Hi, Folks! I'm Catherine from 4-a-little-lady, an active USA eBay 8-track and collectibles store.  Sellers? Your boxes are freezing, it's time to winterize!

At my end of the world, we spend months where the outside air never gets above freezing, with our ground color a bright-white no matter how fast we shovel ...  Mailboxes are outside, your boxes sit in these conditions. Mail is constantly going in and out of buildings, trucks, and planes on it's way to your buyer.

Professional sellers winterize their packages to protect the item inside from getting damp, wet, or freezing. 

Tips On Winterizing

1. Items going into a cardboard (or paper) envelope must be wrapped in a plastic bag first. Bubble mailers are not leak-proof, and will retain water inside if they get wet, and start to dry again on the way to their destination.  

2. Pottery items can develop showing stress marks that you couldn't see before shipping if they are allowed to freeze. This happens when a tiny amount of moisture stays in the glaze and expands while it freezes. You can stop this from happening by packing your item into a plastic bag, next covered by insulating newspaper, before adding your bubble-wrap.  

3. Never take short-cuts on box tape in the winter. Close your box in the normal manner and then add one long piece around the middle - across the bottom and top flaps --- with the ends of the tape ending on the box top. Put your box label on top of the tape ends.  Now, if your box gets wet, this piece of tape will act to hold everything together anyway.  

4.  With expensive items, place your mailing information (and contact information)  inside of a zip-loc bag inside of the box in case your outside label gets wet.

5. With home-printed labels sometimes the ink will smear or run if it gets wet. Cover the address and return address part with a protective layer of tape.