How To Pack & Mail Comics

At some point in your ordering process you may be talking with an ebay seller or you yourself may be selling comics on ebay and you just want to make sure everything is packaged right. You know, so the comic books survive the trip in the mail. I strongly want to advise you that you speak with any and every ebay seller about shipping using the method below to help insure you comics will not be damage by the postoffice. This may mean you will pay the seller of the comics a few extra bucks for shipping, but trust me. It is worth it!

I came across the following forum post by user Boozad on the collectors-society.com message board. He gave me permission to repost his guide to mailing comic books. I wanted to share it with you here.

Step 1:

Find a suitable oversized box that is substantially bigger than the books.

Step 2:

I’m packing ten books here, so what I do when sending more than one book is place all of the books into one larger bag. The reason for this will be explained in a moment. Turn half (or as close to half) of the books facing inwards so the backing boards are facing outwards on both sides of the stack.

Step 3:

Fold the bag around the stack of books snugly and tape it shut securely, this will prevent any of the books moving around in the sandwich you’re going to make.
The reason for using a bag is that there is no trying to rip tape of the comic bags (nightmare) when the recipient opens the package. The tape can be cut from the outer bag quite easily and the books are free straight away.

Step 4:

Next up, find two sturdy pieces of cardboard. They need to be bigger in dimension than the stack of books but smaller than the internal dimensions of the box.

Step 5:

Tape the bagged stack of books to one of the pieces of cardboard, with a piece of tape at each end and each side. Larger stacks may need more than one piece of tape on each side.

Step 6:

Take the second piece of cardboard and lay it onto the exposed side of the stack of books, making a sandwich so to speak. Now tape the sandwich together with a piece of tape on each side (larger stacks again – more tape again). Offset the pieces of tape so as they don’t get stuck to the pieces of tape holding the books to the first piece of card. Getting several layers of tape stuck together when opening a package can get very annoying.
I also fold one end of each piece of tape over to form a tab (on every single piece of tape used in the package), and mark out where to open. This isn’t because I think the recipient has issues, it’s just helpful. I hate scratching a pieces of tape stuck to cardboard for half an hour.

Step 7:

Now you’re ready to put your book sandwich into your box. Make a protective layer across the bottom of the box. I’ve used packing peanuts, but bubble wrap or even newspaper will work. (For domestic packages I will place the oversized cardboard sandwich into a bubble mailer. Any corner or side impacts are absorbed by the cardboard, not the books).

Place the book sandwich on top of the protective layer, then fill up the remaining space with packing, making sure if that any gaps around the sides of the sandwich are filled.

Step 8:

Close up the box and make sure that every opening is covered in packing tape. I prefer to use ‘Fragile’ tape, the people who handle the package may not give a damn about your books, but hey – at least you’ve tried to warn them!