I sell mostly vintage glassware on ebay, and the single most important thing to me and my customers is that their items arrive safely. There is nothing worse than winning an item, paying for it, and anticipating it's arrival only to receive it smashed in a million pieces. This has happened to me many times simply because the person who sold it didn't take the time to wrap and package it securely. It's very frustrating to know that if someone had just used the proper materials, and took the time to arrange the items in a big enough, strong enough box, they surely would've arrived safely. It's even more upsetting when you have several items in the box and some are broken and some are not. You end up digging through to salvage the few items intact, and usually come away with slices all over your hands. The worst thing of all though, as far as I am concerned, is when the item is a piece of rare vintage glass such as Carnival Glass. A lot of these items are very hard to find because there are very few left. It is sad when something like this is lost to the world because of somebody being careless in the shipping process. This is not a case where the item can be replaced and no amount of insurance is going to make a bit of difference. So, when you decide to sell something fragile, first make sure that you are willing to take the time to wrap it properly before shipping it to the auction winner. To help you with this, I want to share some techniques that I always follow when shipping my items. If you read my feedback, you'll see that a lot of my comments have to do with items being well packaged.

First of all, the only thing that newspaper or tissue paper should ever be used for is to stuff between items to keep them in place so they don't bang against each other. This also goes for plastic shopping bags. If it isn't bubble wrap, don't even think about wrapping glass in it. A lot of the time, people don't use bubble wrap because they don't want to spend the money for it. In reality, it isn't that expensive especially if you go to an office supply store. Another thing that I do is to save the wrap from items that I win. Doing this has saved me a tremendous amount of money. Of course, if you do purchase it yourself, you can always charge a packaging fee to pay for it. I don't ever do this, but some people do. There are two types of bubble wrap, one with small dots and one with large. I use the small dots for small items and the large for large items. It is harder to wrap small items in the large wrap, but large items can be wrapped in the small if you make sure to use plenty. I also like to pre-wrap more fragile parts of items such as the stem of a goblet or points on top of a vase. After wrapping that part seperately, I come back and wrap the whole item again. I also use plenty of packing tape around the bubble wrap to make sure it stays in place. Another thing you can use for this is the individual "Priority Mail" stickers that you can get free from the post office. These stickers are just one of the free items you can get if you ship Priority, which I will discuss later. Another thing that you should use if at all possible are packing peanuts. This is another item that is not hard to come by, I have huge bags of it out in my garage from items I have won. The best way to do this is to sprinkle a good layer on the bottom of the box, arrange the item(s), fill in around the sides or between multiple items and then fill the box to the top until it closes tight with no space. This way your items should stay where you put them and have protection from anything on the outside that may cause damage. If you don't have any of these peanuts, make sure to use something else such as newspaper, plastic bags, or tissue. It doesn't help to have items wrapped in bubble wrap moving all around, banging against each other inside the box. Everything must be as secure as possible. It is your responsibility as a seller to do everything you can to get the item where it is going in one piece. Finally, the box you use is of the UTMOST IMPORTANCE. Always use a box that is solid and large enough to acommodate the item(s) with plenty of room for a buffer zone. Stay away from boxes that are flimsy, old or look like they were left out in the rain. Sounds funny, but it's happened to me more than once. I mentioned before that if you ship Priority, the post office will give you supplies for free and that includes boxes in various sizes. Plus, you can go on the website and order, and they will deliver them right to your door for free! What could be easier. The only thing is that you do have to use Priority boxes for Priority mail only. I usually only ship Priority, but sometimes I give the option of Parcel Post etc. In this case, you can take the priority box apart, turn it inside out, tape it back together and use it that way. I also like to cut boxes apart and just put a piece of them over top of the peanuts for a little extra security and strength. When you finally have the box packed and ready to ship, make sure to use plenty of tape to hold it securely closed.

One final piece of advice that I cannot stress enough. It doesn't matter how carefully you wrap and pack your items, there's always the small chance that something may get broken anyway. That is why it is so very important to REQUIRE insurance on all of your auctions containing fragile items. It is not that expensive and I have never had anyone complain about it. Sure enough, if you send something without it and it breaks, that customer is not gonna be unhappy and they are gonna want you to compensate them in some way, no matter what your policy is. So, why take the chance when you can simply send them the receipt and have the post office take care of it? Also, make sure to save the insurance receipt until you know the item has arrived safely. If you ship from the post office they will give you one, I advise that you write the item name on it while you are there so it's easy to reference if you need it. If you print postage from your computer at home, something a lot of people don't realize is that the part of the sheet left after you cut off the shipping label is the insurance receipt, so don't throw it away! You may even want to print a couple of copies to be sure.

So, there you have it. My advice for shipping glass and other fragile items. It works for me and it should work for you too if you follow the simple instructions in this guide. Thanks and Happy Shipping!!!