How to pack Fragile Items for Shipping

1. You should fill any hollow items with styrofoam peanuts. Wrap each item with large bubble wrap, making sure (if it has been used) that the bubbles have not already been popped. If shipping plates, bread plates, salad, desert plates, saucers or soup bowls, they should be packed in the inner box on their edges. Do not set them flat one on top of the other. All of these that are going in the same box, should be taped together so they can't move around in shipping. If shipping cups, vases or an item shaped in a circle, always lay it on its side after filling the hollow area with styrofoam peanuts and wrapping in large bubble wrap. Make sure that everything is well cushioned with styrofoam peanuts on all 4 sides of bubble wrapped items after taping like items together inside separate boxes or inside inch thick styrofoam sheets made into boxes.
2. The USPS gives what I consider very bad advise on their web site which is "Cushion contents appropriately. For example, fill glass and fragile hollow items, like vases, with newspaper or packing material to avoid damage during shipping. When mailing framed photographs, take the glass out of the frame and wrap it separately." The above is the only advise on the web site but I have been told by clerks at 3 different Post Offices that after everything is packed very tightly in one box (if it is glass or fragile) the box should be wrapped in bubble wrap and should be placed inside another box with approximately 3 or 4 inches of packing on all 4 sides around it. No one has specified what kind of packing to me for this 3 or 4 inches so maybe that is the reason so many sellers pack using nothing but newspaper. Please note that if you pay for insurance some Post Offices require that the outer box be damaged before they will pay for breakage. The USPS also wants the shipper to fill out the claim form and supply the insurance receipt. The receiver needs to take the damaged item or items along with the entire contents of the box to their Post Office immediately after receiving and opening it.
3. The UPS wants a minimum of 4 inches of styrofoam used as packing between the two boxes if shipping fragile items.
4. FedEx follows the same guidelines as the above.
5. Newspaper add more weight than styrofoam and causes shipping to cost more. I have had more damaged where shippers used newspapers as packing than
5. Please note that I have received items that I can't believe they arrived undamaged as they were so badly packed, and I have also received perfectly packed items that were damaged. Sometimes I think it is a matter of luck. I have never sent or received a package to or from another country with USPS that was damaged or lost. I have shipped and received numerous packages with USPS that were lost or damaged that were handled only in the U.S. All my packages that I have received from FedEx have been delivered without damage, and I have never shipped a package with FedEx. I have never had a package damaged or lost that I received or shipped with UPS.