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I sent a collectible poster in a thick poster tube first class. The post office must have had to really work to bend it. It was not insured. I have one additional poster. The buyer says he knows it’s not my fault but I think according to eBay I’m responsible. If I need to send him another poster do you have any tips about packing it to survive the post office?
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what size is it? you could send it flat, sanwiched between 2 double walled cardboard pieces.
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Yes as you mention Ryanne if it is a smaller print this is suitable also. But I would like to maybe offer a little tip to improve on the flat sheet method.
That is to use 4 pcs. The reason is that corrugated cardboard is made up of what is called “flutes”. Sort of small parralel channels running with the grain. That is why corrugated cardboard is easy to roll and make coffee cup sleeves out of. But if you use 2 pcs on each side and cut the cardboard to size so that the flutes are not parralel to each other but tangent to each other [otherwise noted as cross grain], that strengthens the “sandwich” a whole lot.
As far as the interior goes for flat shipping posters / art prints, leave an inch or so all around the print when sizing the sheets. Take the print and sandwich it between two pices of newsprint paper or kraft paper first or if small enough put into an envelope. Then lay this paper “envelope” with the print inside centered on a sheet of cardboard and tape it down. This is why we use a paper envelope so we can tape it in place between the cardboard and the tape won’t touch the surface of the print. It also protects the print from scuffing. When this envelope is taped to the interior of the cardboard sandwich and an inch or two left around it, that prevents the print from sliding around inside of the sandwich and possibly dinging the edge or tape from coming into contact with the edge.
Now for the exterior, to make the cardbaord sandwich waterproof, if small enough slide into a bubble envelope. If too large of a print sandwich, we just wrap the cardboard sandwich in 8 mil black poly construction plastic we keep in stock from HD. We wrap a few things in this black plastic.
But in any case… bottom line, “criss-cross” the flutes [grain] of corrugated to make it more resistant to bending.
Just a tip…
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I just sent a poster in a purchased thick mailing tube of about 5 inch’s in diameter.
I thought about putting that tube in a box for extra protection but did not want to add extra weight. Now I’m thinking maybe I should have. It was purchased for $800 so it was insured, hope USPS is kinder to it.-
Steven S: Oh I do hope for you that your $800 poster makes it. Even insured sometimes they will try to say it was not packaged properly.
But on a positive note, for any of our prints we double box anything over $100. Ether a tube in a tri-angle method, or first a tri-angle box then into a long square box. We keep plenty of flat sheets of cardboard around and many times will just make our long box for the triangle to go into and as I said abaove, we also use thin walled PVC [plumbing] pipe both as an inner box or an exterior box depending on the size of the print.
mike at MDCG
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We send fine art prints, some pretty expensive and have a few suggestions that we use.
One technique we use is first we slip sheet the poster and then roll it up. The slip sheet protects the print from scuffing and also we then tape the rolled print and the tape only touches the slip sheet. We make sure the diameter of the rolled print is smaller than the diameter of the tube and the tube is longer by a couple of inches. Thus leaving space all around the print inside the tube.
Then we put this tube into one of the free tri-angle boxes that USPS offers.
Now you have a round object inside a tri-angle structure. This is failry good protection.But the catch here is those boxes are Priority so no First Class light weight postage. When we have to go longer we splice two USPS tri-angle boxes together.
Another method we have also used, we place in a cardboard tube as stated above, then slide that tube inside of a thin walled, white PVC tube that we get at Home Depot. [the tube within a tube method]. This works fairly well also. We keep a few 8 ft. pieces of PVC in the workshop and just cut to length as we need. We do quickly run sandpaper up and down the PVC to sand off the printing specs on the tube.
Of course we use dunnage at both ends and tape them off to keep both the print in the inner tube and the paper tube from sliding back and forth. Usually the USPS tri-angle boxes is OK but we also ship higher costing art prints and priority which is just a couple bucks more is fine by us.
Also there are some very good UTube videos if you Google / search on “how to ship fine art prints, how to ship rolled art work, then just apply some of those techniques to the less costly “posters” category.
And of course there are numerous videos on how to ship it flat. We use several methods of this type also. We incorporate either masonite, foam boards or both inside of those sandwiches, but agagin some of our limited edition prints can run higher in price than most lithograph posters.
Hope this helps a little.
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art.
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Harness the ancient power of the triangle: https://store.usps.com/store/product/shipping-supplies/dual-use-priority-mailpriority-mail-express-medium-tube-P_O_1098M
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Yep.. one of the strongest geometric configuration known to man. Not tough to understand why most bridges are built with triangular structures and supports!!! 🙂
USPS also has two sizes / lemgths. We sometimes telescope them together for longer rolled canvass paintings.
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Reviving this thread to ask a question about shipping movie posters.
Does anyone have a current shipping rate for the Medium sized USPS tubes? When I tried to put it into the USPS website, they don’t have an automatic price option, you have to input the weight and dim and it gives me a return of $8.60 for Priority Mail and $5.53 for First Class. However, these are the USPS Priority Mail tubes, which means they can’t go First Class, amiright? I’m wondering if I would be better off buying unmarked tubes so that they can go First class – if so, where’s the best place to get them?
I got a box of 30 movie posters for $14. They’re the full size color posters from the local movie theater, it looks like, and mostly new films, no major ones. Hellraiser, Shall We Dance? (Richard Gere), Cold Mountain, The Forgotten, The Crow, Open Water, just scanning the titles written on the outside. Not big money, so I’m not going to spend too much on shipping or supplies.
Does anyone ship posters that can give me an idea of how best to ship them?
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I specifically list posters as priority because I don’t want to buy the tubes. I priced them once, and they are too expensive considering the types of posters I have to sell. Needless to say, I don’t sell very many of them.
The cost to ship an item Priority at less than 1 pound is cheaper than 1-2 pound rate. However, it is more expensive than first class. Priority does come with insurance, so there’s that. And, yes, you can’t use the tubes (triangular cylinders?) for anything other than Priority.
For cost, I use eBay’s shipping calculator. There is no easy way to calculate a cost specifically for the tubes, you just put the weight and dimensions in.
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@ Amatino: Yep pretty much as Sharyn states and some of the older posts I made previously.
When we use the triangular boxes, we also use standard calculated size and weight. I take the widest side of the tri-angular box and treat the whole thing like it was a long rectangular box,
Example: If the widest side of one of the 3 sides of the triangle box is 4″. I enter 4″x4″x22″ inches [or whatever length the box comes out at]. When we splice two boxes together, the same applies, 4″x4″x whatever length it comes out at. That will give you your shipping costs when put into the Ebay calculator.
Also, on very long items we also do 2 other things. If the Priority costs are too high, due to the zone, or the new dimensional weight, we also click on the Parcel Rates. If they are less costly, we then just wrap the long box in the Home Depot black and now light blue construction plastic we have on rolls and tape up heavily. The plastic is opaque and between that and the ton of tape it hides from view anything inside of the box, print a Parcel label, slap it on and there it goes.
The second option before you do the plastic cover-up wrap is to check what the FedEx charges are for Home delivery. If FedEx is our best cost, we don’t even wrap the Priority box, just print a FedEx label, slap that on the long box and take it to a FedEx store. We have one just a few miles up the road.
Funny thing numerous FedEx stores have said and confirmed, they take anything and don’t care if it is in a USPS box, their boxes or a plain vanilla generic box. But if you feel funny about that, then still go ahead and do the opaque plastic wrap, then do the FedEx label and take to FedEx.
Also try pricing out the thin walled PVC plumbing tubes in 8′ lengths at home depot. We buy a few 8′ lengths, cut then to 4′ have them in a corner of our office and cut them to needed length with an old hack saw we have over by them. Cheap tubes and thick enough to ship by themselves. Cut, 1 inch longer than your print on each end, smooth the rough edges with sand paper, stuff the two ends with tissue paper, toilet paper or Kleenex [opps hope no VERO will come from SL= :-)] and tape over the ends with several layers of tape. Then slap a label on the PVC and place a piece of clear packing tape over that to make sure the label stays in place.
Shipping a rolled item in a tri-angular box or a tube is no different than if it was a long rectangle with straight sides.
Don’t’ forget the slip sheet and rolling of your poster to a smaller diameter than the inside of the tube. It is extremely easy to tip the tube up and let a smaller diameter rolled up poster slide out than having it unsecured inside, have it unroll and become very tight inside the tube. It is then very hard to get it out and the buyer may damage or tear it trying too. So, slip sheet and roll, making sure to securely tape only on the slip sheet material and not the poster, roll and secure smaller than the mailing tube.
P.S. The PVC tube is very strong. Takes a lot to bend the plastic PVC tube.
Good luck..
Mike at MDC Galleries and Fine Art
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Oh wow, thanks Mike! Great info here! I hadn’t even thought of a slip sheet, so that’s marvelous! Can I just use tissue for that?
I didn’t know FedEx would take USPS boxes. Good to know. If they’re happy to take ’em, I’m happy to send ’em! I’ll keep it in mind.
You guys are the best!
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