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How To Pack Your Books For Shipping - by Boozad
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585 posts in this topic

no way.... the impact had to be very very great and vigorous to provide that kind of damage! I thought I've seen some rough slabs....now yours is absolutely.....scary.

 

So sorry to hear that happened. Hope the seller is a good fella and listens.

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no way.... the impact had to be very very great and vigorous to provide that kind of damage! I thought I've seen some rough slabs....now yours is absolutely.....scary.

 

So sorry to hear that happened. Hope the seller is a good fella and listens.

 

He seems to be a good guy, and I steered him to the USPS insurance route, so we'll see how it turns out. Totleben sigs are rare, he's only done 3 (?) signings, and I'm happy to keep the book, even as it is (9.0/9.2). The cover is just torn at the staples about 1/8", not completely detached.

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no way.... the impact had to be very very great and vigorous to provide that kind of damage! I thought I've seen some rough slabs....now yours is absolutely.....scary.

 

So sorry to hear that happened. Hope the seller is a good fella and listens.

 

Remember those Spidey #324 and 319 (?) 9.6 copies I sold you? That's the way I pack, so that the slabs can "float" against soft bubble wrap, rather than hard edge, when they're impacted. They made it all the way to Singapore without damage!

 

:)

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You are very right and I remember. Just very difficult to define the term "float" here. You have to see and feel the room and space to understand what you mean.

Too bad I only notice this thread after I received your package (i think), either that or I was too tired and lazy. :P

 

Nevertheless...my condolences for your damage....we always hope the next slab would be better.

 

 

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DON'T.

 

PACK.

 

YOUR.

 

BOOKS.

 

WITHOUT.

 

LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS AND LOTS.

 

OF PADDING.

 

BETWEEN THEM AND THE DAMN SIDES OF THE BOX.

 

...or THIS will happen:

 

DSCF07311.jpg

 

 

:eyeroll:

 

This lot is from a MAJOR nationwide dealer, who ASSURED me the books would be packed very well to avoid damage.

 

This was NOT atypical handling, either. The box is virtually untouched.

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Well I just got a package in a bubble mailer, which I don't mind since it's only a $10 book (The Life After) but it was in between 2 thin priority box cardboard and just barely fit the book resulting in a ton of spine stress, if he had used thick cardboard that extended over the book it would've probably been fine. The guy may have a replacement to send but if he sends it the same way is it even worth it to get another or just get a refund? Seems like a really big seller. Has over 17,000 feedback.

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Those are Ultra Pro hard plastic "mylars" with the tuck-in flaps. Do you know how hard the impact has to be to have done that? The plastic is BROKEN, it was hit so hard.

 

I think I experienced the same "impact" before as you, but worse. My shipment received back then was 5 cgc slabs....4 out of the 5 had a corner totally crushed.

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Be careful when you tightly pack comic books with interior gripper holes. If you tightly pack them, they will grip the other page and stick and if they are old pages they will teak easily on the bottom. So if a grader is opening the books too fast and they have an agenda to grade so many books they will tear the bottom. Just saying...but maybe a sticky to let the grader that the book has gripper pages. Still, a nice packing process.

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Has anyone explained how to ship lots, say in increments of 50, 100, 250, or even a 1000 comics or more in this thread? If so, you should probably add it to the opening post. If not, let's see what we come up with here and then maybe add it?

 

I currently have 100 long boxes I'm going through and am curious how people ship their runs safely and in the most cost effective way. I see sellers on ebay charging like 7 bucks to ship 50 books and it boggles my mind. It costs me 9 dollars to ship 4-9 comics to Cali (I'm from CT). Granted I pack my comics in a box properly. Still I see people shipping huge lots on ebay, like 100 books for 10-15 dollars shipping and can't figure it out. Are they getting away with media mail or something?

 

p.s. Don't know if anyone has said this, but the best secret out there for (basically) free cardboard...Costco. If you have a membership (55$), just go in, grab a flatbed, walk around the foods aisles and grab slip sheets. They're everywhere. Usually between the pallets of items. Or if a product is running low on the top layer, just grab the slip sheet underneath it, shouldn't be hard. No one will say a word to you. I work there, and of course I get TONS of it, but customers come in all the time, buy nothing and just take cardboard.

Edited by MagicMasonry
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Whenever I make an eBay purchase from someone who doesn't have a TON of past comic book sales and positive feedback specifically mentioning their quality of packing, I always send a message via the eBay system immediately after making payment, suggesting how my purchase should be packed for maximum protection. My instructions are based on the info from this thread. No sellers have taken offense so far.

 

Also, I always ask even experienced sellers to write "PLEASE DO NOT BEND" on the package, and I explain that, if nothing else, it's a reminder to my mailman to bring it to my door and not try to cram it in the mailbox.

 

This has greatly lowered my incidence of damaged books.

 

 

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I bought a couple of slabbed comic from Metropolis ($1000 worth). They were sent Fed-Ex and arrived today. The slabs had cardboard around them but no bubblewrap, packing peanuts, or even crumpled newspaper to limit their movement within the box. The only other inside packing was one loop of brown construction paper loosely wrapped around them.

 

The box was crushed, and when I lightly shook the box I could feel the slabs shaking around with no resistance, but somehow through the grace of God the slabs were not cracked.

 

I have not bought much from Metropolis, has anyone else experienced this from them?

Edited by gadzukes
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Also, I always ask even experienced sellers to write "PLEASE DO NOT BEND" on the package, and I explain that, if nothing else, it's a reminder to my mailman to bring it to my door and not try to cram it in the mailbox.

I've heard people say that they prefer not to have "do not bend" or "fragile" written on packages, with the idea being that there might be somebody in the shipping process who sees it and thinks, "Don't tell me what not to do!" and makes a point of giving that package some extra abuse.

 

I don't know who is right -- the Do Not Bend camp or the Do Not Write Do Not Bend camp -- and there's not really any conclusive way to test the matter... So the verdict is out for me...

 

I guess if you have the kind of mailbox where larger items need to be bent in order for them to fit, you have good reason to ask for "do not bend" on your items. Wouldn't it also be worth considering getting a larger mailbox?

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