How To Properly Pack Your CD Collection For Shipping

I put together this shipping tutorial to help customers send me their collections based on things I learned by buying hundreds of metal CDs. I will be updating this page from time to time with new information. Feel free to contact me if you still have questions.

Chosing A Shipping Service

The best way to send CDs domestically is by USPS Media Mail. It’s a service from USPS for shipping books, records, CDs, etc. You can also use UPS or FedEx; however, it will be more expensive, and the service isn’t better. For international, it will vary based on your country, but FedEx, UPS, or some regional facsimile exist almost everywhere.

Packing Securely

CDs weigh 4 OZ a piece, and 4 make a pound. You can arrive at a basic idea of the total amount by taking the total number of CDs and dividing it by four. USPS media mail has a weight limit of 70 pounds, so that you can get a maximum of 280 in one box; however, you want to stay below that. Using more / less heavy boxes is better than stuffing one with 70 pounds of CDs because heavy boxes get damaged more quickly.

The most important thing is making sure the CDs don’t fall out. If you stuff them all in one box it will open every time. Plus by packing 200 CDs in one giant box, they it will break the CD cases and damage the digipaks.

The most important thing is making sure the CDs don’t fall out. If you stuff them all in one box, it will always open. Plus, by packing 200 CDs in one giant box, they will break the CD cases and damage the digipaks.

When record labels and music distributors ship physical music, they have specialized custom packing to do this. The best thing to do is to emulate what they do.

The best way to ship is by using at least two smaller boxes inside a larger box to act as a buffer. Then, you put the CDs in smaller boxes, as seen in the examples below.

Any extra space in the larger box should be filled with some bubble swap or newspaper to keep the contents from shifting. It doesn’t have to be super tight.

Any extra space in the larger box should be filled with some bubble swap or newspaper to keep the contents from shifting. It doesn’t have to be super tight.

Lastly, once you have the box in a box, seal up the outside box with plenty of tape. Put so much tape around it, you might think it’s too much!

Summary

Shipping bulk CDs correctly is pretty straightforward. The main two things you are trying to avoid is:

The boxes opening and spilling the contents; thus, we use the box-in-box method.
Smashing the CDs by cramming too many in one box, thus we pack the CDs in smaller boxes to prevent damage.
Put plenty of tape around the outside box.

That’s about it. I hope this tutorial was helpful.