My oh my... If any of you are like me, you have won many treasures within the eBay community. When the package finally gets to you, it is reminiscent of many a Christmas with a dad who took great joy in wrapping the gift so that you couldn't get to it. At least not without borrowing the 'jaws of life' from the local fire department.

I can't tell you how many razors I have bought where the seller used enough tape to package and wrap the state of Idaho for out-of-country shipment. Not only do they use a metric ton of tape, you can never seem to find the end of it to begin the unraveling process. Are the sellers mad at the buyer for some reason? Do they take joy in creating this non-working puzzle? Come on, sellers... shape up!

It's my contention that all the mailing drama is not necessary... or polite. Allow me to give you the 'what for' in packaging.

I'm going to use razors as the example. You could apply the same principle for any small item. First, offer two types of shipments. First Class and Priority Mail. That's it. Don't get complicated. Get some of those 6 x 9 bubble envelopes. They are cheap on eBay. Look for them there. The other source of packaging is the ole Priority Mail box that you can get for free from the post office. Let me repeat... FREE from the post office. You can even order them on line from their website.

You can send a razor anywhere within the United States for about a dollar and a dime using the bubble envelopes. That's envelope and stamp for a tad over a dollar. Priority Mail is $4.05 anywhere in the country. Be fair by charging $5 for Priority, and you will sleep better at night.  

Now let's talk wrapping. You can either buy bubble wrap, or save it from the packages that you get in the mail. Cut it so that there is a 3 to 4 inch overlap on each side of the razor as seen here:

Have a 5 inch piece of packaging tape handy and roll the razor in the bubble wrap. I try to use just enough bubble wrap to generate the exact thickness of the inside of the box. After rolling the razor to the end of the bubbles, put the tape 2 inches over the end of the wrap and secure it to the other side.

Hold the tube you have created so that it does not unravel. Apply the tape to within 2 inches of the end. Then fold 1/2 inch of the tape under so that it sticks to itself for that half inch. Take a sharpie and put two quarter inch dots on each side of the flap of tape you just made. Connect the dots, and make a 1 inch line perpendicular line from the middle with an arrow that points in the direction that the tape must be pulled to remove.

Wall-ahh! (Sorry... I refuse to spell French words) Now there is an obvious starting point to unravel the neat little package that you just created. Take the tube and insert it into the Priority Mail box that you just got for free thanks to useful information found here in this guide. That will look like this:

Gently push the tube into the box, allowing the ends to fold upwards. This allows a stable buffer for the trip the box will make at the hands of disgruntled employees from the post office. (that's a joke, son, that's a joke) Once the tube has been pushed to the bottom of the box, put in half a page of a local newspaper in the center just to help keep the tube in place.

Close the flaps, seal the puppy, and throw a stamped label on it. Believe me, the person you send this razor to will definitely appreciate the care you took with his new toy...

Remember, you can substitute any small article in place of the razor. It all works the same, and it takes much less time to package than trying to wrap it like a mummy.