My afternoon from hell . . .

[Vinca]

It all started when I sold a nice print on ebay and advertised it with free shipping. The print was large and framed . . . my first mistake . . . I should have taken it out of the frame and sold it that way. So it sold for a lower price than I wanted to get, but it's something I've had for a while and I wanted to "move some merchandise." I hadn't considered the packing of a very large piece of art. It seems windows that used to be shipped in giant boxes are now shrink wrapped so getting a decent box was out of the question. So I had to improvise. I spent the afternoon hot gluing and taping boxes together to make a giant box for the piece. It took me a good 2 hours to pack the darn thing and when I finally got it weighed and measured it's going to cost me nearly $75 to send. AARRGGHHH! And I've got no one to blame but myself. I'm still in profit, but it could have been so much better. Note to self: do not buy HUGE artwork for sale on ebay.

[grasswire]

1. oboy

I've been burned on shipping a few times, myself. Did you clear anything, or was it a net loss?

[sufrommich]

2. I did the same thing with a large coffee table book to London.

It costs me over $35.00 to send it. At least you're still in profit,I ended up sending some nice stranger in London a gift.

[Paper Roses]

3. Reminds me of something that happened a couple of years ago.

My late husband bought a tea table from the Bartley Collection. It was a one piece large top, separate legs, aprons etc.
After he died, I had no idea what to do with this 'kit'. As beautiful as it was, I don't have the skills to put it together.
I advertised it on Craigslist with the notation that I could not ship. The top would be too large for any box I could find. Got several replies to the ad, especially from a man in Texas. He insisted that he wanted to buy it and would wait for me to find a box. I told him it would be at least $50.00 to ship, and that I would start looking for the box. He trusted me and prepaid.I scrounged every dumpster, backs of stores, anyplace I could think of to find something. I finally did.
I weighed the table at home and took the box and the table weight to both the PO and UPS. It was $56.00 for UPS, $97.00 for the Post Office.


The next part was the hardest. I had to cut and fit the box, wrap this thing to the nth degree and I found a heave piece of rigid Plexiglas to cover the top. If it was punctured, the whole thing would be useless. I wrapped everything, stuffed an old quilt, a blanket and a bunch of old pillows in and around all the parts. It was quite a job and I would never try and do that again. Odd size items are impossible to box and expensive to ship.

I finally got it to UPS and out of my life. Sent the buyer a nice e-mail telling him that I did my best to pack it properly but not to laugh when he finds what I used for padding.
Never do that again.

[Vinca]

4. You lived my nightmare. When I finally got the thing carted into UPS,

the woman who took the package told me if I have future big items to ship to go to a place that rents U-Hauls because they have giant boxes. I had never thought of that and I do have one more large piece of art I'd like to sell. What is really funny about my story is the day after the packaging nightmare I went into the thrift shop and what do you think I found? A large piece by the same artist for $6. It was damaged, so I decided to cart it directly to the group shop. If I'm going to enter packaging hell, it has to be at least slightly profitable.

[juxtaposed]

5. I ship mostly art and I use the online calculators from

usps and ups to figure cost. I always add a little to size and weight to cover bubble wrap and peanuts.
A good place to get boxes for art work is an art supply store dumpster

[Vinca]

6. That's a great idea. I thought about calling my favorite framing shop,

but opted for the glue gun and a whole lot of swearing. Thanks for the tip.