Materials guide for LEGO selling & shipping

Many members have asked for a centralized place where they can go for shipping box information. I'm going to pin this post and update it as new information is provided. I just want to take a few minutes and thank those who wrote the following articles. They are still very good reference materials for the LEGO storage and shipping process. I may develop this into a blog article eventually.

Fcbarcelona101's : Selling LEGO : Basic Materials Guide
Mos Eisley 's : LEGO Storage Wars

Incompetech's Catalog of Amazon.com Box Sizes - (thanks No More Monkeys)

Amazon Boxes Sorted list by length - courtesy of pstebbing

I've scoured the forums and here is a list of box sizes with basic set information:

Boxes:
24x20x8 : Super Star Destroyer; Death Star, Roller Coaster, UCS Sandcrawler, Assembly Square
24x20x6 : Thicker sets like Town Hall, Tower Bridge
24x16x6 - 60052 Cargo Train, R2-D2, Maersk Line Triple-E, 7939 Cargo Train
24x16x4 - Helm's Deep, Vampyre Castle, Black Pearl, Friends Riding Camp, Parisian Restaurant, High Speed Passenger Train, Jabba's Palace, Downtown Diner
24x20x4 : Grand Emporium, Pet Shop, Imperial Shuttle, Haunted House, Palace Cinema, Fire Brigade
24x14x4 : Dolphin Cruiser, Coast Guard Patrol
24x4x12 - Dolphin Cruiser, Coast Guard Patrol
20x16x4 - Volkswagen Camper Van, Olivia's House, Sonic Raider, Sopwith, Creator Bike Shop, Batcave, Quinjet, Moria & Ambush
20x16x6 : Thicker sets like the Republic Gunship; City Cargo Plane
20x14x4 : Attack on Weathertop, Hulk 's Helicarrier Breakout, X-Wing 9493, Black Gate
16x16x4 : Gungan Sub, Pre Viszla, Tie Fighter
16x10x4 : Council of Elrond, Desert Skiff, City Grand Prix Truck
16x10x6 : Thicker sets like Creator Family House, Hillside House
15x12x4 : Funhouse, Orc Forge, Tumbler Chase, Daily Bugle Showdown, Hulk Lab Smash
12x12x4 : Uruk Hai Army, City Cargo Truck, Creator Treehouse, City Fire Emergency
11-3/4x8-3/4x4-3/4 : Wolverine Chopper, Arctic Batman, Power Armor Lex, Droid Escape, Cloud Cuckoo Palace
12x8x3 - Battle Packs, CA Avenging Cycle, Catwoman, Gandalf Arrives, Holiday sets
10x8x4 : Battle Packs, CA Avenging Cycle, Catwoman, Gandalf Arrives, Holiday sets

Envelopes:
4x8 : Minifigs & small polybags
6x9 : Polybags small & larger
10.5 x 16 : Larger shipments of 3 x polybags or more

Packing Tape : buy in bulk or on sale : you can throw some in during a Staples coupon promotion to get up to free shipping
Walmart.com Duck Brand Packaging Tape
http://www.staples.com/Staples-Standard-Grade-Packaging-Tape-Clear-189-x-110-yds-6-Rolls/product_380107

Retailers:
Uline.com : holiday sale starts first part of November (usually 30% off)
Staples.com : use coupon promotions - $10 off $30, $20 off $75, free shipping over $60
Walmart.com
USPS Priority Mail (free boxes at USPS.com)

 

Michigan Box Company:

Flat Boxes 18"-23" L  (thanks pstebbing)

GBE Packaging (thanks pstebbing)
 

PackingSupplies.com

http://www.packaging...ated_boxes.html     (thanks pstebbing)

 

Bubble Wrap:
3/16" thick x 350' ft x 12" wide - eBay

 

Sams Club

3/16" - 12"x240' $12.98 (In store) ($.05/LF) (thanks pstebbing)

I like to use large and small retailer plastic bags to wrap items in, even after I bubble wrap it.

For battle packs and even small sets, I sometimes use Wal-Mart, Target, or plastic bags from any store. Additional packing isn 't really needed. Usually like 2 bags on bottom, one to wrap the item, and two bags on top. Make sure to cover the corners of the item real nice to provide extra padding.

Rule of thumb : ship & pack all of your items the same way you 'd like to receive items you've purchased.

Shipping Paper:
Collect it when you receive shipments.
http://www.amazon.com/Pratt-Multipurpose-Packaging-KPR30241200R-Length/dp/B00AI652CM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1408061459&sr=8-1&keywords=pratt+kraft+paper+1200?

Shipping Labels & Printers:
Dymo 450 & Dymo 400
Brother QL-700

DoNotInsertIntoMouth's : How to setup your label printer for shipping on eBay


Feel free to post a follow-up or point out anything I missed. I 'll update it with what everyone wants added. I hope this is helpful.

I keep 26 x 20 x 6, 26 x 20 x 4 and also a small stock of bigger 24 x 24 x 8. Those seem to work for 99% of the big sets. And recently I've picked up some 20 x 15 x 6 good for the big porsche, bugatti and slave 1.

Edited August 10, 20205 yr by Gonkalin

1 hour ago, Huskers1236 said:

So the 20" wide box is too narrow?

no, i'm sorry, i should be more clear. so i'm noticing that these other LEGO boxes are more wide than the modulars that came before. Downtown Diner is 15"'s wide I believe. so my current set of 24x16x4/6 works just fine. now that Barracuda Bay, Nintendo, Tree House, Corner Garage are 19"'s wide i'm looking for a new size box for these bigger sets.

Rough measure of the box puts them at: 23x19x5. So thinking a 24x20x6 so there is some space for bubble wrap/paper to protect corners and sides. I was just wondering if folks had a line on that size box and where to get it. 

 

1 hour ago, Gonkalin said:

I keep 26 x 20 x 6

that seems like a good one, maybe a tad bit too long, but mind sharing where you get it from? 

Edited August 10, 20205 yr by MotorCityMuscle

any coupons for shipping boxes @Staples thanks

https://www.staples.com/ coupon: $20 off $100

Code: 25235

 

1 hour ago, Darth_Raichu said:

https://www.staples.com/ coupon: $20 off $100

Code: 25235

 

Thanks, I've needed boxes but been holding out because last August Staples had a buy 2 get 1 free and $20 off $100 coupon at the same time, but I don't suppose we'll get as lucky this year.

Contemplating getting a label printer.  I don't do a lot of selling but I do trade minifigures.  What printer do most use?  Should I go with a printer that can do 4x6 or are the much cheaper 2/7s fine. 

2 minutes ago, stackables said:

Contemplating getting a label printer.  I don't do a lot of selling but I do trade minifigures.  What printer do most use?  Should I go with a printer that can do 4x6 or are the much cheaper 2/7s fine. 

I use rollo for 4x6.

28 minutes ago, minicoopers11 said:

I use rollo for 4x6.

Same here.  That little Rollo printer is worth its weight in gold.

2 hours ago, mrsl8r said:

Same here.  That little Rollo printer is worth its weight in gold.

Is that the one that costs around $200?

16 hours ago, stackables said:

Is that the one that costs around $200?

Yup.  I bought mine in December of 2017, still going strong and I use it daily.  The labels are $20 for 500, which isn't bad either considering the time it saves.

5 minutes ago, mrsl8r said:

Yup.  I bought mine in December of 2017, still going strong and I use it daily.  The labels are $20 for 500, which isn't bad either considering the time it saves.

Agreed. I splurged and bought this even though I only sell maybe 10-15 items or so a week. Uses no ink, you save on tape, paper, and time(!) cutting and taping a paper label to a box. 

19 minutes ago, Brystheguy said:

Agreed. I splurged and bought this even though I only sell maybe 10-15 items or so a week. Uses no ink, you save on tape, paper, and time(!) cutting and taping a paper label to a box. 

can anyone confirm if it works with PayPal multi-order shipping? 

7 minutes ago, MotorCityMuscle said:

can anyone confirm if it works with PayPal multi-order shipping? 

Yes, I've used it a handful of times for multi-order shipping and didn't have any issues.

When I use the Rollo to print international shipping labels, some of the smaller text is blurry. Anyone else having this issue?

1 hour ago, Jackson said:

When I use the Rollo to print international shipping labels, some of the smaller text is blurry. Anyone else having this issue?

Yeah. Seems to work well enough though. Caveat: I have never tried to clean or maintain mine in any way.

Did USPS Parcel Post rates for large packages go way down over the last week, or is it just me?

27 minutes ago, exciter1 said:

Did USPS Parcel Post rates for large packages go way down over the last week, or is it just me?

god lets hope so, but i wasn't aware of one.

thought i saw rate increases coming for October though

27 minutes ago, exciter1 said:

Did USPS Parcel Post rates for large packages go way down over the last week, or is it just me?

Wake me up when they ship faster

12 minutes ago, MotorCityMuscle said:

god lets hope so, but i wasn't aware of one.

thought i saw rate increases coming for October though

 

11 minutes ago, Darth_Raichu said:

Wake me up when they ship faster

Twice this week to Cali they came in $10 under FedEx

44 minutes ago, exciter1 said:

 

Twice this week to Cali they came in $10 under FedEx

Did you try it?   Let me know if your packages arrive within their estimated time

6 minutes ago, Darth_Raichu said:

Did you try it?   Let me know if your packages arrive within their estimated time

Yep, I'll try to keep you updated.

Is there any good sites that help you calculate shipping between services?  I know ebay has something but I am selling outside of ebay.  Need to ship a large package and don't want to spend $52 to ship it to CA.

On 8/30/2020 at 1:55 PM, stackables said:

Contemplating getting a label printer.  I don't do a lot of selling but I do trade minifigures.  What printer do most use?  Should I go with a printer that can do 4x6 or are the much cheaper 2/7s fine. 

 

On 8/30/2020 at 1:57 PM, minicoopers11 said:

I use rollo for 4x6.

So my trusty wireless printer just died. Seams to be the power supply on the Old Canon pixma MG5420.  Was really contemplating the mentioned Rollo for my shipping needs, but i need to also print full size and like to print photos. So for now I need equivalent replacement or better.  Anyone have a recommendation to consider in my search?

Is there any good sites that help you calculate shipping between services?  I know ebay has something but I am selling outside of ebay.  Need to ship a large package and don't want to spend $52 to ship it to CA.

PayPal has a service where you can ship without an invoice so long as you know the address. It’s what I use to calculate shipping for bricklink orders.

https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now

On 8/30/2020 at 3:55 PM, stackables said:

Contemplating getting a label printer.  I don't do a lot of selling but I do trade minifigures.  What printer do most use?  Should I go with a printer that can do 4x6 or are the much cheaper 2/7s fine. 

A little late to the game but, after selling online for almost 10 years, I now use the Brother QL-1100 for all my label printing.  I wished that I had bought it years ago.  It runs just fine on generic labels, as long as it has the black box on them to tell it to cut.  Oh, it also works with Mac.

https://www.amazon.com/Brother-QL-1100-Postage-Barcode-Professional/dp/B079G51QTB/ref=sr_1_3?dchild=1&keywords=brother+ql-1100&qid=1602285590&sr=8-3


 

Edited October 9, 20205 yr by raindog