It's fairly well known that you should never test strips while they are still on the reels for any extended period. In fact, I believe the last batch I received from Ray had that very warning included with the reels.
Just unreel them and lay them out and run a few test sequences for a day or 2. That is all I had done and I am using the same strips going on 5 years now (house outline was up for 4 years all year long no failures).
This year, I had my house re-sided and new windows etc so I have to do all over....
The key thing to keep in mind is how you apply power to the strips, this is where people have issues and create their own problems. Do not plug and un-plug strips while controller is hot, always turn controller off 1st. I know some people will say "but I do that all the time" which is great for them but if you always turn off controller before connecting the lights it makes for less issues IMHO.
As for the anti-static bags you will find any electrical components you get from china are packaged that way. It would seem to be fairly standard.
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