Please don't package yoyos like this

Today I received a yoyo. When I opened the mailbox I was a bit concerned. There sat a bubble envelope. Bulging from the center was a perfect circle. A bit nervous, I rushed to the house and opened the package. The yoyo was sitting in the bubble wrap envelope by itself. No box, nothing. Thankfully the yoyo is okay.

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Hey, all: Save a few boxes from your orders. They come in handy when you gotta use one to mail someone here a yoyo.

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I tend to ship using boxes, but I have received yoyos in bubble envelopes and they’ve been fine so far. Though I definitely see the potential for disaster lol

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Walmart has boxes for less than a buck. Better a buck than a potential bad BST comment.

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I think bubble envelopes are okay if you disassemble the yoyo and wrap the halves. Boxes are obviously better though.

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Yeah if you fully disassemble there is ZERO percent chance that anything short of being run over by an 18-wheeler truck, would cause any damage to the yo-yo.

Honestly I ship yoyos on the regular in just a padded envelope and they always arrive fine. But for truly valuable stuff (or as a “real” yo-yo company), I would definitely not do that. Your risk – as with pretty much all yo-yo damage in my testing – is always around the axle, but even that would take a ridiculous amount of force to achieve in a padded envelope…

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I did have one come badly damaged and shipped in a bubble envelope. It was an old YYJ hybrid plastic model with metal rims. It was shipped around the holidays and had been unscrewed, but the halves were just knocking about together unwrapped. It had multiple cracks and chips in the plastic around the rims by the time it got to me that were not in the photos and after the seller assured me that there were no cracks in the plastic.

I don’t know if it was partly crushed by other packages in the mail, if the halves simply struck against each other a few times too hard, or if the cold of winter contracted the materials enough to break at the weak points, but it was in very rough shape by the time it got to me.

As an extra note about shipping around the holiday season (for future reference), the post offices are inundated with packages. I just recently got one this year that had to be resent by the seller because the box had been too badly damaged to complete delivery. Fortunately, the seller used a LOT of bubble wrap to protect it, so the yoyo is fine.

So please, sellers, go that little extra distance and put it in a box and make sure it’s secured. You can probably dumpster dive and find small cardboard boxes. If the box is damaged during sorting, something else besides wishful thinking should be there to protect it. Your buyers will thank you and sleep better at night knowing that what you’re sending them is coming well protected.

Ok, rant over. Sorry guys. This probably could/should have been put in the OCD thread.

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That definitely sounds like irresponsibly bad packaging, but aren’t these older plastics known for not being particularly durable, a decade plus on?

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They are, but the seller had assured me that they could not see any such cracks, and the pieces that were chipped out of the plastic were also in the bag, so it clearly wasn’t like that when the seller shipped it. Otherwise, you’re right, I would have chocked the damage up to nothing more than age induced pressure cracks.

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Unless I’m shipping several yoyos, I always use padded envelopes. Granted, I’m wrapping what I’m shipping in at a minimum 3 padded envelopes. As a matter of fact, a couple folks on here have complemented me on the packaging.

What gets my goat, is when people ship in a box, but the yoyos are loose with only a piece of tissue paper or newspaper for “padding.” Then they get mad when I say they didn’t do enough to protect my throws.

Here’s a pic a buyer sent

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Crumbled up newspaper or junk flyers work great too. I have only shipped one BST yoyo and I was totally paranoid about damage so I went the extra mile and cut my worrying down 10%.

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I just keep all of the small cardboard boxes that I get in the mail and reuse them when it comes time for me to ship yo-yos. I try to make sure that nothing in the package rattles. I usually have any number of different packing fodders laying around. Anything from wads of paper to Bubble Wrap.

When I buy a yoyo directly from a vendor, the way that they ship their yo-yos; that’s the way I like to ship my things. It’s a little bit more time consuming, but I think the extra effort put forth to ensure that the receiver gets a yoyo that was in the same exact condition as it was when it left my house it’s worth it

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As long as they are metal, that’s probably fine, but plastic can be less durable. Particularly around high shipping volume times like November/December, lots of things are being shipped and some of them could be heavy enough to do some significant damage if it lands on that little envelope. I don’t mean to offend anyone on here that ships with bubble envelopes, and if I have, I apologize, I’m only cautioning, as soneone who has had mixed results receiving yoyos in the mail, that it just doesn’t always go as planned once you leave the package at the post office. It’s best, in my opinion, to follow the Boy Scout motto, “be prepared,” or in this case, make sure the package is prepared to handle whatever chaos may be waiting for it once it’s out of your hands.

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And you did a top notch job on packaging :+1:

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Thank you, that means a lot!

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I box every yo I send. How terrible for someone’s yoyo anticipation buzz to be turned into the bummer of disappointment for the mere convenience of an envelope. I’ve received yoyos in envelopes with axles and bearings missing, never any damage to the yo. I know damage and loss is possible with boxes as well but I feel that the box is less risky.

I usually request that yoyos be shipped to me in a box now.

Just my opinion, the correct opinion of course!
:facepunch: (consider this emoji a fist bump rather than a face punch)

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:thinking: :raising_hand_man: :fist_right:

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I can confirm that @Apadil1 packaging skills are second to none. It took me a full ten minutes to unwrap that Ti Cadence he sent me, (no joke) and I couldn’t feel the shape of the yo-yo from the outside at all. To this day, I haven’t received a yo-yo that was packaged better than that. Of course, we’re talking about multiple envelopes and multiple layers of bubble wrap here. I can definitely understand getting upset after receiving a yo-yo placed in a single envelope.

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Nobody here packs things as safely as I do.

The pic below is a single string I am sending to the President of Nigeria. He put a few bucks in my Bank account🤓

Anyway he needs a string for his Ti Walker.

So I’m packing it in a 2 foot/10”/10” box packed in 7 pounds of bubble wrap.

Then sealed at seams with triple deep fiberglass reinforced industrial tape.

Sending it Next morning delivery/signature only.

I don’t mess around🤡

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That guy is a nut! If he only wanted one string, he should have held out for a nylon. It’s guaranteed the last at least four times as long. :roll_eyes:

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