas most susceptible to shock damage, i.e. being dropped etc. Hr also advised against 'over-padding' - padding so tightly that it actually transmits shocks to the instrument.
I recently shipped a baroque lute. I slacked off the strings and the padded the neck area and pegbox with bubble wrap. The case held the body quite securely. Then the lute-in-case went into a box suspended in enough pelespan (foam 'peanuts') to completely fill the box. It arrived with a tear to the outer box but the lute-in-case was fine. Total packaging cost $12. Use Federal Express Ground if you can, UPS has a bad track record. They broke my theorbo as well as a few other instruments that were shipped to me. Make sure to insure it too, it is well worth the extra few dollars. Steve To get on or off this list see list information at http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
