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Thread: Shipping and Mailing Photographic Prints

  1. #1
    Format Omnivore Brian C. Miller's Avatar
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    Shipping and Mailing Photographic Prints

    I would like to know a few good ways to ship a print economically without worrying about it being damaged.

    What I am looking for are supplies and pointers to supply houses, as well as good techniques. The photo mailers from the office supply stores are too flimsy, and I would like to sandwich the print between cardboard sheets.

    So: what do you guys do to protect prints in the mail?

    Thanks!
    "It's the way to educate your eyes. Stare. Pry, listen, eavesdrop. Die knowing something. You are not here long." - Walker Evans

  2. #2
    Doug Dolde
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    Shipping and Mailing Photographic Prints

    http://www.uline.com has some Stay Flat mailers I have used. They are pretty stiff.

  3. #3

    Shipping and Mailing Photographic Prints

    Brian,

    Do they need to be flat? I normally mail photos in a tube. I place a large sheet of tissue over the print and roll it all up. Are your prints glossy, matte.....silver or inkjet?

  4. #4

    Shipping and Mailing Photographic Prints

    I have sent more than 100 prints through the mail both mounted and matted as well as just the print and the best method I found was to buy 3mm tri ply, have it cut 1 cm longer and wider that the print, sandwich the print (if you want to save on weight you can place the print in a bag and use for one side cardboard instead of the tri ply) and tape all the sides with duct tape. You can send up to 5 prints mounted an matted this way. I had a customer who bought 12 prints and I sent them this way in two packages.

    I dont recommend shipping tubes, I tried it 3 times and I had to replace all 3 prints as the tubes arrived bent and creased the print.

    This is the cheapest way to do it safely. If you want to try the shipping stuff sold at light impressions make sure you can get a second mortgage in your house. The only time I have used their shipping boxes is when I sold 5 12x20 prints that were going to Hong Kong. I did not want to take chance. OTOH I have sent prints all the way to New Zealand with the tri ply and they arrived perfect.

  5. #5

    Shipping and Mailing Photographic Prints

    Brian, let us know the type of prints and if you wish them to be matted. I agree with Jorge....if you use cheap tubes, they get a good beating. However, the ones I use you could probably drive a car over without a problem. If they need to be matted, then Jorge's method is probably best.

  6. #6

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    Shipping and Mailing Photographic Prints

    I have received prints from Michael Smith and Paula Chamlee that were shipped between two pieces of wood about 1/2" thick. I don't have them in front of me, but they weren't solid wood but rather multiple layers of thin wood. It seems ideal--a "container" that's inexpensive (I'm guessing), pretty light (ie. inexpensive to ship) and, most importantly, very stiff (ie. protective). They simply taped the edges all around and wrapped it in brown paper to ship it.

  7. #7

    Shipping and Mailing Photographic Prints

    Tha is the tri ply Tony. Before I started selling by myself on E bay I belonged to a group where there was a bunch of guys together selling. One of the guys is a M&P fan and he learned the shipping method from them and passed it on to us. It is the safest way to do it IMO.

  8. #8
    Founder QT Luong's Avatar
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    Shipping and Mailing Photographic Prints

    For prints up to 16x24, I put the print(s) in a plastic sleeve, and tape it to a piece of thick cardboard.
    This gets sandwitched in 4 layers. I order the cardboard from a local company in precut sizes.
    For larger prints (up to 40x60), I interleave with a sheet of light paper, and roll outside a circular shipping tube. The shipping tube is then wrapped in a sheet of foam and placed either into a Fedex
    triangular shipping tube, or a square elongated box with foam peanuts. I learned that method from
    West Coast Imaging and LaserLight. Shipping inside a tube is problematic because it's easy to damage
    a print while removing it. Besides, it looks too much like a poster :-) I have shipped hundreds of prints, and since using those methods, not a single one has been damaged in transit.

  9. #9
    Founder QT Luong's Avatar
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    Shipping and Mailing Photographic Prints

    Jorge, where do you get the tri ply, and how much does one piece, let say of 14x20 cost ?

  10. #10

    Shipping and Mailing Photographic Prints

    I'll weigh in agreeing with both Dave and with Jorge.

    For things that are shipped flat, I now have two pieces of hardboard cut slightly larger than the prints. The prints go in polyprop or mylar bags, the stack of bags gets taped to one sheet of hardboard, the second piece of hardboard makes the other side of the sandwich, and then I use duct tape to seal the edge.

    Cheap, indestructible, not too heavy, and you can ship large matted prints this way without going oversize with UPS or Fedex.

    For prints that are not mounted and are large enough to roll, I ship them rolled in heavy duty cardboard tubes. Cheap tubes will get beat all to hell, and will get kinked and dented (and thus allow the print to be damage). I buy heavy duty tubes from U-line.

    Lately I've taken to rolling the prints and interleaving tissue, and then rolling that roll with another sheet of paper that has tape 'tabs' on the end. I slide this into the tube, and cap the tube. When the prints arrive at their destination, they can be removed from the tube by pulling on the tabs, so that the whole bolus of prints/tissue comes out without stressing it.

    It's also important to have no room for movement in the tube. If the print can slide back and forth in the tube, print damage at one end or the other is almost certain.

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