@made_mktg wrote:
anyone know online or in retail where to buy on-of-a-kind sizes on shipping boxes - where you can buy one or two of a specific size (not 10) - i sell so many different items and don't want to load up on shipping boxes.
There are several sellers here on eBay who list boxes in dimensions by the inch and in varying quantities you specify. so if you really want to go that way, you can. However, the economies of buying boxes one or two at a time are pretty bad, not to mention having to wait around while they're shipped to you. Also, the per-unit price plummets when you buy more at a time.
I have some items that I sell over and over, and I have settled on about three sizes of small box that I buy in small quantities (25 or 50, usually) maybe 2-3 times a year. For any given shipment, I use the smallest box that will safely hold the item(s), but if there's an inch or two of excess dimension, I don't sweat that.
My items are usually light enough to go by First Class Package, which is priced in four-ounce increments, so I'm not worried about box dimensions (they're way under one cubic foot), but I'm very interested in keeping weight down, because an ounce of excess weight can push into the next price increment and cost me an extra 50¢-70¢ or so that I might be able to save. (I switched from standard cardboard boxes to EcoSwift boxes some time back after discovering that I could lower one of my most common shipments from 8.6 ounces to 7.5 ounces that way.)
So I would suggest figuring out what small assortment of sizes could work with your items, and then buy 10 or more of each size to keep the per-unit price down. (I know you said that you didn't want to buy 10 at a time, but you will find that you go through them faster than you expect.) That will give you the freedom to pick a good box size for each item individually, and you will have enough on hand that you can see which sizes you'll need to re-order before you actually run out.
