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This
month we will look at sourcing some of your shipping supplies.
The
vast majority of items sold on eBay are probably best served by
being shipped in a corrugated cardboard box. Small shipping boxes
are available in most post offices, but they are generally quite
expensive and often not as strong as they could be. Since you'll
likely be shipping many items it is usually best to look for
alternatives.
You
may have a collection of cardboard boxes that you've accumulated
from items that you've purchased yourself over the years. This will
be an excellent opportunity to recycle them. If you have more items
to ship than your collection of old boxes can handle, it may be
worthwhile to ask around to see if anyone else has a supply they
might be willing to give you. Retail outlets often receive their
wares in boxes that are subsequently just thrown away, sometimes
actually costing the company money to dispose of, so you may find
store managers who have large stacks of old boxes they're eager for
you to take.
For
smaller boxes look for stores that have small, heavy items and a
high rate of inventory turnover. Liquor stores, gas stations, and
convenience stores are good choices. For larger boxes, consider
asking at furniture stores. Don't worry if the boxes you find this
way aren't exactly optimal, it's possible to resize boxes with just
a little work. You should check with the post office ahead of time
and find out whether there are any special restrictions on the
dimensions of the boxes that they'll ship.
Try
to ensure that any recycled boxes you use are in sound condition,
with no major structural flaws. Use a marker to cross out old
shipping or inventory labels to avoid confusion. International
customs can sometimes reject a package if the box it's shipping in
appears substandard, it may be helpful to wrap the box in a layer of
paper to deal with this possibility.
If
your boxes are too large for the item in question, it's quite easy
to make a box smaller along its vertical axis by cutting down the
edges and folding the flaps lower. Cut off the ends of the flaps so
that they don't overlap when taped.
If
the item is still in its original box, the box may be suitable for
shipping directly. However, bear in mind that the surface of the box
will receive a lot of abuse during shipping; it will be scraped and
scratched, written on with ink, and stickers will be applied at
various steps along the way. If the box is in any way valuable it
would be best to wrap it in an extra layer of cardboard for
protection. The amount of extra space you'll want to leave between
the inside of the box and the item you're shipping will vary
depending on how heavy the item you're shipping is, how fragile it
is, and what sort of packing material you're using. The item should
never touch the side of the box directly.
The
purpose of packing material is twofold; to fill space and prevent
the item from moving around inside the box, and to crush when
pressure is applied before the item itself crushes. These two
purposes are often at cross purposes since the more crushable the
packing material is the less support it can give to the item inside.
For
small or low-density items, crumpled paper is ideal. You can use
newspaper for this; separate it into individual sheets and wad each
sheet up into a ball, laying down a bed of crumpled paper on the
bottom of the box and then filling in around the item after it's
placed inside. You can adjust the tightness of the wads depending on
the weight and fragility of the item. When the package is finished
it should be possible to shake the box vigorously without the item
shifting inside, but the sides of the box shouldn't bulge
significantly and there should be a little springiness when the
sides are squeezed. The only downside of using newspaper is that the
ink will rub off on your hands and on the item. It may be best to
wrap the item in a plastic bag before packing it to protect it
against this.
Shredded
paper is generally not a suitable packing material despite how it
might seem when you first try padding a box with it. The strips of
shredded paper can turn to lie flat, and will do so quickly during
shipping. Use shredded paper only for the smallest, lightest, and
most fragile of items.
Styrofoam
packing peanuts are easy to use and have good properties for packing
a wide variety of items, but they are hard to find second hand and
so may be relatively expensive. When using styrofoam packing peanuts
one must make sure to fill the box tightly enough that nothing can
move inside; if the item can shift even slightly during shipping the
possibility exists that the peanuts will be able to migrate out from
underneath it and the item will settle to the bottom of the box. You
may wish to wrap the item in plastic to prevent packing peanuts from
getting inside it, depending on whether this might be a problem.
Larger pieces of styrofoam can be obtained second-hand from
retailers in the same manner as boxes themselves. One is more likely
to find leftover styrofoam available from stores that sell larger
items such as furniture or consumer electronics. Sheets of waste
styrofoam may also be available from building contractors, who use
it as insulation. In many ways large pieces of styrofoam can be
ideal for packing larger, heavier items; it provides strong support,
it doesn't move around like packing peanuts can, and it can even
provide additional structural stiffness to the box. It can take more
effort to use it well, however. Styrofoam pieces will likely need to
be cut into the right sizes and shapes for your item and the
leftover nooks and crannies may need filling with smaller chips of
styrofoam or wads of crumpled paper. Cutting or snapping styrofoam
will release small styrofoam particles that can be difficult to
clean, so you'll almost certainly want to wrap your item in plastic
to keep these particles out of it.
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