Where do you buy your Air Pillows?

[kath.layn]

I need some advice.  I use air pillows for void fill around many of the fragile items I ship. I’ve been having issues getting them delivered.  Used to be fine, an order of about 350 came to my door in one big bag.  Now it’s broken up in 5 small bags, they arrive on different days( if they arrive at all), and often the pillows are deflated.  Anyone have a good supplier to recommend?  Anyone ever use the blow-it-up-yourself kind?

[chevymontecarlo88]

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@kath.layn wrote:

I need some advice.  I use air pillows for void fill around many of the fragile items I ship. I’ve been having issues getting them delivered.  Used to be fine, an order of about 350 came to my door in one big bag.  Now it’s broken up in 5 small bags, they arrive on different days( if they arrive at all), and often the pillows are deflated.  Anyone have a good supplier to recommend?  Anyone ever use the blow-it-up-yourself kind?

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Yes, and worth the initial cost. Allows smaller storage and cost per bag is much less if you use allot. Some people do not like the do-it-yourself bags but when i was using them, had no problems. YMMV

[loose_goose_garage]

I have had the Vevor Air Pillow Machine for over a year now, purchased from Amazon. Works good and is easy to use, I have a large cardboard box that I fill up with bubbles once every week or two so I have them on hand. If you need thousands of them weekly, I would buy a more industrial machine, but this one fills the box I use (roughly 3' x 3' x 2' in about 10-15 minutes after it warms up.

The rolls of film I have bought from eBay work okay, but aren't the strongest by any means.

I recently bought AirDefender film as it is thicker material and it does feel much stronger even flat on roll, although I have not used it yet to verify.

My only regret was not buying a machine sooner as I relied on packages I received and friends/ relatives/ work for my air pillow needs. Now I don't have to worry about running out.

On another note, if you ship anything heavy, I would recommend a Carton Closer Stapler. Like the machine, it was something I pushed off purchasing but once I did I again wish I had gotten one sooner.

[itsjustasprain]

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@kath.layn wrote:

I need some advice.  I use air pillows for void fill around many of the fragile items I ship.

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Yikes. Really? Every time I receive a purchase that's been packed with those things there will invariably be one or more deflated ones in the box. In my selling account I would never dream of using those things for any high-value shipment.

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@kath.layn wrote:

I’ve been having issues getting them delivered.  Used to be fine, an order of about 350 came to my door in one big bag.  Now it’s broken up in 5 small bags, they arrive on different days( if they arrive at all), and often the pillows are deflated.

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When your supplier cannot ship a shipment of air pillows without their getting damaged there is a lesson in there someplace. Maybe they should use air pillows to cushion the air pillows in the shipment. 😉

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@kath.layn wrote:

Anyone have a good supplier to recommend?  Anyone ever use the blow-it-up-yourself kind?

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I always use biodegradable (plant-based) packing peanuts in my shipments. I get mine from Office Depot but they can probably be found elsewhere as well. They are reusable - pack firmly around the item being shipped - and have a springiness to them that crushed newspaper does not. (I also use bubble wrap.) 

[duffy4444]

   I reuse the ones I receive from my wife's and my own purchases and deliveries. I also have one or two relatives that save for me the ones they receive in the same way. I had so many given to me two years ago, that I had to stop them. I still have enough stocked up for another year or so.

Cheers, Duffy

[bandrhome]

Im with you on not using air pillows...

[kath.layn]

Thanks!  I’m seriously considering getting one.

[kath.layn]

I use the biodegradable peanuts  too.  But they’re expensive.  The air pillows have worked fine for me for years.  My issue is not that they are too flimsy and break, it’s more that many look like they never got filled in the first place.  Or the tape used to seal the bag full of bags ( if you get my meaning) has stuck to the air pillows so when you open the package it rips up some of the pillows.  

[kath.layn]

I need friends and relatives like yours!  Mine just give me fruitcakes and stray cats.

[kath.layn]

I get your concern, so how would you cushion, say, a teapot?  I wrap pot and lid separately in tissue, then separately in at least 3 layers of bubble wrap, then cushion all around with air pillows.  I very rarely have breakage.  Curious what you all do instead?

[a_c_green]

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@kath.layn wrote:

I get your concern, so how would you cushion, say, a teapot?  I wrap pot and lid separately in tissue, then separately in at least 3 layers of bubble wrap, then cushion all around with air pillows.  I very rarely have breakage.  Curious what you all do instead?

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I would wrap the pot and lid separately in bubble wrap, not tissue, in order to prevent any chance of them hammering together during shipping. Once both are wrapped, I would fill any remaining voids in the box with those biodegradable peanuts. 

I think one concern that keeps my costs down is to not have a box that's too big for the job, because then you have to fill the voids with something to prevent items from rolling around. Newspaper is too heavy (for example, Section 1 of today's Chicago Tribune, just four broadsheets, weighs almost two ounces by itself) and has lousy crush resistance, air pillows I wouldn't trust for reasons already given, but biodegradable peanuts work well.

I'm another fan of Office Depot for those, because there's usually some kind of sale going on either the 1.5 ft.³ or 5.0 ft.³ bags. I often receive them in my buying account as well, and put those back in the bag for future re-use.  The only down-side to these biodegradable peanuts, in my experience, is that critters love them (due to their plant origins, I guess), so I have to keep my spare bags in plastic tubs so the mice can't get at them.

[a_c_green]

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@itsjustasprain wrote:
When your supplier cannot ship a shipment of air pillows without their getting damaged there is a lesson in there someplace. Maybe they should use air pillows to cushion the air pillows in the shipment. 😉 

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They can't do that. How would the recipient ever know when to stop unpacking? 😄

I once ordered a shipment of boxes. They arrived in a bigger box, cushioned inside with no less than thirty feet (I measured) of bubblewrap.

[susanb1872]

Speaking of packaging, has anyone seen the ebay commercial where the buyer opens a box of 2 headlights and finds them sitting perfectly in the center of the box (with only peanuts and no bubble wrap)?

[mommaknows]

@a_c_green 

😏I love free shipping supplies. 

[a_c_green]

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@susanb1872 wrote:

Speaking of packaging, has anyone seen the ebay commercial where the buyer opens a box of 2 headlights and finds them sitting perfectly in the center of the box (with only peanuts and no bubble wrap)?

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Oh, yeah... that was my first thought, too... of course, in the Real World, he'd open the box and find a mass of crushed newspapers with the headlights down at the bottom someplace. 😅

My second thought was, "You needed to order two round sealed-beam headlights by mail??? Have they not brought a Walmart to your village?"