A guide on packing minis for shipping

[Sjeng]

Just a little blog post I made.

[Goblin-King]

I hate when they wrap a very fragile mini in plastic and 100000000 miles of tape. I'm just as likely to break it while freeing it from it's stasis prison!

[knightkrawler]

I hate when they wrap a very fragile mini in plastic and 100000000 miles of tape. I'm just as likely to break it while freeing it from it's stasis prison!

Right!
Do not, I beg you, wrap a mini with extended extremities or weapons into airpads and bubbles so that it resembles an airpad roll or ball!
It's useless. Freeing the mini from out of there is more dangerous than the handling of a finished letter/box itself.

For each painted mini, use a bag and wrap THAT into airpads or foamy stuff or whatever soft tissue you have handy.
Unpainted minis (metal or plastic) may share a bag. Keep such a bag compact in shape (if two base miniatures are in there, one base is at the top, the other is at the bottom, for example) but don't stuff it to the max. Don't tape these wrapped bags. It's useless as they won't open if you follow the next steps.

Whenever possible, use a carton, both as a letter and as a parcel. A letter does not have to be an envelope (at least with German post offices). It MAY be a box (max. 5 cm high, 2,40 €). An international letter (500 g) from Germany merely costs 3,45 € and its only limit is the edge length. It can even be thicker than 5 cm. This may also be a box.
So, use a box. Put a layer of airpads in there, twice as large as the box is, the wrapped minis on top, in the center. Fold the airpad down over the minis, wrap it in safely. Rumple some newspaper (RUMPLE, don't fold) or styrofoam or something similarly soft/blow-tolerant and fill out the box; again, not too tight.
Close the box and shake it. Take my word, you can literally hear now if those minis are safe or not. If they are, shut the box and have it shipped.

Granted, Sjeng's method is of course even safer and more appropriate for valuable or painted models.
But I have NEVER heard any complaint about my method. Some of you can attest to that.
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If you don't have a box/carton and want to use an envelope, make sure that it's bubbled or bubble it out. Then, it's imperative that the individually secured minis CAN move. The key to destroying a mini is squishing it. If it has enough room to float around in the bubbled envelope chances are it survives with very little (weapon bending) or no damage.
A based mini (plastic or metal) DOES NOT BELONG in an envelope except the recipient wants to put the mini on a different base anyway.
In fact, I wouldn't ship any plastic mini in an envelope.

That's all, I think.