Packing and Shipping Supplies

[JosephK]

What is your preferred place to purchase packing and shipping supplies? Any good deals online for small boxes or bubble mailers? Seems if you just go through Office Depot or Staples, you end up spending more on packing materials than you do on actual shipping. :thumbsdow

 

[paulr]

bubble mailers go on sale at walgreens now and then (look at their weekly coupon flyers). when that happens I buy a bunch (limit 6 per walgreens so I go to several stores here in town). Boxes: I receive a lot of them and re-use some of them.

You can buy this type of stuff very cheap on ebay but I haven't needed to bother with that.

 

[Sigman]

The US Post Office has quite a nice selection of supplies. A lot of them are free (small boxes - i.e. priority, flat rate boxes, some shipping envelopes, etc.).

Our bubble wrap & shipping envelopes come from Sam's Club. We also try to recycle a lot of the boxes that think their journey has ended upon arriving at our house (using newspaper & recycled packing peanuts as filler).

 

[shakeylegs]

I read somewhere that the packaging suppliers on ebay were some of the most successful ebay sellers. Might be worth checking out.
I ship lots of smallish items and have been well served by the USPS priority mail boxes. Shipping via priority mail isn't that much more than parcel post, at least for small packages. As for filling, I recycle packing peanuts from shipments received. The Post Office even has free tape. You can order the supplies from the USPS.com web site.

 

[JosephK]

Wow I never even thought to check eBay for that kind of thing. There are some amazing deals on there! "671 items found in: Brown Corrugated Boxes" I knew there had to be decent wholesalers hiding somewhere. No more will I be roped into paying $2.00 for a 12 x 6 x 6 brown corrugated box.

Definitely going to hit Walgreens and Sams Club if I need some generic bubble mailers. Costco has them from time to time, but their inventory fluctuates too much to be reliable.

Thanks for the ideas fellas!

 

[parnass]

I use a heat gun to remove the gummed labels from padded envelopes I receive and reuse them.

Buy boxes? Nah. I reuse boxes, too. I ask storekeepers if they are discarding any boxes that I could have free. Never a box shortage. :twothumbs

I collect used styrofoam packing peanuts and bubble wrap from stores and I ask friends to save them for me when they get a package.

The only shipping supply I buy is tape.

 

[DieselTech]

I use the free USPS flat rate and Priority Mail boxes for lots of stuff. When I need bigger boxes, or packing filler, I can usually find some headed for the dumpster at work where we had a part shipped in. Heck, just a week or so ago I happened across an entire case of padded envelopes en route to the garbage.

Honestly, I think most of my shipping/ packing supplies from the parts department at work. When we moved buildings a couple of months ago, they tossed out cases of tape, the padded envelopes, all kinds of stuff. :twothumbs

 

[jtr1962]

Given the amount of this kind of stuff that people just throw away, I see no reason at all to buy it. Just go through the dumpsters of local businesses. You'll find loads of packing supplies and other goodies. Once I scored about 50 feet of brand new armored electrical cable.

 

[MarNav1]

I use a heat gun to remove the gummed labels from padded envelopes I receive and reuse them.

Buy boxes? Nah. I reuse boxes, too. I ask storekeepers if they are discarding any boxes that I could have free. Never a box shortage. :twothumbs

I collect used styrofoam packing peanuts and bubble wrap from stores and I ask friends to save them for me when they get a package.

The only shipping supply I buy is tape.

I do alot of this too, Sometimes I buy mailers at USPS as well. If I buy I try to reflect in the price of the item to cover that. I try to wrap stuff good instead of just dropping it in an envelope. I reuse padded envelopes whenever I can. :naughty:

 

[Wattnot]

Use your local yellow pages and find a "shipping supply" place. It should be located in a light business park and not look like much. It's normally where a company would go but the one by me sells to the individual too and it's a small FRACTION of the price asked by the UPS store, Mail Boxes Etc, etc.

Try it.

 

[V8TOYTRUCK]

You guys should see the stash of shipping supplies I have at work! Everytime we/I get a package everything gets divided into 3 big boxes. 1 for packing peanuts 1 for bubble wrap and another for assorted small box and unfolded flat rate/priority boxes.

I try to recycle the boxes whenever I can.

With recycling, USPS boxes, and my uncle who gave me four 4 giant (60'' dia?) rolls of bubblewrap from a warehouse, I've never had to buy any shipping supplies. And I've shipped out 2-3k packages

 

[adamlau]

I reuse the bubble mailers from products received. USPS padded enveloped are $1.09, sans tax around here. Too expensive!