Best packing and shipping practices?

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I was going to suggest those - I use them, and then bubble wrap, double boxed, and lots of brown tapes. They are I think Rolex service boxes - I got a bunch off eBay a while back, you can still find them there..

Whether I ship a $1k watch or one costing $50k, packing peanuts. Lots of packing peanuts!

A standard shipping box is fine and all areas that need to be sealed, including corners, get taped properly. Twice if you so choose.

go up one size on the fedex box and double box it

+1 on double box, FedEx express and definitely hold for pickup at the FedEx office.email and phone number added to contact me on arrival as well as the recipient.
Safe so far with 20 + watches sent.

I send like this. The original watch box is wrapped with a film with pimples and then a thick cardboard.

For European users - I always ship watches double boxed with DHL Express. Super fast and really responsible service. Don't be shy and ask them for a loyal client card, depends on how often you ship through - they usually offer from -5% to -15% discount.

Here is a what not to do, it was only a movement for spare parts. But still, no need to get it crushed. No joke from Spain to San Diego, this inside an envelope (not the padded) kind either.

Don't know the best, but I know the worst

Whenever I order Omega parts from Europe, for example watch hands or wheels, or stuff, they come without any protection and just inside an envelope

Lately my packages always end up small and post office suggests sending it within a plastic pouch and we do, so maybe not a shoe box, but probably a quarter shoe box, so it doesn't get unintentionally lost either

In the US there is a company called Parcel Pro and they provide insurance for high value shipping and require box inside a box Just as posted above by "X30 XJR." Use tape that can be detected if cut opened, and always weigh the the entire sealed labeled and ready to ship box.
This box weight is form a photograph of the scale weight at the FedEx shipping drop off. delivery site scale.

I've been on the receiving end of a few "WTF??? Don't you know how to pack stuff???" packages from friends. Besides whatever cushioning or padding you put in the box, once it's all sealed up, shake it gently. If anything's moving around, repack.

About 6-7 years ago, a buddy of mine was going to the Tucson Gem Show and asked if I wanted anything. I asked for some Chinese fluorite crystals. They're octahedral and are usually purple, green or white, and they're about the size of a die (as in the singular of "dice") and they're sold by the kilo. He got me about five kilos in three sealed/taped up bags (each roughly the size of a grapefruit). He also got me an emerald in a small box about 1" square. The fluorite cost about $60 and the emerald was about $200. He put everything in a cardboard box that was at least 50% larger than the volume of the contents. He also wrapped a single piece of bubble wrap around each of the 1-2kg bags of rocks and taped them each with a single piece of cellophane tape. So the bubblewrap was entirely inadequate even if the tape had held. The three heavy bags of rocks were banging around inside the cardboard box during the cross-country shipment. The box looked like it had been used as a football, with big holes torn in the sides. Much bigger than the emerald's box. Fortunately, everything was intact. But I was PISSED. If I had been doing it, I would have wrapped each bag with several layers of large bubble bubblewrap, as well as lined the box with the stuff, and wrapped the emerald's box in with one of the bags. And then stuffed enough bubble wrap in and around the three packages so that nothing could move.

2-3 years ago another friend in LA shipped me her old Macbook Pro. Again, a single piece of bubblewrap was wrapped around the laptop, which was then put in a box that was too big. The computer's case was dented.

Here is another question are you doing fully insured or just tracked? Does it depend on the value of the item?

For me, it depends. last week I sent something that cost me, I think, $800 when I bought it 7 years ago. But I got it overseas, and it was sort of a one-of-a-kind and the receipt is long gone. It wasn't particularly fragile, so I sent it without insurance. Yesterday I mailed my old dSLR off to get converted to infrared. THAT one I did insure. I also packed the bejeezus out of it. You could shake that box pretty vigorously and NOTHING was moving.

Fedex overnight is a must. Signature required. and always get insurance

Yeah, but don't look for sympathy when they screw up. I was shipped a watch via Fedex overnight. The guy never showed. Tracking just said "will arrive by 8pm." At around 7:40pm it changed to "back at delivery hub." When I called to find out what happened, the CS rep said that the driver couldn't get past my gate (I don't have a gate). And when I kept insisting that he never came by because he didn't leave a door tag, the CS person said that they don't always leave door tags(!!). I called back to ask if they could send it to the Fedex-Kinkos a few min from my house and I'd get it there the next day. The rep said the shipper would have to redirect it, which he did. What the CS rep DIDN'T tell me was that it takes 24 hours for those changes to take effect. So the next day when I came home from an errand, there was a hang tag that had been placed about five minutes prior. When I called again, the CS rep said that they'd "try" to have the driver come back (which is against company policy and they weren't going to do). I talked with a few more reps. Everyone was quite apologetic until I finally pointed out that their apologies were meaningless since they screwed up on the first day, and weren't willing to do anything "above and beyond" to make up for it. Got my watch two days late.

I alway use large boxes with padded envelopes within. Shipping a side a question to the more experienced, what is the best available insurance for shipping within the UK and abroad form the UK with watch values from a few hundred to over 10k.
Thanks,
Mike

Well, my experience is, either to use small or big box, I always tape it around with that brown packaging tape, not leave any part of the box out. You can buy a little red stickers says "security" seal or sticker, which is shows straight away if someone was messing with the package. And write anything on the package what is inside. If using Fedex or UPS courier instead of the local post, you can also lower the risk.

Interesting thread . . . and by the time I got to it, there is not much left to add. 😉

I have found that searching Ebay for "Rolex plastic shipping boxes" always turns up a few . . . and prices start at about 10 USD or equivalent.

One can find a few today on the www.ebay.fr site by searching "rolex boîte d’expédition en plastique"

Cheers,