( 
)Guide to Safe Packing for Shipping
Hurray, you made the sale on eBay. Now it's time to ship your item. But how can you make sure your wonderful item gets to the buyer safely? If it is damaged in shipment, both the buyer and you will be unhappy -- everyone loses. But carriers are frankly pretty rough on packages. How do you pack your item to survive that handling?
This Guide to Safe Packing for Shipping is based on many frustrating experiences of receiving damaged items, and on successful experience in shipping delicate things, like cameras, audio equipment, electronics, and other fragile items safely. If you don't have a clue, this guide is for you.
Incredible Hazards Your Package Will Face
Packages are thrown, dropped, and crushed in "normal" handling. That's just a fact of life. When they are sorted, they are routinely thrown. When they move on conveyor belts, they meet drops up to 6 feet between belts. When they are stacked with other parcels, they may be crushed under a heavy pile. Our goal is to pack so that our item will survive this "normal" handling without damage. Here is a photo of typical shipping damage to packages.
How to Pack to Survive the Trip
How you pack depends on the ruggedness and value of the item. Is it fairly indestructible like a book, or fragile like wine glasses? Obviously you will need to put more care into packing the fragile or expensive items. But even tough items deserve careful packing, for customer satisfaction. Perhaps you have received books that were just thrown into a large box without padding to fill the gaps. They arrived dogeared, with crumpled corners -- so annoying! Consider how an inexpensive sleeve of cardboard would have protected them at little cost.
That's the idea. Think about how your item could be damaged in "normal" handling. Imagine you are shipping it to yourself. Would you be impressed by the extra care the shipper used and delighted with the safe arrival of the item, or would you be annoyed that the item arrived with minor damage due to sloppy packing? A little thought and a little extra effort are all that is needed to pack safely and make your customers happy.
Packing Fragile Items
The condensed version is: Wrap the item in bubble wrap, place it in a sound cardboard box, and pad it well against shock. Here's a photo of a good packaging job for a camera lens.
I recommend bubble wrap at least 1 inch thick all around the item, taped securely. Place it in a sound, sturdy corrugated cardboard box with at least 2 inches of crush space between your bubble wrapped item and the box walls. Use ample padding material around the item, firmly packed, so it is well protected from shock and will not shift around.
The contents of the crushed box above were just fine because there was ample crush space around the item, it had plenty of padding, and it was bubble wrapped. Padding can be foam peanuts, bubble wrap, air pillows, or crumpled kraft paper -- never crumpled newsprint. Seal the package with real shipping tape. If you have multiple items in the same box, wrap each in bubble wrap so they don't bang into each other.
Heavy Items
Extra care is needed for heavy items. They tend to shift around in the package more. For heavy items, I recommend using double boxes, the inner box well packed as above, the outer one with additional crush space around it filled with firm padding. A double wall corrugated box is best for the outer one with heavy items. If the item is over 50 lbs, it is more challenging to pack safely and you should consider having it packed professionally by a shipping store.
Above 70 lbs, definitely consider professional packing and possibly shipping palletized. This is a very inexpensive way to ship really heavy things. Basically, you box up everything as above, and put all the boxes on a shipping pallet, wrapped in heavy saran wrap or otherwise sealed up. I get used pallets from Home Depot for $5. UPS will come and load it on their truck for you.
Some DOs and DON'Ts
Do insure your item to full value.
Do have Delivery Confirmation or Tracking on your package.
Do get Signature Confirmation if the item is valued above $250.
Do put a Packing List in your package. Buyers really appreciate this.
Do mark fragile items as FRAGILE.
Do ask the carrier if your packing is OK, if you are not sure.
Don't use crumpled newspapers, they compress flat and just don't work.
Don't ship a fragile item in an envelope or bubble mailer. Odds are against it surviving. The $200 lens below was shipped in a Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope to save the seller money. It was destroyed by the shocks of normal shipping.
Don't use masking tape or thin moving tape for sealing packages, it is not strong enough.
Don't pack tiny items loose in the box. Put them in a bigger bag or box so they don't get lost in the padding material.
Don't ship a product bare in its own packaging if the packaging might have value (camera boxes, for example). At least wrap it in kraft paper or better yet put it in a larger box.
Wrap up
It's not hard to pack items safely --- just follow a few simple guidelines:
Wrap each item in bubble wrap at least 1 inch thick, taped closed.
Place it in a sound cardboard box with at least 2 inches of crush space all around.
Pad around the item with firm padding so it does not shift or get shocked.
You and your buyers will be glad you followed these simple guidelines.
Hurray, you made the sale on eBay. Now it's time to ship your item. But how can you make sure your wonderful item gets to the buyer safely? If it is damaged in shipment, both the buyer and you will be unhappy -- everyone loses. But carriers are frankly pretty rough on packages. How do you pack your item to survive that handling?
This Guide to Safe Packing for Shipping is based on many frustrating experiences of receiving damaged items, and on successful experience in shipping delicate things, like cameras, audio equipment, electronics, and other fragile items safely. If you don't have a clue, this guide is for you.
Incredible Hazards Your Package Will Face
Packages are thrown, dropped, and crushed in "normal" handling. That's just a fact of life. When they are sorted, they are routinely thrown. When they move on conveyor belts, they meet drops up to 6 feet between belts. When they are stacked with other parcels, they may be crushed under a heavy pile. Our goal is to pack so that our item will survive this "normal" handling without damage. Here is a photo of typical shipping damage to packages.
How to Pack to Survive the Trip
How you pack depends on the ruggedness and value of the item. Is it fairly indestructible like a book, or fragile like wine glasses? Obviously you will need to put more care into packing the fragile or expensive items. But even tough items deserve careful packing, for customer satisfaction. Perhaps you have received books that were just thrown into a large box without padding to fill the gaps. They arrived dogeared, with crumpled corners -- so annoying! Consider how an inexpensive sleeve of cardboard would have protected them at little cost.
That's the idea. Think about how your item could be damaged in "normal" handling. Imagine you are shipping it to yourself. Would you be impressed by the extra care the shipper used and delighted with the safe arrival of the item, or would you be annoyed that the item arrived with minor damage due to sloppy packing? A little thought and a little extra effort are all that is needed to pack safely and make your customers happy.
Packing Fragile Items
The condensed version is: Wrap the item in bubble wrap, place it in a sound cardboard box, and pad it well against shock. Here's a photo of a good packaging job for a camera lens.
I recommend bubble wrap at least 1 inch thick all around the item, taped securely. Place it in a sound, sturdy corrugated cardboard box with at least 2 inches of crush space between your bubble wrapped item and the box walls. Use ample padding material around the item, firmly packed, so it is well protected from shock and will not shift around.
The contents of the crushed box above were just fine because there was ample crush space around the item, it had plenty of padding, and it was bubble wrapped. Padding can be foam peanuts, bubble wrap, air pillows, or crumpled kraft paper -- never crumpled newsprint. Seal the package with real shipping tape. If you have multiple items in the same box, wrap each in bubble wrap so they don't bang into each other.
Heavy Items
Extra care is needed for heavy items. They tend to shift around in the package more. For heavy items, I recommend using double boxes, the inner box well packed as above, the outer one with additional crush space around it filled with firm padding. A double wall corrugated box is best for the outer one with heavy items. If the item is over 50 lbs, it is more challenging to pack safely and you should consider having it packed professionally by a shipping store.
Above 70 lbs, definitely consider professional packing and possibly shipping palletized. This is a very inexpensive way to ship really heavy things. Basically, you box up everything as above, and put all the boxes on a shipping pallet, wrapped in heavy saran wrap or otherwise sealed up. I get used pallets from Home Depot for $5. UPS will come and load it on their truck for you.
Some DOs and DON'Ts
Do insure your item to full value.
Do have Delivery Confirmation or Tracking on your package.
Do get Signature Confirmation if the item is valued above $250.
Do put a Packing List in your package. Buyers really appreciate this.
Do mark fragile items as FRAGILE.
Do ask the carrier if your packing is OK, if you are not sure.
Don't use crumpled newspapers, they compress flat and just don't work.
Don't ship a fragile item in an envelope or bubble mailer. Odds are against it surviving. The $200 lens below was shipped in a Priority Mail Flat Rate Envelope to save the seller money. It was destroyed by the shocks of normal shipping.
Don't use masking tape or thin moving tape for sealing packages, it is not strong enough.
Don't pack tiny items loose in the box. Put them in a bigger bag or box so they don't get lost in the padding material.
Don't ship a product bare in its own packaging if the packaging might have value (camera boxes, for example). At least wrap it in kraft paper or better yet put it in a larger box.
Wrap up
It's not hard to pack items safely --- just follow a few simple guidelines:
Wrap each item in bubble wrap at least 1 inch thick, taped closed.
Place it in a sound cardboard box with at least 2 inches of crush space all around.
Pad around the item with firm padding so it does not shift or get shocked.
You and your buyers will be glad you followed these simple guidelines.
Guide created: 10/17/07 (updated 08/20/08)
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