Large unusual sized item – should I find a box now or wait till it sells?

[Mark S]

This is the question I have been asking myself since I listed that Fisher Price Action garage with box that I mentioned in the Podcast comments.

So I asked myself, “Are you a fly by the seat of your pants person, or do you plan things out?” Well, sometimes I like to fly by the seat of my pants, but in this case it will cause a lot of stress when it sells, running around, and probably paying for an overpriced box for it. Now I have the good fortune of having a place nearby that will build any custom box you need and ship it out if you want. Now, that has worked well in a pinch, but it can get expensive. I have only done that 2 times for those Vintage Table Hockey games – wicked hard box to find in the wild and I don’t sell enough to buy 25 of them, so it made sense.

Anyway, I went on the hunt in my garage for a box that would fit the Fisher Price Action garage. In about 10 minutes I had found the perfect box!

Now, there are those who build their own boxes, but, “calculate the hourly rate” (ha ha, but appropriate for the current podcast topic), it is going to be super low for that. I have done it in the past and it always takes way more time and tape than I ever thought.

So, the moral of the story is: If you know a box for a particular item is going to be hard to find, find it now and save yourself some stress. Or, have a plan to visit a place that builds custom boxes. I just saved myself a lot of stress and it feels pretty good!

Mark S

[Jay]

Yep, we have a whole shelf of weird sized boxes that Ryanne is always finding. Big boxes, long and skinny boxes, tony little boxes.

[Inglewood]

I always make sure I have a box for an odd sized item before I sell it – saves a lot of headaches! Learned the lesson the hard way numerous times.

If I know it is something hard to pack that will sell, I’ll also pack it up ahead of time if it will take a lot of time. I currently pack and ship in the morning before work, so avoiding an annoying package that eats up all my time allows me to still get my breakfast in.

Packing ahead of time has some advantages with storage as well – items that won’t store easily or stack well on their own stack easily when in a box.

I also like to pack items ahead of time that have multiple pieces to them – such as a video game system that has the game unit, controllers, wires, cards, games, etc. to keep it all together easily.

I’m curious if anyone packs EVERYTHING ahead of time – I’ve seen some fulfillment centers do this.

[Always A Trade Off U.K.]

tony little boxes. Hey Jay who is Tony Little ? Does he sell as well as GEW GAWS 🙂

[bcfol440]

I have seen some clothing resellers pack everything in boxes or padded flats and stack em high.
I am a box hoarder (recovering). I have limited room, so I have to be more in the moment with weird shaped boxes.

[buytikiselltiki]

There is good advice here!!! I feel like a box hoarder, always saving, especially the odd sizes, some flattened – and always keep a couple of large sheets ( picked up at Sam’s club, used to separate layers on pallets.)
But packing even some things ahead would in theory HALVE the storage space I need AND cut down on the panic of searching for the right box or making one up under time constraints —
I feel dumb ! What a revelation!
( note to self – boxes don’t have to be sealed)

[Author]

Posts