The Christmas season usually means more sales for your shop. More sales means a lot more packing material. Taking the time to search for the best packing materials can save you tons of money. I use a 7x9 bubble mailer for a lot of my items. I looked all over for a place locally to buy them. Walmart had them 5 for $2.97 and the Dollar Tree had them 2 for $1.00 I realized I was going through these about 5 to 10 a week so I started looking online and the best deal I found was on eBay. I found someone with high feedback selling 250 of them for $35.00 and free shipping.
Here are a few tips to help you save money on boxes, tape and more.
1. Paper or Plastic? Pick up a paper shredder at a thrift store. Get the one that does not cross cut the paper. Recycle newspaper and junk mail by shredding it and putting it in grocery store plastic bags. This works for a viable replacement to bubble wrap. If the bags do not look professional enough for you, use zip-lock bags and put a label on the bag stating you are using recycled material for packing to help save the environment.
2. It's a sticky situation. If you are using Priority Mail a lot, don't use your regular packing tape on the boxes. Order the tape from the USPS website. What you pay in postage includes your packing box and tape.
3. Boxy lady. Again if you are shipping Priority you can order all kinds of boxes from the USPS website. Why pay for a box if the post office supplies it to you free of charge. It isn't really free it is more included in the price.
4. Boxy lady, too. If you need boxes don't pay big bucks for new ones. Go to your grocery store, liqueur store, convenience store and ask them for their boxes. Recycle and help the environment. If you don't like the look of the box, most have a seam and can be taken apart and turned inside out.
That is all for now. I will be back again next week with more information, tips, tricks and maybe even a funny story. Tell your friends about the blog. If you have questions please share them.
Good tips! I recently started getting packing supplies (padded envelopes and bubble wrap) off of ebay. you can find some great prices there!
ReplyDeleteThose are great tips Eric. I keep all types of boxes, and turned them inside out...it's a great way to recycle and save some money.
ReplyDeleteCarla
Thanks for the tips! UPS also offers free supplyies to account holders. I prefer USPS but sometimes UPS Ground is a better deal. I save all of my boxes from my purchases if they are in good condition to reuse. I also save the bubble wrap and other packing materials.
ReplyDeleteThe Styrofoam packing that electronics come packed in can be cut up with an electric carving knife or hot knife to be custom fit to any box or into small pieces as "peanuts". I love recycling!!
Thanks for the great tips.
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tips. Check your local craigslist or other local community websites for free stuff. There are sometimes people giving away used packing peanuts, bubble wrap, and boxes. Also tell your neighbors that you reuse shipping supplies, I had a neighbor that brought me boxes, peanuts and bubble wrap once or twice a month. Also if you know what day shipments come into stores you can get boxes from them usually by asking the stockers. Now if I could just find a good supply of 16 x 16 x 6 used boxes things would be easier.
ReplyDeleteI forgot, cruise your neighborhood the day before or the morning before recycling pickup. I've found lots of boxes from that.
ReplyDeleteGreat tips! I didn't know USPS sold tape, too.
ReplyDeleteWonderful tips! We have also used grocery bags balled up to pad our packages, and I keep all of my shredded junk mail in a trash bag in the office in case I need some extra padding. If you are patient, you can also peel the bubble wrap out of used padded envelopes that are past their prime for shipping, and reuse that as well!
ReplyDeleteThanks for the tip on shredding the junk mail for packaging filler. I recently purchased bulk cello bags from PaperMart. I use them to hold/display our fiber rovings especially for the wholesale orders. They were cheaper at PaperMart than the ones at my local party supply store.
ReplyDelete