Best way to package a hardback book economically
Summary: prettynice444 is looking for economical ways to package hardback books for shipping without much storage space. shire123 suggests using boxes, while 1786davycrockett and shado-x offer methods involving protective layering with cardboard, newsprint, and plastic. rfmtm recommends using corrugated mailers but advises against high-priced options like U-Line, suggesting recycled alternatives instead. shire123 emphasizes the importance of investing in quality shipping supplies, noting the costs involved.
Hardback books are almost always too big to fit in a #2 and even #3 bubble envelope. And they aren't always the best protection.
I know books are pretty cheap on ebay, but if it's in the $12 range I still want it packaged well. Before covid, I used to buy a roll of fluting and staple it around the book. That was cheap! But now I'm renting a teeny tiny room, so I don't have room for that.
To keep it simple, are people using those scored fold over boxes that fit different sizes, or the stayflats with heavy cardboard, or something else? Or a #4 bubble envelope? I'm open to suggestions!
shire123
·4 days agoPlease define what you mean by "economically"? You have been given a few suggestions but you seem to be balking at a $2 box cost.
If you have a lot of items to sell you will need to invest in shipping supplies. If it's only a few to sell then you can probably scrounge up boxes. wrappings, etc from around you area.
Shipping supplies are going to cost you money. Boxes for books all run from $1 to $2 each. Rolls of bubble wrap are about 10-20. You can cut up boxes for cardboard. Precut cardboard is harder to find and more expensive
Mailing envelopes are going to cost you somewhere under $1.
I ship a few books and use a box. My shipping supply cost (box, tape, bubble wrap) for each book cost about $2.
rfmtm
·5 days agoLook for what is call a corrugated mailer. This type of box is reasonably priced, are quite strong, and come in fixed or adjustable sizes.
prettynice444
OP4 days agoU-Line shows these as easy-fold mailers or just literature boxes. They told me they're over $2 each. That's too much. Can I ask where you get yours?
rfmtm
·4 days agoU-line is expensive. You can also look for what they call a "book mailer", which is cheaper an often from recycled brown corrugated.
What is the size of the books you sell?
shado-x
·6 days ago · EditedSome books can use a bubble envelope, but I recommend wrapping the book with bubbles itself, and then put it in the bubble envelope (and write "Do Not Bend" in red on the envelope after putting a label on it); otherwise, use a box. Nearly all Books go Media Rate, so postage is lower if using a box.
1786davycrockett
·6 days ago@prettynice444
Shipping with boxes is preferred, unless you can cover the book in layers of protective material, which is the only safe method for using bubble envelopes.
For my own book shipments, I seal the book inside a plastic envelope, then sandwich between layers of cardboard, then wrap in double layers of newsprint, and finally use thick grocery bag material to wrap the resulting item for mailing purposes.
The finished product has multiple protective layers, which provides for safe and secure shipping -- I've mailed thousands of books in this manner, with only very few problems.
prettynice444
OP4 days ago · EditedOk, I will never go to this length. I don't know what a plastic envelope is. A bag? And do you cut your own cardboard, or buy it cut? And you happen to read, or buy, or find in the dumpster, piles of newsprint? No one around here gets a newspaper any more. We do get paper grocery bags. Can you buy that in a roll? What is it called? And then you have to wrap tape all around it?
1786davycrockett
·4 days ago@prettynice444
Apparently I'm becoming part of an extinct species, since I still subscribe to (and daily read) a local newspaper, and each issue of the newspaper arrives inside a nice, colorful plastic bag, which I can cut in half for wrapping around books which sell -- so that takes care of how I source my newspapers and plastic bags, while recycling both.
It only takes a few minutes to trim a couple pieces of cardboard to fit around a book; and whatever cardboard I need is easily available from shipments made either to me or from my neighbors.
The grocery stores where I shop are very liberal with their grocery bags, and so these are easily acquired, as well.
And, of course, the exterior package is wrapped in several places with packing tape, which is easily obtained free from eBay each quarter.
It only takes about 10 minutes or so to pack each book in this manner, and I've rarely had any buyer since 1965 complain about receiving a book that was damaged in the mail, after packing in this manner.
I'd rather take the short amount of time to pack the book securely, than to have an upset and angry buyer who receives a book mailed simply inside a bag, without any protective wrappings around the book -- and I've received lots of those from eBay sellers who should know better.
ryry-jj
·2 days agoIt's called Kraft paper, usually 40# Base Weight is standard, 50# BW is close to what a grocery bag is made from. Comes on a roll. Before corrugated boxes, this is what people wrapped shipments in...that brown paper wrapping out grand parents wrap up stuff shipping through the post office
shire123
·6 days agoUse a box.