Shipping Comics

bloodatonement

So per the new "you can only buy new comics if you sell off old ones" rule my wife and i have agreed upon (she has the same rule on shoes and purses), I'm unloading a bunch of my old stuff to make room for Blackest Night and possibly Batman RIP.

I've never sold any comics before, and I've only bought one over the internet, so I'm not really familiar with the guidelines for shipping. Google brought up some helpful hints like sandwich books between 2 pieces of cardboard. Which seems fine for a few comics, but I'm selling in sets of up to 15 comics. What's standard practice for packaging larger numbers of comics? Do I just do the sandwich board thing for ever 4 or so, or is there a better way?

If this belongs in HA, that's fine, but I thought GV would have better insight.

Tach

Just go to a local shop and invest in some bags and boards. The buyer will love you for it.

bloodatonement

Everything is already bagged and boarded. Is that good enough? Just put bagged and boarded comics in a padded envelope?

Tach

Maybe wrap them in a paper bag or something, but that should be basically it.

Tomanta

If they are already bagged/boarded they should be fine as long as they can't shift during shipping. You may want to board both sides of whichever one is on top (or put a piece of cardboard on top of the stack) to protect it.

Wildcat

A chap from the US recently sent me about 90 comics in a box. He bound them into 10 - 15 book packets with bubble wrap and packing tape, then put them in the box with more bubble wrap and shredded paper etc. They all seem to have come through the international journey fine.

TexiKen

What I do in shipping is usually this, and I've had no problem with anyone on eBay doing this about 50 or so times:

Go to the post office and get the Priority Mail medium flat rate boxes to ship comics in. They're the right size, and free. Also, the flat rate helps in absorbing the cost. If you bag and board, that's extra weight that then screws up you margin.

Anyways, if you sell like 40 comics (bagged and boarded or not), make it so that 20 comics are flipped on top of the other 20, so that the bound (stapled) side is even, and it doesn't kind of push some comics from the middle of the pile out.

Then take a thin piece of bubble foam if you have it (the stuff that is only 1/8" thick if that), wrap around the whole bundle. Then sandwich the comics with two pieces of cardboard, and then tightly tape it with shipping tape. Wrap that around some bubble wrap, and it fits just right into the box. If you have leftover cardboard pieces it can help to reinforce the sides. Tape it up and it should be good to go.