Packing and Shipping

By Tina Howard and Paul Howard

The following information is provided to educate and inform. eBay™ is not liable or responsible for any type of damage or loss caused, or alleged to be caused, directly or indirectly, by the information below.

Packing a breakable piece of pottery is a skill which must be learned. No matter how your item is shipped, you should assume the box is going to be tossed around, dropped on pavement several times, have much heavier boxes stacked on top of it, be crunched against machinery, and so on. A properly packed item will withstand all this very rough handling. Remember that your customer wants the item much more than they want a refund, so insure against loss, but pack to prevent damage.

When you are starting out, it is a good idea to ask other users about their preferred methods of packing. Everyone has special "tricks" they use and frequently, they love to share! To help ensure the safe arrival of your items, here's is a brief overview of what you need to know about packing and shipping pottery.

1. Sturdy boxes: Always use sturdy, corrugated boxes for both inner and outer boxes. Never use shirt boxes, shoe boxes, or any other flimsy, crushable boxes. You can cut down large boxes to make smaller ones. Use hot glue or strong tape to put them together and seal them securely.
2. Double box: Use an inner box that your item will fit in, with room to spare for padding, pack it tightly so that it will not move around, then seal that box and place it in an outer box that allows for at least 3 inches of tightly packed padding on all six sides.
3. Packing Materials: Bubble wrap and peanuts are excellent if you have enough of them to use them generously. If not, shredded paper or tightly crumpled newspaper will work perfectly. It is more important to have enough padding than to have "pretty" padding! To protect from scratches and soil, wrap items in plain paper or plastic bags before packing them in the inner box.

Tips:
With plates and flat items, you must allow a couple of extra inches of padding on all six sides between the outer box and inner box - these items are very liable to breakage during shipping. The following paragraphs provide important information about mailing dinnerware and other pottery items.

Stacked plates - Place folded newspaper between each plate, wrap the entire stack in four sheets of newspaper, tape tightly around the stack to hold it completely rigid, then place the stack in an inner box with padding.

A small set of dishes - Saucers, bowls, and other flat pieces may be wrapped and taped as plates then wrapped in flat cardboard or bubble wrap. Be sure to include padding in delicate areas such as handles. Then, place all the cups in their own inner box (one box for all cups is usually fine). For sets with more than four dinner plates, pack and ship dinner plates separately (9-inch and 10-inch plates could go in same box). This will prevent the weight of the plates from breaking other items.

A console set or multiple vases - Separately inner-box each piece, or bubble wrap carefully then wrap each piece in flat, corrugated cardboard.

Overseas shipping:
International Money Orders or Credit cards are options for payment which can easily accommodate differences in currency. It is never wise to send or agree to cash payments.

Shipping to areas outside your home country is not difficult, but it can be costly. You may want to pack the item, get the buyer's address, and get the actual shipping costs from your post office before quoting the buyer a price. Insurance to foreign countries is no more expensive than within the USA, so it is wise to get insurance against loss.

Air Mail shipping is more expensive, but items arrive at their destination within a short period of time. "Ground" shipping can help reduce costs, but the buyer should be prepared to wait weeks or even several months for the item. For more information on overseas shipping, contact your local post office. There are special forms to fill out, but they are very short, and do not require much more than the addresses of the sender and addressee, value, and a description of the item.

The preceding material was written by Tina Howard and Paul Howard. These are the opinions of the authors, not the opinions of eBay, and therefore eBay does not validate the accuracy of or endorse these opinions.