cardboard boxes for storing/transporting vinyl

i'm moving and have to pack up a collection of about 1,500 LPs. none the standard-sized moving boxes fits LPs well, so i was looking to purchase some of those cardboard boxes design for about 50–70 LPs.

for example: http://www.bagsunlimited.com/c-277-storage-boxes.aspx

unfortunately these sort of things seem to cost between $8 and $15 each, which means I'd have to spend $240 at the lowest. which is ridiculous.

does anyone know of where i could get something that would function similarly but for a lot cheaper?

there are wine boxes that work. you gotta find the right size. hit up a bunch of liquor stores.

was gonna say the same thing. if they don't need to stack you can use milk crates or USPS bins.

Downside of wine boxes is that they're huge, and if you put in as many LPs as they'll hold, you have a back-snapping heavy box.

depends on the box. some of those wine boxes that hold, like, four big jugs of cheap wine are perfect. and not too big.

my local supermarket is kind enough to put all their empty boxes by the front door for people to take and there are always different shapes and sizes. very nice/smart of them too. they don't have to have 50 people asking them for moving boxes all day long.

i bought 25 of those bags unlimited boxes because i had to go pick up, like, 8000 records in a uhaul truck and i knew it would make my life so easy. and it really did. and now i just empty them and fill them back up and i use them every day. should have done it sooner. 25 of their white boxes costs 120 bucks. just being able to stack 5 boxes of records on top of each other is such a space saver.

they do need to stack; they need to be covered and close-able. i'm loathe to pay even $120 since after i move i probably won't use them again for years...

liquor store then.

You could resell them after the move. And if anybody else has had that thought, you might find used LP boxes for cheap from someone who's gotten their one use out of them.

you could also check big box stores for big boxes. they might have cheaper ones. walmart always has crap like that. or staples. or you could go to a ups store or uhaul place and ask them if they have anything that would be good.

i've bought moving boxes from UHaul. usually a dollar or 2 and they have record sized boxes.

when annie and i moved from DC to SF, we packed up about that many records -- all the LP's/12"s up went in big 13"x13" boxes, with 4-5 smaller boxes inside each larger box. the smaller boxes held about ten records each, and we got a lot of these from local record stores. the large outside boxes were readily available from places like staples/office depot/etc.

I bought the bags unlimited boxes about five years ago, 25 for about $120, like Scott's deal. They stiffed me on two or three lids, but it was totally worth it anyway. I've taped them up heavily and I'm still using about 20 or 21 of them. They're nice for storage because they look less like clutter than the spines of hundreds of records, and it's easier to search through records from a box or a crate than by their spines, but the big drawback is shifting really heavy boxes around to find what you want. Stackability has been the real feature of them through three or four moves, and it's also useful if you live in tight quarters with a few thousand records and don't have the money for shelving.

Something weird I did to keep the boxes from bowing out the sides (which they'll do if you put a lot of weight on them): I taped paint stirring sticks to their sides.

i've found that the standard UPS/fedex/home depot/etc. boxes are a bit too small, strictly 12x12x16, which means the records don't quite fit. i'll see if i can find a 13x13x?? box somewhere. i like the idea of getting smaller boxes and putting them inside larger boxes.

we'll see.. the big problem right now is that i am incredibly poor. so 75-cent boxes from home depot are great, $8 record storage boxes not so much.

Also the full 13" cubes fit under the USPS media mail weight limit!

We mailed 22 boxes of media mail, including books, movies, cds, and records, insured all the record boxes pretty well, and still got out of there under $500 for all the postage. Media mail was originally a weird govt subsidy of the publishing industry the way i hear it, and i couldnt be more thrilled that it's still around...

22 BIG boxes that is.

http://www.uhaul.com/MovingSupplies/Boxes/Standard-sized-moving-boxes/Small-Moving-Box?id=3245

Price: $1.70
Easy-to-lift small moving boxes are ideal for heavy items such as books, tools, CD's or record albums.

i have a bunch of these at the house. records do actually fit

huh. i bought the same-sized boxes at home depot and records would not fit...

i bought 25 of those bags unlimited boxes because i had to go pick up, like, 8000 records in a uhaul truck and i knew it would make my life so easy. and it really did. and now i just empty them and fill them back up and i use them every day. should have done it sooner. 25 of their white boxes costs 120 bucks. just being able to stack 5 boxes of records on top of each other is such a space saver.

― scott seward, Monday, June 6, 2011 9:34 AM (4 years ago) Bookmark Flag Post Permalink

Question: how high do you guys usually stack these things? I mean the plastic corrugated ones, not the cardboard. I'm loath to put expensive / valuable records on the bottom of a stack of five - is this unreasonable? Does Bags Unlimited have a max weight for on top of these babies, rather than just the max weight you can put inside them?