It's a sad and frustrating situation: ebay has been a huge help to collectors in search of scarce old records. But at the same time, destruction of these sometimes irreplaceable gems is occurring at a terrific rate. This happens whenever a seller fails to package old records safely enough for mailing.

The following guide seeks to provide sellers with well-tested methods for the safe shipping of 78rpm recordings.


Most old 78 rpm records are made of shellac and ground slate, and they're a whole lot more brittle and easily broken than vinyl (plastic) records are. Vinyl records will flex a good deal before they break. Most 78s barely flex at all before snapping into two or more pieces.

There are a few 78s out there made of vinyl, but they are the exception, not the rule. Vinyl was sometimes used in pressing children's records, precisely because vinyl can tolerate rougher handling. It was also sometimes used in pressing records for radio disc jockeys, because vinyl pressings, properly cared for, allow for less surface noise than shellac 'n' slate. Sometimes, kids' records have labels saying "Unbreakable During Normal Use" or "Vinylite" or similar clues that the record is made of vinyl.

If you are at all unsure about the material, always assume it's the much more fragile shellac/slate. It will take a bit more care and padding to ship it successfully, but your customers will absolutely love you for the extra TLC.

On the other hand, they will not be happy if an irreplaceable record arrives in pieces, regardless of whether the package was insured, and regardless of the fact that you wrote "fragile" on the package. More on that later.

Basically, go for plenty of cushioning, all around the record to be shipped. Some sellers think that stiffeners are enough, and that if the record is sandwiched between lots of layers of corrugated cardboard, it will be safe. This can work, but it is not a sure thing at all. In my experience, four pieces of cardboard stiffener, with all-around cushioning, is much safer.

A happy side-effect of all that cushioning is that your shipment will be better insulated against hot weather. The kind of heat that can build up in the back of a mail truck can easily cause records to warp. This can make them unplayable, and even more prone to breakage.

I recommend you wrap the record in kitchen cling-wrap, or a couple of paper towels. Place it between two paired sheets of corrugated cardboard. Be sure the corrugations run in two different directions. For example, if the corrugations of one cardboard stiffener run to your left and right (horizontally), the next stiffener's corrugations should run up and down (or vertically). Tape these sheets of cardboard snugly together, with the record sandwiched between. Wrapping this sandwich in a one-inch layer of bubble wrap is a good idea. More is better.

Choose a box that the wrapped record fits in loosely, with an extra inch, or more, of space all around. Pack that extra space with bubble-wrap, styrofoam peanuts, crumpled newspaper, or something similar. Tape your box securely closed with good quality shipping tape, and you're done!

To pack an album set of 78s:

(And by the way, I believe the term "album," when applied to recordings of music, goes all the way back to these old sets of two or more 78s, which were sold in a book-like bound set of protective paper sleeves. These "souvenir albums" were similar in size and shape to the photo albums of the day, in which people stored their family photographs. Decades later, when the record industry changed over to the 33 rpm Long Playing (LP) record, people were so used to talking about records as "albums" that the name stuck, even though there was no longer much resemblance to the bulky album of wedding photos the earlier sets of 78s had been named after.)

Here too, it's a good idea to start by wrapping each record in cling-wrap, or a couple of sheets of paper towel held in place with tape.

Of course we don't want the records to break or warp during shipment, but there's one other danger, frequently overlooked, that also should be avoided. To keep the records from cutting through the edges of the paper sleeves during shipment, store the records between the sleeves, rather than inside them. Records shipped in their sleeves will jostle around during transport. This usually causes the hard, thin edge of a record to cut through the side and bottom of its sleeve. And when the album jacket has sleeves that are slit open, that reduces its value. Same thing applies to 33 rpm records too, by the way.

Place one, or at most two corrugated cardboard sheets into the album along with the records, as a stiffener. Too many sheets of cardboard between the album's covers will stress the spine, which must be avoided.

The set should now be wrapped in a couple of sheets of brown paper or newspaper and taped closed, around all four sides. Same as for shipping single records, the wrapped album should be packed into a box that's big enough to hold the set loosely, with an extra inch or more on all sides. The extra space should be filled with bubble-wrap, styrofoam peanuts, crumpled newspaper, or what-have-you. Bigger boxes are safer, because they allow you to provide the records with more cushioning.

(As an alternative to laying the records between the sleeves, they can be packaged similar to single 78s [as above] and shipped in the same box as the jacket, but completely separate from it. As long as there is plenty of cushion surrounding the records, this method will work very well.)

Now about marking "fragile" on the box. It can't hurt, but it probably doesn't help much. The Post Office will not have the staff and other resources necessary to carry any package to its destination on a velvet pillow. From what I hear, much of our country's mail-handling process is mechanized, and I doubt the machines are reading the word "fragile" and adjusting themselves accordingly. I think the US Post Office does a pretty amazing job every day, but they can't do everything for us. Our part of the work is to pack things really well, so they are protected from accidental shocks, from getting too warm, or from being bent.

One last note: both as a buyer and as a seller, I really like crumpled newspaper for cushioning. It's cheap, it light-weight, it can be used, re-used and recycled by ebayers everywhere, and more arrives in the driveway every day! I prefer it over those pesky styrofoam peanuts, but that's another story.

Please do contact me if any of the above is unclear, or if you know of better methods.