Packing material suggestions

[byrd69er]

If you have other suggestions for sources of free packing materials....please chime in.

To reduce or nearly eliminate my packing materials expenses, I've let office coworkers know what need. One who helps me, brings me bags of materials she has  collected when she visits our office....from 70 miles away. She makes a huge effort to recycle, and I fit right in. She brings me used prescription bottles that I use for packing. Washed and labels removed.  Anything that can be used for packing, she brings it. There's several coworkers who drop off drop supplies in my cubicle.

The IT department in my office saves a lot of the packing materials from computers that come in. We get dozens at a time.

My son works at an on-line card trading company. He brings home the packing materials that cards and other items are sent in by sellers.

There's an office furniture supplier about a 1/2 mile from me. They gladly provide me with packing materials from the pieces that come in. More than I need

My only expense for shipping......tape.

[lookng2015]

I also don't get the aversion to plastic grocery bags. Scumpled up they make great corner fillers to stop movement (or for larger items to contain peanuts and can be shaped to the item).

Obviously I only use clean ones and any that have carried fridge or freezer foods go in the recycle bin.

[dcintennessee]

@southernfriedbelle, I respect your opinion & have a question for you, please, plus for anyone else who'd be so kind as to weigh in. Several months ago, I had breakage where a very well-packed set of 5 heavy bowls was slammed down hard. The buyer wasn't upset with me, saying the box was slammed so hard, the FOUR layers of thick bubbles popped, cracking the bottom bowl. Excellent packing (yay me!) protected the other 4 bowls, which is all she actually wanted. I refunded for the broken bowl, and USPS quickly paid the insurance claim, thanks to her excellent pix. A more experienced seller said my liberal application of Fragile stickers probably taunted someone along the way... Since then, I rarely use Fragile stickers - lesson learned. 

That incident gave the the brilliant (?) idea to use an inverted egg crate as my last line of defense, and I have an ample supply thanks to a friend with a houseful of teenage boys. I ditch any with egg residue inside, and rinse the rest before storing them to use as needed, but of course, my buyers don't know about my extra cleanliness measures. All items are carefully wrapped & padded with a liberal supply of other clean filler, never directly touching an egg crate. I've gotten messages from two other sellers who bought my breakables, saying "Egg crates? Why didn't I think of that??" But, maybe they shouldn't follow my example?

Do you think I need to get over my paranoia about that one abused package & ditch the egg crates?

I'm also very picky about reused supplies. On the "8 Shipping Myths" thread I posted pictures of the dog food box a long-time seller used when shipping to me. With a garment inside! Totally gross. With almost 4800 feedback, 100% positive, I have to wonder how much repeat business she misses by using such substandard shipping supplies. I can't bring myself to leave feedback, because my fingers keep typing "Gross dog food box!!"

[dhbookds]

We like pool noodles for some fragile stuff........can usually find in free piles at end of yr, 25c at g sales or 50c at Dollar stores. 

[dhbookds]

inverted egg crate

Question about this........  do you mean the plastic or the cardboard ones?  I find I can easily squash the plastic ones with my hand, cardboard would work better I think.   If you're worried about reactions, just put them in a plastic bag. 

[dirk12955]

As a seller of stamps......I cut up cereal boxes. Put the stamps in the cardboard and put that in the envelope.

[1786davycrockett]

Barnes & Noble book stores receive dozens of box shipments nearly every day, and most of those boxes are filled with clean packing materials that are disposed of as garbage, since most of it is non-recyclable.  Ask the store manager if they would mind giving the packing materials to you instead -- most B & N stores are anxious to give these materials away (as it saves them time and money), and will provide you with HUGE bags filled with peanuts, air-bags, plastic sheeting, pre-formed styrofoam, etc.  Go for it!

[luckythewinner]

In addition to figuring out how to reduce the packing costs for my items, I also reduced the items that had the highest packing costs. 

[dcintennessee]

@dhbookds, I just tested. The styro egg crate didn't crush at all with 71 pounds of boxes full of books & magazines stacked on top, so I stopped there. But, I'm not getting out my slide rule & abacus to calculate what weight dropped from what height would exert 71 pounds of pressure...

[dhbookds]

lol............thanks for the info.........Am going to have to try them.  We wash/return to the small local store for reuse, and seems like I have destroyed a few trying to get them clean, could be different kinds I guess, but does stand to reason they would be pretty tough to protect the eggs.......  Thanks for opening my mind, lol....

[tellmemama]

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I also don't get the aversion to plastic grocery bags. Scumpled up they make great corner fillers to stop movement (or for larger items to contain peanuts and can be shaped to the item).

Obviously I only use clean ones and any that have carried fridge or freezer foods go in the recycle bin.

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Me either.  While I don't use them as filler, I almost always put the wrapped item inside a clean plastic bag tied and taped shut as the last line of defense should the package get wet. 

My last PITA buyer beached about my doing exactly that.  She was outraged for my using a bag from Dollar Tree.  Seriously.  I like to recycle this way and it's not like the vintage NRFB item came from there or wasn't properly protected with plenty of bubble wrap before it was bagged.  But she was angling for a partial and coming up with many different reasons why she should get one (including complaining about damage to the box which was clearly shown in the listing).  Fortunately she clearly violated the feedback extortion policy in her messages so her neg about the bag was unceremoniously removed.

I guess I need to stock up on Macy's and Nordstrom's bags for buyers like her.

[dcintennessee]

@dhbookds, I'll borrow that idea! I use pool noodles to hold my boots upright, and have extras from recently donating boots I no longer wear. Nope, no stinky pinky odors clinging to them! 

[city*satins]

My tips and tricks:

1.  I haven't bought KRAFT paper for years. I just get a paper grocery bag for my canned or boxed purchases at the grocery store and then disassemble it and use it as wrapping paper when I need to wrap a boxed or book item.   The paper shopping bags with handles from clothing and specialty stores can be cut apart the same way and used as external wrap.   

2,  I once had a small Dresden figurine to ship.   It was too delicate to use even the finest bubble wrap because the tiny, delicate fingers would be at risk to break in the act of wrapping.   I got a small box, about 1/2" larger on all sides than the figurine, placed a flimsy (soft was a good thing, not a bad thing - a ziplock bag would have been too hard) grocery bag inside and poured oatmeal into the bottom 1/2". Then I placed the figurine upright inside and continued pouring the oatmeal (uncooked!) until the figurine was completely surrounded with oatmeal and filled the bag inside the box.   Sealed the bag. Sealed the box. Surrounded the box with enough packing material to withstand a 100foot drop and a foosball competition and sent it out.

Send the buyer a message warning her that the inner box needed to be opened carefully because of both the delicacy of the object and the potential messiness of the oatmeal if spilled.

Arrived safely and the buyer sent kudos for 'creative packing'.

Luckily I have a good, constant source of air pouches and pre-crinkled packing paper, bubble wrap and similar internal packing materials.

3.  I once bought 50 small boxes for shipping molded cup bras in but they were badly designed, misaligned, and too heavy.   I have cut them into 5"X8" boards and use them to pack underwire bras that can ship in a flat mailer.  The boards prevent all but the most concerted efforts to bend them to fit into post office mailboxes that can't accommodate them (reduces the risk of damaging the underwire)

They're also great for packing books in lots as they help to prevent movement, especially if the books have dust jackets.  Put between books before wrapping and then bag the lot, and use the thick boards to surround the lot before wrapping can make packing easier.  

I also use them between magazines if I am selling a lot of magazines. Unfortunately they can add to the weight, significantly if the lot is large, and since magazines can't go by media mail, this can add to the cost of shipping by kicking the weight up to the next pound.

That's my sum total of handy tricks.

[southernfriedbelle]

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 I'm all for using clean, previously used packing materials within reazon. What I hate, though, is receiving items packed with dirty, dusty, sticky or greasy materials, or items that (I don't care how well they're cleaned!) are just gross. I'm talking about Styrofoam meat packaging trays, egg cartons, and cereal boxes to name a few. I'd also have to add plastic or paper grocery bags to this list.

Just don't, cuz that be straight up nasty.

I may be too squeamish, but, Ewww.

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Hahaha you gotta let that go.   That repurposed shipping box is probably much nastier than the egg carton or cereal box if you really think about it.  (eggs take a soap and water bath before they are put into them).  

And I don't get the aversion towards grocery bags.  Again, unless in direct contact with wet or moist food, they are generally quite clean. 

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Okay, obviously the consensus is, I DO need to let that go! I'm my defense, I wss getting over a bout of stomach flu when I posted that last night!

I sanitize egg cartons by spraying them down with bleachy cleaner and rinsing them thoroughly, so if I were there to use them, I know they'd be clean. I guess I should give other sellers the benefit of the doubt that they're cleaning theirs as well.

The reason I don't like grocery bags is that I've gotten items that had a weird stale emanating from them when those were used, obviously from sellers who weren't quite so careful in making sure they used only clean, dry ones.

I still say no reused meat trays,  though. I got something the other day with one of those, and although it appeared clean, I just couldn't get the image of raw hamburger sitting on it...I

I guess I do take it to an extreme, though. Never having been a high volume seller, I have been paranoid about buyers not liking my packaging, so I've gone the other direction. That can get prohibitively expensive fast, so kudos to you all for coming up with some creative ways to pack your items without breaking the bank!

[goodluckselling]

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Using the right size box for the item reduces the need for most packing materials.

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This is the best option IMO.  You will actually save enough money in postage weight to pay for a new box versus using a used older box or some of the postage. 

Buyers first impression is actually the box they get before they open the package.  Is the box full of ads and marked out areas?  Is the inside packing less than desirable?

These are the kind of thing that brings doubt or concern into a buyers mind before they actually see the item inside.  Doubt and concern brings tougher criticism of item/s and may actually help the buyer create false SNAD reasons for a return.

Good Luck Selling!