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.

[southernfriedbelle]

@dcintennessee, sorry ran out of edit time after hitting Post on blank content.

The only thing I've seen work 99% of the time is box within box, where  each piece is in it's own box, packed as if that box were going to ship by itself, then with padding between each smaller box, placed inside a strong outer box. Padding between is essential, though. Nothing can move around inside the outer box. (See my reply to @lintbrush* regarding rethinking my egg crate position).

This is a huge pain, but it works. I've never received anything broken when packed this way, and this is also how I pack my teapots and Blenko for moving.

Which is why it's still in boxes from our last move. 😮 Oh well. Less to pack up now we're moving AGAIN!

[1786davycrockett]

Unused grocery bags are openly available at the Cub Store where I shop, and the employees often tell me "Take as many as you need -- they're free!" So no need to use used grocery bags with questionable stains.

[mangorunner]

Re-using anything that's clean and works is SO much better than buying or taking anything new.  We have to think of our planet and our grandchildren's children.  There will be nothing but landfills for them!  People who think that the eBay boxes and stuff inside needs to be new or pretty because that's someone's first impression of the item inside are really on the wrong track when it comes to saving our planet.  Get your heads on straight.

Just my two cents, of course,

Carol

[southernfriedbelle]

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Unused grocery bags are openly available at the Cub Store where I shop, and the employees often tell me "Take as many as you need -- they're free!" So no need to use used grocery bags with questionable stains.

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Wow, that's great! I just surreptitiously swipe a few dozen from Wal-Mart self checkout...

Just kidding. Have never even thoght to ask. Lucky you for having sich a great store near you. Guess I should ask next time I go grocery shopping if I can take a few!

[southernfriedbelle]

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Re-using anything that's clean and works is SO much better than buying or taking anything new.  We have to think of our planet and our grandchildren's children.  There will be nothing but landfills for them!  People who think that the eBay boxes and stuff inside needs to be new or pretty because that's someone's first impression of the item inside are really on the wrong track when it comes to saving our planet.  Get your heads on straight.

Just my two cents, of course,

Carol

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Yes and no.

Agree with you totally on recycle/reuse for our planet. I take my own reusable grocery bags to the store (when I remember).

However, dirty, gross packing materials are not going to make a positive impression on a buyer. Sellers walk a thin line between being ecologically conscientious versus getting repeat business and avoiding negative feedback.

[mangorunner]

If you are located anywhere near an outpatient surgery center, this is an excellent place to get packing materials.  I work for an outpatient eye surgery center (mostly cataract surgery) and once or twice a week, our center stocks hundreds of supplies - most of them sterile! - and so they are packed in the cleanest, sturdiest boxes you could imagine.  Whatever boxes and packing material I don't take home, the night-cleaning crew has to break down and take to the dumpster.  Believe me, our place would be so happy if someone wanted to come by every X-day (the day we stock supplies and end up with all of the empty boxes) and take them all away for us.  And it would keep them out of the landfill, too.

If you are in need of free boxes of all sizes, check with any local outpatient eye surgery center or any kind of small, local outpatient surgery center for that matter.  Then I suggest you be reliable, stay out of everyone's way when picking them up (don't be a person they have to manage!) and don't leave a mess.  Make them want to say yes to you every time.

Just my two cents,

Carol

[mangorunner]

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Re-using anything that's clean and works is SO much better than buying or taking anything new.  We have to think of our planet and our grandchildren's children.  There will be nothing but landfills for them!  People who think that the eBay boxes and stuff inside needs to be new or pretty because that's someone's first impression of the item inside are really on the wrong track when it comes to saving our planet.  Get your heads on straight.

Just my two cents, of course,

Carol

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Yes and no.

Agree with you totally on recycle/reuse for our planet. I take my own reusable grocery bags to the store (when I remember).

However, dirty, gross packing materials are not going to make a positive impression on a buyer. Sellers walk a thin line between being ecologically conscientious versus getting repeat business and avoiding negative feedback.

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My very first caveat in my very first sentence was "clean and works". 

[nowthatsjustducky]

If you can score them cheap enough at yard sales and thrift stores, old life vests are a great source of packing material.

Slice them open and you will find they are filled with a whole lot of thin but very flexible sheets of padding that are perfect for packages.

It is identical to the stuff I used to get for free in big rolls at the frame shop of Michael's.

I suppose this could be called a life vest hack?  😄

[sockmonkeydave]

@byrd69er

My wife is in the medical field, they get stuff in every day, boxes and packing.

The only thing I pay for is tape.

And I like the option of going to stores, they will save stuff for you.

[nowthatsjustducky]

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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'.

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And the buyer had a healthy start to their day the next morning...  Because it's the right thing to do.  😄

[goodluckselling]

Keep an eye on the weight of the outer box and packaging.  These can make a big difference in postage cost.  Yes we all want to use a very sturdy box when available but does the item require a very sturdy heavy box? 

Also I find bubble mailers almost useless now.  The inside bubble covering is very small and mostly useless.  Poly mailers with your own bubble wrapping around the item is much better and maybe lighter in weight than using bubble mailers.

We use new boxes (several sizes) and poly mailers and buy them in bulk and the saving from smaller weight value about pays for the new boxes and sometimes more than pays.  Larger boxes than is needed is wasted space to fill with packing material (which has more cost) and added weight (more cost). 

Good Luck Selling!

[thallidguy]

It sounds like you have a pretty decent collection of supply sources. When I was selling more actively, I relied heavily on my brother to save all of his mail order discards for me (he does a lot of mail order shopping). I also frequented a local collectibles show (where I also picked up some of my inventory) and scavenged boxes and as much packing material as I could. Once found an entire trash barrel full of clean peanuts, so I just lifted out the liner and took it back to my car.

You might check Freecycle if they have a group in your area.

Cautionary notes about a couple of the suggestions in this thread:

Newsprint is fine, but it has to be packed pretty densely. I used to use newspaper until I had a package returned to me and I realized that it deforms and doesn't reform. The item I sent had shifted in transit, scrunching the newspaper and creating a big void in the middle.

There's a recent thread in which a seller said that she used pill bottles for shipping small jewelry items. It struck me as a good idea, but she posted because her buyer mistook it for trash and threw it out with the item still inside. So the moral of that story would seem to be, make the pill bottle stand out in some way so the buyer doesn't just toss it.

[southernfriedbelle]

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Re-using anything that's clean and works is SO much better than buying or taking anything new.  We have to think of our planet and our grandchildren's children.  There will be nothing but landfills for them!  People who think that the eBay boxes and stuff inside needs to be new or pretty because that's someone's first impression of the item inside are really on the wrong track when it comes to saving our planet.  Get your heads on straight.

Just my two cents, of course,

Carol

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Yes and no.

Agree with you totally on recycle/reuse for our planet. I take my own reusable grocery bags to the store (when I remember).

However, dirty, gross packing materials are not going to make a positive impression on a buyer. Sellers walk a thin line between being ecologically conscientious versus getting repeat business and avoiding negative feedback.

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My very first caveat in my very first sentence was "clean and works". 

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Seriously? I just used "surreptitiously" correctly in a sentence a few posts back. I know what "caveat" means. Sheesh! LOL

But thanks for the oh-so-helpful link. In case my brain stops working. Which wouldn't be that uncommon. Happens several times a day, actually.

[birdsflowersanddogs]

Egg crates! I can't believe I didn't think of that, I always recycle them at publix since DH loves eggs. I have NEVER gotten a dirty egg carton unless these was a broken egg, but we buy Egglands. I am lucky that I have several people that save boxes and packing materials for me. I do have to buy some boxes - odd sized items- and sometimes bubblewrap and it does add up. I don't have a problem with newspaper but I always wrap the item in a new trashbag or tissuepaper first. About the meat trays, Publix also uses them on veggies. I will sometimes buy zucchini or squash shrink wrapped to one of those foam meat trays and they are never dirty. I know someone that gets insulin shipped in styrofoam cooler and those can be cuts into packing material. My biggest material cost if the bubblewrap for delicate items and ink. I don't sell some items because the cost of packing materials isn't worth it when I look at what the item will sell for.

[frodobagginskennedy]

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Unused grocery bags are openly available at the Cub Store where I shop, and the employees often tell me "Take as many as you need -- they're free!" So no need to use used grocery bags with questionable stains.

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I am quite sure that if a District Manager heard them say "take as many as you want they are free" thay DM would hit the ceiling.  They may br free for the customer but they are NOT Free for the store.  As a former DM that employee would have a serious talking to!