Shipping Fragile Items: UK Reseller Packing Guide

No UK courier guarantees different handling for a parcel marked 'fragile'; parcels go through conveyors, chutes and van loads whatever is written on them. Writing FRAGILE on several sides does no harm and may help at a staffed counter, but the only protection that works is packing that stops the item moving and keeps impacts away from it. The test is simple: seal the parcel, shake it, and if you can feel or hear anything move, open it and add more padding.

Wrap the item in two or more layers of bubble wrap, taping each layer closed; for pieces with handles, spouts or thin edges, wrap those parts separately first. Put the wrapped item in an inner box that fits with about 5 cm to spare on every side and fill the gaps with crumpled packing paper until nothing moves. Put the inner box inside a larger outer box with another 5 cm of padding on every side, including top and bottom. Tape every seam with proper parcel tape, not sellotape. For a set of glasses or plates, wrap each one separately and never let two pieces touch.

• Two or more layers of bubble wrap, handles and spouts wrapped first
• Inner box with 5 cm of packing paper on every side, shaken to check
• Outer box with another 5 cm of padding all round
• New or sturdy boxes: a reused box that has softened collapses under stacking
• Photographs at every stage, which are your evidence in a damage claim

Royal Mail is the usual choice for fragile items. Tracked 24 and 48 include £75 of compensation and Special Delivery includes £750 (extendable to £2,500), and the Post Office counter is a staffed hand-over. Evri accepts fragile items with good double-boxing, but its standard cover is £20 unless you add more when booking directly. InPost will carry glass, ceramics and collectables but lists them as non-compensatory: nothing is paid if they arrive broken or go missing, so a locker is the wrong place for a vase whatever the packing. On Vinted and eBay the marketplace's own protection applies to integrated-label orders, but a breakage claim still depends on your photographs of the packing.

Phones, tablets, laptops, smartwatches and anything else with a battery cannot go by InPost at all; InPost refuses batteries loose or inside a device. Royal Mail and Evri both accept consumer electronics with the battery installed when the device is switched off and well packed, and the manufacturer's box is the best inner box because it was designed for the device. For anything worth more than about £100, Royal Mail Special Delivery gives £750 of cover and a signature on delivery.

Double-boxing turns a small item into a Small or Medium Parcel. Since 5 October 2026 Royal Mail Tracked 48 is £3.75 online for a Small Parcel (45 × 35 × 16 cm, 2 kg) and a 2nd Class Medium Parcel £7.00 up to 2 kg or £9.00 up to 10 kg; Special Delivery is £9.85 for 100 g and £16.05 for 2 kg. Evri is £2.62 to a ParcelShop or £3.04 to the door for under 1 kg and £6.59 for 2 to 5 kg, plus the cost of any extra cover you add. On Etsy both can be bought inside the dashboard; on eBay, Simple Delivery assigns the courier and the buyer pays.

A vintage glass vase sold on Etsy for £45. Wrapped in three layers of bubble wrap it goes in a 20 cm cube inner box packed with paper, then in a 30 cm cube outer box with padding all round: 1.4 kg and a Royal Mail Medium Parcel by size. The seller buys Tracked 48 through Etsy (£75 of cover), photographs each stage, and hands the parcel over at the Post Office. Had it gone by InPost at £3.99 for a Large compartment, a breakage would have been uncompensated; had it gone 2nd Class it would have cost £7.00 for £20 of cover and no tracking.