Packaging advice
Hello everyone, I hope you are safe and well.
Can I have some advice. I want to sell some books and want to use the best packaging, at the most reasonable cost. I see that jiffy bags are quite expensive. What do you use for posting books?
Many thanks.
21 replies
Seller_lljyzgTxr5fgI
Not something we sell much these days but we did shift quite a lot of academic books about a year ago. Easiest and best way for us was just to wrap them in cardboard, then brown paper. The cardboard came from free Tesco boxes and the brown paper from Amazon on a 100 metre roll. Any cardboard will do. Quite often people get Amazon packages which they can recycle for their own use. What I would say is that Jiffy type bags are not really very good for books because they don’t protect the corners from getting bashed.
Seller_taDBgt7LctucW
Jiffy bags may be ok for small, lightweight and inexpensive books but they’re not great if either you or your customer is overly concerned with the book arriving in good condition.
Something like this or similar is better:
https://www.kitepackaging.co.uk/scp/postal-boxes/book-wrap-cardboard-mailers/
Seller_DROodOAYHftnc
I sell books, and I rarely use jiffy bags - I do not buy them and only use recycled ones that I have received stuff in - and if I do I usually put in a piece of cardboard cut to the size of the book - they do not protect enough to stop bumps and dings to edges and corners.
Like retro I recycle and use free packaging available from supermarkets. Bubble wrap and the cardboard trays that tins of food come on are usually ideal sizes for most books, or I cut up cardboard boxes.
The only packaging materials I buy are brown paper and parcel tape !
OK, call me a cheapskate !
Seller_xDtaDZ1Iek9Fq
the trick for packing we learnt over the year, no matter what you are selling is SNUG.
Pack them in tight with no room to rattle or more, then it is less likely being damaged. Sometimes, you need to extra pack or double pack.
Example
we currently got a run on binding cover for obvious reason; they are heavy and can be easily damaged. If the qty is high, we reuse the box that came in and cut down the height to cover over and put tapes on the edges and corner. With smaller qty, we find a bigger box and use “big” bubble wrap to give an extra layer of protection; again cut down to be snug.
A lot of time, we reuse what products come in, even the Amazon boxes. With books, they are relatively small; try get boxes from corner shop/post office etc… they will have many that just happy to give to you.
Seller_f5cnodyVjLD4S
I too recycle packaging but never on Amazon. I don’t want to give customers any excuse for poor feedback or an A-Z e.g claiming their products are Used as New etc…
Seller_taDBgt7LctucW
Just be careful when reusing packaging that there’s nothing on it that the customer may take offence at. You wouldn’t believe the reaction from one of our customers when he received his order in a box reused from our warehouse that was covered in the words “The NOB’s Guide to Beating and Picking Up”
Apparently the customer was unfamiliar with ISBN 9781846890512 and thought those words referred to something else entirely…
Seller_HMxMRdomHkjHi
I use bookwraps which I purchase in bulk as I want books to arrive in as good a condition as they leave me. I take the price of these into account when i am listing.
Seller_LKjg1QRrO36Yq
For slim paperbacks I use card mailers. I first place the books in polybags and sometimes bubble wrap to protect against slipping.
For larger books I use either bubble bags + cardboard or custom cardboard book boxes plus bubble wrap…I get through a lot of bubble wrap…
Seller_oaI4C01xuvHTf
Like others here, I use cardboard sheeting for my books. Walkers Crisp cartons are excellent for this -stiff enough to give protection but easy to cut to size, If you want to buy cardboard sheets new, the stuff you should look for is “Single wall corrugated card, 2-3mm thickness”