How to Pack and Mail Books

Here are some hints on packing books for shipping:

If you ship your books to us, we have some ideas on the best way to do it.

Pack books tightly in a sturdy well taped box with crushed newspaper between the books and the box, and between the stacks of books, so they wont move and get damaged. Best way to stack books is flat, and never vertically with the spine up. Vertical is okay for cheap books to fill space. If the books have dust jackets wrap each book so the jackets don't get damaged. Ship them by the Post Office's Media Rate, the PO will try to upsell you to a faster service which is a waste of money.

On the photo above, notice the raw edge on the left. Yes, put tape on that weak spot as well. It is the only place the box is glued, so reinforce it.

I never use insurance. If you like, insure for the minimum only, as the Post Office never loses insured packages, and they also never pay for high value losses! Keep the boxes light, between 20 and 30 lbs. I am 80 years old and can't lift heavy boxes!

UPS and FedEx ground services are premium services, and in our experience they are not much faster or careful than the Post Office. The Post Office's Media Rate is a bargain, it costs only a fraction of UPS's cheapest rate. However, UPS will pick up boxes at your house if you are unable to carry boxes to the Post Office or a UPS store.

In 2023 we have noticed that Post Office delivery has speeded up!

If you need to buy boxes to mail your books, we recommend buying a bundle of 25 boxes from http://www.uline.com, a great supplier of business supplies. Our favorite size is 14''x12''x8'' or smaller. That will hold 25 lbs of books, and works for even the largest picture books, as well as two stacks of normal 9'' books.

Just this summer 2024 I ordered 25 new boxes from Uline, 14x12x8 to be sent to Seattle. They have one day delivery all over America. It cost only $54.97 to send new boxes with tax and shipping. I cannot send the nice used boxes that I have here in Evergreen for so little. The boxes themselves cost me only $1.29 each! I also sent rolls of the best plastic tape and filament tape you can buy, much better than what Amazon uses, from here to the person sending us books.

We Buy Mountaineering Books!

What we buy and do not buy in Mountaineering Books!

We buy collections or individual books like the ones on this website. That means books on Mountaineering, Rock Climbing, Exploration, Tibet, the Himalaya, The Arctic and Antarctic, and other true adventures.

We prefer hardcovers, the older the better, with Dust Jackets if they had one, in nice condition. We like Signed books, old climbing guidebooks, and generally books that we sell for more than $50. We do not usually buy paperbacks, very recent books, books in poor condition, magazines, and books that we would price under $50. We really like to buy older books, books in nice condition, and uncommon books.

Although we do not buy magazines and paperbacks, as they are a lot of work to sell, we will take them for free if we are buying other books from you. Paperbacks were created to sell at a low price. We do not buy books that we will sell for $5.

We also buy old climbing gear, pitons, ice axes, goldline and manila rope, boots with Tricouni Nails, etc. Tricouni is still in business, the nails are good for loggers.

Prices of used books has been dropping for several years. That applies to all used books, not just mountaineering. Since 1960 more nice climbing books have been published than at anytime in history. But the internet has now made most of them easy to find, which means they now fetch low prices even if they were expensive 25 years ago. So if your books were new when you bought them, as opposed to used books and decades old, most have very low value right now.

Whether you have 5 or 500 books to sell, please call us before you make a list. Call us at 720 560-4963 any day, all day, or e-mail us at info@chesslerbooks.com. We need to talk on the phone as it is much better than e-mails. If you have already made a list of your books, please e-mail it to us. But don't start making a list until we talk. 90% of what is written on a list is unnecessary for us. A photo of the whole shelf answers most of our questions. See our example below.

If your collection is very large, we can even fly or drive to you to pick it up. We have done this dozens of times over the last 45 years. We pay generously for fine collections, and we can do all the work. Since the Pandemic in 2020 we have driven over 10,000 miles to Phoenix AZ, Durango CO, Silicon Valley CA, Seattle, Oregon twice, and towed numerous U-Haul trailer loads of books to our bookshop. In 2021 I even flew to Juneau AK to buy books and in 2023 I drove to Toronto and pulled a trailer of books back!

This summer of 2024 we will be driving to California and Washington to buy some larger book collections. So if you have books to sell, please call us to start the ball rolling as we will be a day's drive from you if you live in the western USA.

How much do we pay for books?

Used book sellers do not buy at a percent of their selling price. Nobody buys a box of books or a room full of books by any formula. And we will not look at a list of books with the prices taken from ebay or our website and come up with a price we will pay based on selling prices. Every book has different demand, and supply, that affects the price.

Why not? For the same reason food, clothes, houses and cars sell for different prices and mark-ups. Each item is unique. Used book prices are usually based on the demand for the specific book, in the condition of each book, and the current supply both on-line and through our other ways of buying books.

Right now, in the 2020's, it is much easier to find, and harder to sell, many of the books that were scarcer 20 years ago.

A Hint on Taking Photos of Your Books

If you do not have a list, an easy way to let us know what you have is to take photos and email them to us. Here is an example of some books that a fellow had on his shelves. Just get them well lit (daylight is best), take some images, and send them to our email: orders@chesslerbooks.com. Make the longest dimension at least 800 pixels, oir 5 inches.

Some hints on packing books for shipping:

If you ship your books to us, we have some ideas on the best way to do it.

In 2023 we have noticed that Post Office delivery has speeded up!

If you need to buy boxes to mail your books, we recommend buying a bundle of 25 boxes from http://www.uline.com, a great supplier of business supplies. Our favorite size is 16''x12''x8'' or smaller. That will hold 25 lbs of books, and works for even the largest picture books, as well as stacks of normal 9'' books.

U-Line boxes are cheap, $1 to $2 each, and even with shipping charges to you, they cost half of what U-Haul charges. The U-Haul book box is 16x12x12, similar to our recommendations, but is 25% larger and gets too heavy to lift when full of books. Also, they use lightweight cardboard that can blow open. You spent a lot to buy your books, and took care of them for decades. Don't let them get damaged at this point.

How to tape a box of books:

This is the proper way to tape a box. Boxes fail at the corners, or anyplace it has a flap or an edge. The long edges on top never fail. N

otice the raw edge on the left. Yes, put tape on that weak spot as well. It is the only place the box is glued, so reinforce it.

If you have a used box, remove all the old tape and labels, especially if its plastic tape. In the image above we have used the best reinforced paper tape, and the best quality filament tape. When we used plastic tape, we use the strongest version, 2.6 mil from Uline. Even if you do not buy from them, their pages on tape are an education. (UIline min order is 24 rolls, so offioce supply stores and

Costco alsohave better quality tape.

Most boxes we see do not use enough tape. Use better quality tape, not the cheap stuff. For 10-20 boxes you only need a few rolls of tape, and we can supply you with tape, as we buy the best quality available.

Tape all the places where there is an edge of cardboard. Boxes burst open where the are made to open, where the flaps lift. So tape the long seam on the top, and bottom. Always remove old tape. Always replace old tape on the box bottom. Then tape the edges where the top flaps meet the sides. Do not wrap the box with tape. Well, okay, do whatever you want. But tape it this way is the correct way. We often use a second layer of tape, then press it down with our hand.