Funny ebay situation

Hi, just wondering has anybody here sold an item to an ebay buyer who requests ebay item number to be written on the shipping box with additional info stating if you are sending multiple item, to state item 1 of x on the box as well? I thought it seem weird but I did it anyway when I sold my Oni statue by SOTA toys. I listed the ebay item number with item 1 of 1. After a week of delivery date I get an email telling me that Item came damaged and since the actual buyer was in Japan they are going to ask him to see what can be done. I bought an insurance and since I took vid/picture of the item I have no worries about getting it covered if it was damaged, but I thought this is really weird and thought I'd ask.

You probably shipped it to a forwarding service. The real customer lives in another country, but pays a fee to a US company (assuming you shipped to US address) who will then ship it to the other person. This ensures that the item is as described and so international bidders can have access to normally US only items. The company wants this information on the box so that they can easily index it to their customer and organize it in their warehouse. Almost like another version of the eBay global shipping program, but probably cheaper rates for the buyer.