Solution

Yippee for orders that arrive a day after ordering them!

Now that Uline has a warehouse here in Canada I can order shipping supplies at great prices and the shipping fee to my home ends up being reasonable too (helps that our dollar is still pretty high). Yes, even receiving orders of shipping supplies makes me happy. You can see Chibi likes the boxes too.

I was particularly excited because I wanted to try this out... This little slab of cardboard is the solution to what, up to now, has my biggest shipping problem.

Since I’ve been selling online, I’ve been shipping many of my jewellery pieces in a cotton-filled jewellery box inside a bubble mailer. Very secure, looks good, and easy. Rather costly for me though, and shipping is pricey for my customers since Canada Post considers any parcel thicker than 2cm a parcel. Crazy but true. They charge a flat rate of $6.45 anywhere in the US and between $7.80 and $8.20 internationally, for a small jewellery box in a 4"x8" envelope. And what makes even less sense, is that it’s even more expensive to ship to many parts of Canada – my own country ($11 to Vancouver)! Sheesh.

I recently switched my earrings and chiyogami pendants over to just bubble mailers, thus reducing shipping costs on those; I was envisioning frustrated, unionized mail carriers jamming them into tiny mailslots, but I'm careful to wrap them well before putting them in the envelope, and all is fine so far.

I’ve kept my sushi pendants and larger necklaces in the jewellery boxes though, for the added protection, until this piece of cardboard... that folds into this wonderfully flat cd mailer. ♫♪ Ta daaa ♫♪
And when folded up, it's all ready to address and send. All this protection and 1.2cm thick - take THAT, Canada Post! There are a couple things, like my taiko (Japanese drum) pieces, that are too big and will have to continue to be shipped in a jewellery box and mailer, but I am thrilled that I can now use these for the majority of my jewellery pieces. I have peace of mind that my things will get to their destinations safely and the customer pays less in shipping. A win-win situation ☺

If you'd like to try these out yourself, you can find the cd mailers at Uline Canada and Uline USA .