I always get tons of questions about how to sell records online.
And here’s what I always say;
“Selling vinyl records on eBay is just like selling any other collectible. You can go to a garage sale, flea market, estate sale, etc. and hit the motherlode! However, unless your entire eBay store is dedicated to selling records online, making a profit is generally about moving lots of LP’s for less than “motherlode money”. Then, when you get to the end of the year, you see all those little amounts added up to a LOT!”

Once you do have a good selection of vinyl LP’s listed on eBay and starting to sell, make sure you know how to properly create custom record shipping boxes.
This isn’t as easy as it might seem.
Yes, records are made from vinyl and are sturdy enough, but vintage records can become a bit brittle with age. If the records aren’t packaged well, breakage can easily occur.
Broken items cause returns and returns are no fun so make double-for-sure the record shipping boxes and packing materials are top quality, even though they are “handmade”.
If you don’t like the video or prefer reading instructions, below is a complete transcript of the video.

Shipping vinyl records & creating custom record shipping boxes tutorial

Hi, everybody. I’m Danna Crawford, the eBay Power Selling Mom. Thanks for joining me.
I actually had a lot of people ask me about how I go about shipping record albums on eBay, and it’s funny, because I actually had a sale this weekend. So I get to show you how I’m going to ship.
First thing you’ll need, of course, is a record album. This is my photo center. This is where I take all my photos for eBay, and I have a table set up, but this session is not about photos.

Anyhow, I sold this record for $65, and they paid $3 something shipping. In the record album category, there’s a maximum that you can charge for shipping.
I’m a believer in doing free shipping and charging for shipping. I do a combination of both, so they kind of help each other out along the way, but again that’s another segment.
For now, I want to share with you how I’m going to ship this record album.
I’ve been doing it this way for years, and I used to have all my kid’s friends come over and help me cut priority mail boxes, because it just works so well, especially when I have a lot of record albums that I’m going to be shipping.
It’s nice to have them made up ahead of time. You’re going to need a shirt box. This is a regular priority mail shirt box. It’s not flat rate.
When you order these you just order the priority mail shirt box. Here’s the numbers from the box, if you want to check that out.
The first thing I do is I open it up along the seam, so I’ll split it open so that it’s wide open. Then I fold in these edges so that this will form a nice area to hold the record album in. It gives it a nice, secure fit. So you fold these in, and then you bring it up to the top, like this. What we’re doing is we’re making a shipping envelope, a priority mail shipping envelope.
You can cut these little things off on each side if you want to, but I use them. I think that they also help. Sometimes I’ll put them on the inside, or you can put them on the outside. I actually like them on the inside. Then fold them up this way. Then all you do is bring the two sides in to hold like that, and there you have it.
There is your envelope.

When I get these ready ahead of time I bring it up to the part where it’s going to stick to the other side, and then stop there, then fold it over and stick it good. Do the same to the other side. Start at the bottom.
Like I said, you can make a bunch of these up ahead of time. Then it saves you time on shipping day.
When my kids were young and their friends would come over, I’d say, “I’ll pay you guys. You can help me out.” I’d line them all up on the floor, and they would make these for me, because it’s a way to go.
Why buy boxes when there’s free stuff available?
I was talking to some people that are buying priority mail boxes, and they’re paying like $0.50 a box, and then they’re doing free shipping, on and on. Everybody’s different. My friend may have one way. Your friend may have another way. I’m just sharing with you how I do it.
Now that that is ready there the next thing I’ll do is I’ll put it in a plastic bag. The other important part, see this one has a seam split, is some people don’t like if there’s a good sleeve inside a lot of record collectors do not like the record shipped inside the sleeve. They want it shipped outside the sleeve, because they want to protect that inside sleeve so that it doesn’t get split.
The other thing that’s important is when you ship it you don’t want it to roll out of the package. You don’t want it to roll out, so you don’t want to ship it with this opening up. What I do is I put it in a bag.

I’ve got this nice Schwann’s bag. I make sure that the plastic is covering the opening to the record. Then you just fold it up pretty. I also put my business card in there. Fold it up nice and pretty.
Now I’ll put a piece of bubble wrap around it, just for some added protection. I will put the bubble wrap around it to help protect it. I probably wouldn’t double bubble it, but for the sake of speed right now. Then I just slide it into the pocket, the envelope that I created.
You want to make sure that it doesn’t catch on the sticky part as you’re going in. Make sure that these are still up. It can be kind of tricky as you work it in.
There we go.
Then it’s a nice snug fit, and then I just peel off the side pieces and secure it down. I push those down, and then I fold it over this way. Then I put one ear back and one ear back. There you have it. Now I’ll put tape around the sides, around the ears, across the top. You can even seal off the edges if you want with tape and put another piece. I like to put another piece around the bottom, because that’s what I do.
Now I’m going to print my label out on eBay, but before I do that I always write with a marker.
I’ll write, “Do Not Crush”.
That’s it.
When I print my label I’ll put my label on there, and then I’ll write “Do Not Crush” on it as well. Let me go get my label ready, and then I’ll finish it off.
Shipping was $5.47, and it’s going to New Jersey. I was able to print out the label, and being a top rated seller on eBay you get insurance up to $100 with priority mail, so another reason why it’s worth shipping priority mail, because you’re insured.
That’s it. I hope it will help you with your shipping of record albums, and if you have any questions contact me! Until next time, happy eBay selling.