Yesterday, I posted a blog about selling books in order to make some money, an extra income. But one question that I got was about mailing out all of those books, if you are selling them online. Wouldn’t the cost of mailing the books eat away any profit?
Well, shipping should be added to the price when you are selling online. Sometimes people also add a “handling” fee to cover the cost of the packing materials. You could do that, of course, but why not simply get your packing materials for free?
Recycle egg cartons for packing material. Not only will they nestle small objects, but you can cut them to whatever size you need for padding. Both cardboard and foam egg cartons will work. As a bonus, you’ll be helping the earth by not buying packing peanuts. Ask your friends and family to save egg cartons for you.
Simple newspaper is also a good packing material. You can wrap things in it and also crumple it and use it for padding. Plastic grocery bags serve the same purpose.
As far as boxes go, you have a few options. You can reuse boxes that you already have. This works also for envelopes that will hold one or two books. Just make sure that you black out any old address information when you reuse boxes and bags.
For larger amounts of books, ask your local bookstore for boxes. The boxes are just the right size and weight for books and will go to waste anyway.
Finally, for items other than books, the post office will provide free boxes when you take advantage of the one shipping rate promotions. You can load a box up for one rate, no matter how heavy it is or where in the county it is going.
Happy shipping!
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