Group 008: more Red on white

[Jjay]

Thanks for your help. If any of these are special, do they have much value?

[Steph]

Nothing stands out to me.

I'd put 'em in a basic West Virginia swirl lot.  

 

Ebay lets you list 50 items per month without any fees up front (just the 10% fee at the end).  

You could play around with different sizes of lots to see what sells for you.  

 

Remember that when you ship marbles, they need to be packed snugly but not too tight (so they don't rattle or grind), with enough cushion to be protected from whatever outside forces might impact them on the journey.  Bubble wrap works better than packing peanuts for marbles. 

I mention this now to get that idea percolating in your brain while you're contemplating lot size.  

[Jjay]

Thanks. I've been meaning to ask about shipping. Are there certain boxes that are best. If you were just going to ship one marble, how big would the box need to be? Are the USPS boxes sufficient with enough bubble wrap to secure the marble? Just curious about what's best.

[Steph]

For just one marble or just a few, some people use bubble wrap lined envelopes.  I currently worry too much to put them in an envelope but lots of people do it that way.  

Very small boxes can be used for just one marble.  The main thing is for there to be enough room to fit postage and tracking information on the box.

If you plan to do a lot of shipping you can get good small boxes in bulk for a small price per box at someplace like Uline.com.  At least I used to.  I haven't checked Uline prices in awhile.  My last box and bubble wrap order came from Staples. 

The smallest flat rate shipping box from USPS can fairly easily hold 50 marbles with reasonable amounts of cushioning.  (You can distribute them into three or four ziplock bags and wrap those snugly to prevent rattling, and still have room for bubble wrap cushion.)

 

I'm kinda silly with my shipping -- I individually wrap most marbles in small ziplock bags (like 1.5" x 1.5" or 2" x 2").  Then I may not use as much bubble wrap because the individually wrapped marbles are not going to clink against each other.  

 

(If someone really doesn't care about cushion -- and surprisingly some do not --  you can fit even more into those small flatrate boxes.)