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How To Pack A Record


jhulud
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  • 2 weeks later...

  • 3 weeks later...

Shipping my first LPs tomorrow (thanks for those that purchased)!

Does extra cardboard = bubble wrap? Is it acceptable to use two layers of bubble wrap as opposed to extra cardboard?

One person bought three LPs. I have them wrapped in bubble wrap, but do not have any extra room for extra cardboard.

Thanks for the help. I want to insure that the records arrive the way I sent them!

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Shipping my first LPs tomorrow (thanks for those that purchased)!

Does extra cardboard = bubble wrap? Is it acceptable to use two layers of bubble wrap as opposed to extra cardboard?

One person bought three LPs. I have them wrapped in bubble wrap, but do not have any extra room for extra cardboard.

Thanks for the help. I want to insure that the records arrive the way I sent them!



I personally would use a deeper LP mailer with extra cardboard if you happen to have one laying around (maybe from a previous order or something). On the other hand.... I have received many LPs in standard mailers with bubble wrap instead of extra cardboard and have yet to have a problem. I've been buying LPs online since eBay started (and through mail order in general since the early 90's) so that's a good track record. I personally just prefer to use extra cardboard as opposed to just bubble wrap.

If you do use bubble wrap just make sure everything is wrapped in such a way where nothing inside the mailer can shake/shift around. That should be a good tip in general for you since you're new to this....you want to make sure the LP(s) are never able to shift/move around in the package when using either extra bubble wrap or extra cardboard.
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  • 4 weeks later...
  • 1 month later...

Uhhh. I do that also, alot of the mail people ignore it though too. I caught my mail man recently throwing my packages up on my porch since we had tons of snow and no one had shoveled yet. He's a new guy so i had to explain to him what fragile meant. That extra mile is even sometimes too little.

Yeah. Just the other day I heard a loud thump and the mailman had thrown a package with "FRAGILE" across it onto my porch.

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  • 3 weeks later...
  • 4 weeks later...

This thread reminds me of the time last summer when some girl on Tumblr offered me her extra copy of The Arctic Monkeys' Favourite Worst Nightmare for free, and when it came it had just been wrapped up in thick wrapping paper. No fragile warning, no cardboard or bubble wrap, nothing. Just wrapping paper. It had been rained on and had sat out in the sun for a while. The sleeve was destroyed beyond recognition, and the record was warped like hell.

 

Good thing it was free. Otherwise, I would have been furious.

 

The extra cardboard on the corners of the LP mailer is a really good idea. I'll have to start doing that in the future.

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  • 2 weeks later...

"Fragile" and "Do Not Bend" = "Throw me, kick me, stomp on me, mangle/multilate...etc" in postal-ese language. You're only asking for trouble. I've saved a lot of mailers, so one rainy day I'm going to do a count on the ones marked "Treat me gently" vs unmarked, and count the damaged vs no damage.  I'd guess 10% of domestic (US) boxes come damaged, but the inner packing saves almost all of them; and probaby 30% or more international mailers (thinner carboard, too) are damaged--often just the bare record in a poly to save on shipping costs? Dealing with one right now as I type this, as I linked the seller to this thread :rolleyes: (and pictures of the box and damaged jacket), bummed. A little carboard would have saved it.

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  • 1 month later...

Personally, I don't think LP mailers are necessary.

 

I've had no complaints simply bagging them up in some kind of big (clean) shopping bag (new outers, inners removed) then going around once with cardboard leaving top and bottom exposed - then go around again covering top and bottom. Add tape.

 

It takes longer, so if you're mailing hundreds per week then it's probably not for you - but I find I get a more specific/tight fit and with 2 layers, a very stiff package.

 

What really annoys me is records being posted while in paper inner sleeves. They leave scratches and this is fact. I've got a good stack of records which were brand-new items but covered in surprisingly bad scratches/fuzzing consistent with the grain of the inner sleeve paper.

 

Plastic inners, man.

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I saw all these people posting about getting vinyl in bubble mailers and I figured I'd share my story. I got the new Cancer Bats album from Distort Records, and when I saw the package I dreaded opening it, it was between two pieces of cardboard in a manila envelope. Luckily they ship from only a hand full of miles away from me so there wasn't a lot of travel time and the record was fine. I shudder to think of what happens to packages sent to the US, or even worse, internationally.

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I ordered the Sun Bronzed Greek Gods 10" by DOM from Burning Mill Records and they shipped it in a clear sleeve taped to the inside of a 12" shipper with no additional support. Has anyone heard of this before? It came loose somewhere along the way and when I opened it, I noticed the vinyl had split open the top of the jacket and now there's a huge hole on top. I'm just glad it plays okay and isn't scratched or anything.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Best/cheapest place to get mailers is not to buy them at all...

Re-use the ones you get from the records you order. As long as they're still in decent shape, which they should be for a few shipments. You can turn em inside out if there's too much tape and shit on the outside, just make sure they're not splitting where the mailer flaps are perforated. I find they can sometimes dry out and split along the perforation especially when re-using them and turning them inside out.

I thought this was common practice? How do people not know this? Do they throw them away when they open their mail? When I cut the mailer open I try to keep it in the best shape and I put them aside. I keep anything useful that's in good shape. The mailer, stiffeners, bubblewrap. If I run out of stiffeners I cut up some old LP mailers. I also like to cut up mailers and put stiffeners in my crates to help keep my records pristine.

Not only is it on the cheap and hella-DIY but it reduces the environmental impact. Just turn em inside out, boom, done!

Here's my question though... you know when you put the cardboard stiffener in, and you make sure to put the stiffener's grain against the grain of the mailer? What do you do when you put 2 stiffeners in?  

Say you've got the mailer facing down ready to put records in and you lay the first stiffener and of course you go against the grain, then you put the records, bubble wrap/packing paper, then you want to top it off with another stiffener on top before you seal it up. If you put it against the grain of the previous stiffener then it will be in line with the grain of the mailer flaps. If you go against the grain of the flaps, it will be inline with the other stiffener.

Which is better, and why? Has anyone else ever wondered about this, or is it just me? Am I way too into packing records?

I think either way its good to have that extra piece, but part of me wants to put the stiffeners against each other's grain... but another part of me feels that the major structural weakness inherent in LP mailers is the side with the flaps... I guess either way it's just good to have it in there but I'm trying to perfect my packing method here.

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