How to mail prints?

frank · Jan 25, 2016

Sold an unmounted 8x10 fiber based print via Facebook. How does one mail a photograph: flat or rolled in a tube? If flat, how to stiffen?

Thanks!

(BTW, it's a fine art print. :w00t

cramej · Jan 25, 2016

Flat, in a plastic zipper bag with buffer sheets on either side, taped between 2 or more pieces of cardboard of perpendicular corrugation and larger than the print, inside a priority mail cardboard envelope or box. West Coast Imaging sends prints this way and mine have always arrived undamaged.

Jim Jones · Jan 25, 2016

Photo mailers are available in office supply stores and Walmart. However, some of these have the corrugations in both sheets of cardboard running in the same direction. Thus, the mailers don't resist bending on one direction. It is much better to have the corrugations at right angles to each other. for an 8x10 print I would use a 9x11 or larger envelope with the print between two sheets of corrugated cardboard orientated as recommended above. Center the print on one of the sheets and keep it from sliding around with strips of paper wrapped around the corners and taped down.

Jim Jones · Jan 25, 2016

Cramej gave more thorough advice in less words while I was typing.

RobC · Jan 25, 2016

don't roll it. Gelatin cracks unless the tube diameter is large for the size of print. And tube needs to be very thick too so it won't get crushed. Better off using advice above with stiff card on outside of corrugated card.

Or an empty 8x10 paper box.

frank · Jan 25, 2016

Thanks guys! I'm liking the empty paper box idea.

Sirius Glass · Jan 25, 2016

Use an envelop with the corrugated cardboard running perpendicular to each other or use a box.

Hilo · Jan 26, 2016

For sure a (paper) box and larger than the print. Get foam board, you need two or three pieces that fit the box exactly.

Put the print inside a same size acetate, or a paper 'envelope' (self made). Tape that to one of the foam boards. It is important that the foam board is larger than the print.

paul ron · Jan 26, 2016

mailing prints also qualifies as media mail... a substantial discount in price.

removed account4 · Jan 26, 2016

calumet carton ( http://www.calumetcarton.com ) used to be an advertiser here
they sell stay-flat mailers. when i mail a flat print i put it between 2 pieces of mat board
and then in a mailer. stationary stores ( like staples ) have similar things but they aren't as stiff
or as good as the ones sold by calumet, they are cheap though.

calumet ships worldwide from what i remember -
and if you purchase from them feel free to mention
you heard about them on apug, maybe they will start banner-advertising here again

i've gotten things rolled in a tube mailed to me, nothing cracked and they arrived and unrolled fine. a couple of days didn't do much ...
long term rolled up is a problem. i have some wartime banquet prints of family who served in WW2 with their command
and the roll-memory is something fierce, and probably being fixed in hardened fixer probably doesn't help. they are not in a tube
( haven't been for 10+ years ) and still as rolled as they were when they were "tubed". from what i was told by a someone at a
museum and the new england document conservation center a lot ( extreme? ) humidity might help, but i am too lazy to bother
( i have one that arrived to me framed and it is flat )

john

wildbill · Jan 26, 2016

I tape the print sleeve to a piece of luan plywood slightly larger than the print. No one is going to bend that like cardboard. For small prints, I put that into a larger bubble envelope. Anything bigger goes in a box taped to cardboard. I've had prints arrive with footprints on the packaging so........

BrianShaw · Jan 26, 2016

paul ron said:
mailing prints also qualifies as media mail... a substantial discount in price.

... but a big increase in the delivery time.

BrianShaw · Jan 26, 2016

Frank. Check out the USPS flat rate mailers. They are free, come in enough sizes that you should be able to get the print plus stiffners into one, and they deliver fast with tracking.

EDIT: Ooops. Forgot you were a Canuck. Sorry about that. Well, I'm not sorry that you area a Canuck... but I am sorry that you can't use the USPS flat rate mailers.

frank · Jan 26, 2016

BrianShaw said:
Frank. Check out the USPS flat rate mailers. They are free, come in enough sizes that you should be able to get the print plus stiffners into one, and they deliver fast with tracking.

EDIT: Ooops. Forgot you were a Canuck. Sorry about that. Well, I'm not sorry that you area a Canuck... but I am sorry that you can't use the USPS flat rate mailers.

Pros and cons of being a Canknuckle head.

Sirius Glass · Jan 26, 2016

Sirius Glass said:
Use an envelop with the corrugated cardboard running perpendicular to each other or use a box.

When I had a trade arrangement with the owner of a business I shipped him matted frames photographs up to 16"x20". Of course that needed extra padding so I had it packed by FedEX and insured.

Colin Corneau · Jan 26, 2016

I recently mailed out a few darkroom prints myself.

My framing shop usually has some matte board or foamcore as scraps -- I get them to trim it to size (about 2" or more around each side, breathing room) and put that in a padded mailing envelope, and for good measure I mark it "Photos Enclosed - Do Not Bend".

Cardboard with corrugation running perpendicular is a great idea, though.

MattKing · Jan 26, 2016

paul ron said:
mailing prints also qualifies as media mail... a substantial discount in price.

In the USA.

Not in Canada, where the OP is though.

MattKing · Jan 26, 2016

Colin Corneau said:
I recently mailed out a few darkroom prints myself.

My framing shop usually has some matte board or foamcore as scraps -- I get them to trim it to size (about 2" or more around each side, breathing room) and put that in a padded mailing envelope, and for good measure I mark it "Photos Enclosed - Do Not Bend".

Cardboard with corrugation running perpendicular is a great idea, though.

I have on my computer a form for a label sheet that puts "Photographs - Please Do Not Bend" on standard size Avery labels.

Being Canadian, the "Please" is considered mandatory.

Peltigera · Jan 26, 2016

MattKing said:
I have on my computer a form for a label sheet that puts "Photographs - Please Do Not Bend" on standard size Avery labels.

Being Canadian, the "Please" is considered mandatory.

I am reminded of an old computer joke from the 80s .- a floppy disc arrives in the post folded in half. On the envelope was a label: "Floppy discs do not bend" and underneath the postman had written: "oh, yes they do"

www.johns-old-cameras.blogspot.co.uk

AgX · Jan 26, 2016

I tend to tubes. But I see the issue of curl.

A better alternative to those flat strengthened envelopes are those foldable boxes from corrogated to take books. The best way to send books.
They form walls of parallel strands inddeed, but due to their top/bottom flaps they likely are more stiff than the above envelopes.

http://www.karton-center.de/items/zoom.php?anr=250_CP-020.18&zoom=1#img

paul_c5x4 · Jan 26, 2016

cramej said:
Flat, in a plastic zipper bag with buffer sheets on either side

After having received an envelope that looked like it had been stored in a bucket of water for a week, I have taken to using a FoodSaver & bags - After sandwiching the print between a couple of scraps of mount-board and then heat sealed inside a sturdy plastic bag, it remains perfectly dry. For anything larger than a 10x8 print, I need to rethink the strategy (maybe a few layers of cling-film).

gordrob · Jan 26, 2016

If you have any three ring binders laying around, cut the front and back covers off, strip the cover material and you will find very firm cardboard that you can cut down to a little larger than 8x10. Wrap the photo in plastic and sandwich between the cardboard, tape it and mail it in a 9x12 padded mailing envelope. I have sent a lot of prints and magazines and the like this way and have never had any problems.

How to mail prints?

frank

cramej

Jim Jones

Jim Jones

RobC

frank

Sirius Glass

Hilo

paul ron

removed account4

wildbill

BrianShaw

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frank

Sirius Glass

Colin Corneau

MattKing

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AgX

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How to mail prints?

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