A guide on how to ship 78s, LPs, open reel tapes, and more
The detailed instructions below will ensure that your magnetic tapes and grooved discs will arrive at The Audio Archive undamaged. We have shipped thousands of discs and tapes using the methods in this guide without losing a single item. The only problems we have ever seen are when the instructions below are not followed. Naturally, we cannot reduce the risks of shipping to absolute zero, but we can certainly reduce those risks as much as possible.
The packing and shipping instructions are organized as follows:
General Principles - DO's and DON'Ts
If you follow the guidelines below, your media will be well protected. Be sure to also review the media-specific packaging and shipping details for tapes and discs. When shipping anything to The Audio Archive:
DO ship items in cardboard boxes
The heavier the items, the stronger the cardboard box needs to be. 200# burst test rating boxes are recommended and preferred over 32ECT boxes. There is no better protection than a strong box with plenty of filler (bubble wrap, newspaper, foam rubber, foam peanuts, etc.).
DO ship very fragile or very heavy items double-boxed
Heavy boxes tend to get thrown around much more and much rougher. Double-boxing provides the most protection possible, with two boxes and two layers of padding. In some cases, our customers ship large quantities of items to us in wood crates, shock resistant containers, or on pallets. Contact us for details if you have a large quantity of items to ship. If you are within a few hundred miles of The Audio Archive, we can also arrange for local pick-up and supervised packing should that be necessary.
When using cardboard boxes, we suggest keeping the total package weight under 30 pounds to prevent damage to the contents.
DO use plenty of filler around all sides
filler that completely surrounds the media (all sides, top and bottom) prevents any crushing of the box from contacting your items and crushing them, too.
DO make sure nothing shifts or is loose inside the box
Padding or filler also prevents the items from shifting inside the box. Shifting items inside the box can destroy the box just as much as crushing the box from the outside. Also, loose items can bang against each other and break - so a perfectly undamaged box can still have damaged items inside. Any padding can be effective: bubble wrap, tightly crushed newspaper, foam rubber, or foam peanuts (make sure the foam peanuts do not contact your record or tape surfaces directly).
DO bundle items together inside the box
This mostly applies to records (grooved discs). If a record flexes, it can shatter (particularly shellacs). Or if one item bangs into another it can be bent (metal discs) or broken (shellacs or glass discs). The easiest way to prevent such damage is to form bundles of items, or "sandwiches" of items that together will not flex, shift or bang into each other.
DO include a list of contents
When your package arrives, we take inventory of the items that you sent to us. This means that we count the items, examine their condition, and check this against any list of contents or manifest that you provide.
- Minimum list: number of items and type (ie. tapes, discs).
- Maximum list: detailed description of each item (ie. artist and/or title, accession number, etc.)
- Optional: if you have multiple boxes, number or label the boxes. In your list, break down the items according to which box they are in.
DO track the shipment and require a signature
Tracking a shipment and signing for the package when received will help minimize the possibility that your package might be lost in transit.
DON'T ship items in a padded envelope
Padded envelopes can bend, tear and crush. Do not think for a moment that the plastic case on your cassette will provide sufficient protection inside a padded envelope - the plastic case will easily shatter. The same goes for reel-to-reel tapes in their original boxes or LPs in their sleeves and jackets. They all provide very little protection against the realities of shipping.
DON'T ship using Ground or USPS Media Mail service (*)
Your package will be sharing space with packages that are either too heavy or too large for shipping via air. Packages shipped via Ground are handled more often and generally treated rougher (because they are larger and heavier).
(*) To every rule, there are exceptions. If you are shipping a large package of tapes, LPs or 78s - all of which are heavy - Ground shipping may be your only option. If your media is very well packaged using the guidelines on this page, and you are not in a rush, then USPS Media Mail might also be an option. Follow the detailed instructions on this page to provide maximum protection to your media.
DON"T hesitate to contact us if you have any doubts
If there is any doubt about what to do, ask yourself if you’ve achieved the above goals. If you are still unsure of what to do, do not hesitate to contact us for guidance. It's not worth taking any unecessary risks with your precious recordings. A phone call or email to The Audio Archive will usually sort things out.
Magnetic Tape
Ideally, the ends of open reel (ie. reel-to-reel) tape will be secured with hold-down tape to minimize unwinding of the tape and loosening of the tape pack in transit.
Similarly with cassettes, use cassette boxes that lock the hubs and keep them from rotating. As an extra precaution, we always break out the record tabs in the cassette shell to completely eliminate the possibility of erasure.
Discs
Discs, and in particular 78 RPM shellacs and transcription discs, are especially fragile and require additional considerations, including:
DO protect the surface of the disc
The vibration of travel can cause discs to slide against each other. Even small movements – potentially tens to hundreds of movements per second – can scuff the surface of the disc. Protecting the disc through the use of sleeves or a protective layer (even just paper) between the discs is important.
One possible source for disc sleeves is Nauck's Vintage Records.
DO prevent bending and flexing of the discs
Create a rigid "sandwich" or stack of discs by placing them between two very rigid "bookends" or outer layers. You can form sufficiently rigid outer layers by using four cardboard pads (two pads on each end of the stack), and making sure that the bending direction of the two pads are opposite of each other (90 degree angle).
DO ensure that the discs never contact the side of the box
Use plenty of filler. The weight of the discs will make them potentially shift in the box and possibly contact the sides. If an impact with the box also contacts the discs, there is a strong possibility of disc breakage. For this reason, we prefer bubble wrap or even tightly packed newspaper over foam peanuts. In addition, the foam peanuts are susceptible to static electricity and tend to stick to the disc surface (an insulator).
DON'T ship 78s in their original book-like albums
They may look protective, but in fact will almost guarantee 1-2 broken discs per album, usually those closest to the album covers. What happens is that the disc slides into the album spine (binding), then the vibration of transit causes the edge of the disc to break off in the binding. Instead, remove all of the discs from the album, and place them in disc sleeves. At the very least, stack the discs in a sandwich, with a paper spacer between each disc so that the grooves from one disc are not in contact with the grooves of another.
DON'T put more than 10-12 discs in a single "sandwich" or stack
As a stack gets thicker, the discs in the stack will start shifting and slipping within the stack. A single disc might protrude from the stack, and you run the risk that the protruding edge will be cracked or altogether snapped off (if the disc is shellac).
DON'T ship packages weighing more than 20-25 pounds
This amounts to about twenty-five 78 RPM discs or as many as 50 LPs. As the box gets heavier, the risk of crushing the box corners and sides increases, leading to potential damage to your discs.
Detailed Disc Packaging Instructions
Take a stack of up to 12 discs. All the discs in the stack should be the same diameter. Do not stack 10-inch discs with 12-inch discs, or 7-inch discs with 10-inch discs, etc. because this will increase the risk of edge damage during shipping. Make a separate sandwich for each record size. If you are shipping 10-inch and 12-inch discs, you will need to make separate 10-inch sandwiches and 12-inch sandwiches.
Make four squares of STIFF corrugated double-layered cardboard that are the same size as the discs. For example, use 10x10 inch squares for 10-inch discs. If one piece of cardboard bends easily, it’s probably not strong enough to protect your discs. For small shipments of discs or if you are on a budget, you can cut your own squares from a strong box. For larger shipments, you may want to purchase a carton of pre-cut squares from a company like Uline, Bags Unlimited, or Paper Mart.
Take two of the four squares, and stack them together so that the direction of the corrugations for each square are 90-degrees to each other. This will form the bottom of the disc sandwich.
Next, place up to 10 discs on top of the cardboard layer. Again, these discs should be in sleeves or each disc separated by paper towels.
Take the remaining two squares, and stack them on top of the discs to form the top of the sandwich. Just like the bottom of the sandwich, the direction of the corrugations for the top two squares should be 90-degrees to each other.
Finally, firmly tape the sandwich on all four sides to minimize the discs sliding relative to one another.
Box the disc sandwich(es) with multiple crush zones around them. Use bubble wrap or tightly crushed newspaper and completely surround the discs. Packing peanuts can work well, too, but you don't want the peanuts to be in direct contact with the discs if the discs are unsleeved.
Remember, no more than 20-25 lbs max per box (approximately 20-25 78s or 40-50 LPs).
Double boxing is important for heavy boxes to minimize the effects of dropping and other impacts. Be sure to use filler between the inner and outer box for maximum crush protection.