Shipping prices and buyers...

Packaging can be expensive. When I lived in a house with a garage, we could save all the popcorn and bubblewrap and outside boxes, but now I live in a condo and there is no place to store any packaging, so if I sell something, I am going to have to go down to mailboxes, etc and buy the boxes and popcorn. I expect that expense to be part of the price of the unit. The easiest way is to probably just build that into the selling cost and just discuss shipping with the buyer. I ALWAYS double box and no problems with damage so far......thoughts? -aj

Perfectimage. Exactly!

I think when you ship the boxes via ups you should just assume that it will be dropped from 8 feet up onto a concrete floor. After this, another box weighing 100lbs will fall upon it. If you pack with this in mind you will be fine. Packaging from companies like audio research and pass labs are like this.

This is also why I just sell some items as 'local pickup only'. My 80lb subwoofer for example. I cannot figure out how to pack this thing without spending $100 on materials and putting it into a washing machine sized box. So, I just wait for a local buyer - not worth my time to be concerned with it.

I sympathize with the cost of shipping materials. I have put out $70 for packing materials on a heavy item. I now save any throw-away computer packaging from my company.

I don't have a lot of experience with this, but I think PerfectImage and Angella100 might be right. The sender has a much clearer idea of what is necessary packaging. The reciever may be clueless and even if that's not the case has little control over the packaging. In a retail mail order purchase, one would expect appropriate packaging and expect it to be built into the cost, it's only logical. I believe that the sender is the insured party. The packaging and insurance should be built into the price. It's all part of the cost of doing business. It might be reasonable to advertise a lower cost for pick up only.