Condition of Used Boxes

We provide access to boxes sold by independent businesses and individuals and do not have direct control, or knowledge, of the quality of boxes that are listed. We realize that box quality is important and assure buyer satisfaction in three ways.

1. Buyers are allowed to inspect boxes at pickup and select only the boxes that they want within the type they purchased. We do not allow sellers to dictate which boxes the buyer takes. Please keep in mind that inspecting folded boxes can be difficult and time consuming; you might want to pickup a few extra boxes just in case. On the other hand, note that despite appearances, most used boxes are fine for nearly all purposes, even if they have creases or small tears.

2. Sellers are required to ensure that boxes they sell meet our minimum standards. Sellers can achieve this by either inspecting their boxes or listing only a part of their available inventory so it is highly likely that enough quality boxes will be available within their available stock. Sellers cannot prevent buyers from choosing which boxes buyers will take and cannot have so many boxes that do not meet minimum standards that locating quality boxes is very difficult for the buyer.

3. New and Inspected Used Boxes are available from select sellers for those who require highest quality boxes. Inspected Used Boxes are manually verified by the seller to be in excellent/near new structural condition (they may still have labels or writing). New boxes have never been used. Some will have printing on them, but are completely new.

In addition, sellers may offer Plain Boxes for those who require unmarked boxes. Plain New boxes have no printing, writing, or markings. Plain Inspected boxes have no printing, but are allowed to have markings or labels as long as those can be easily covered up by a single shipping label.

Minimum Box Quality

Boxes provided by sellers must still be in useable condition. While some people have higher standards than others, we require that boxes:

In short, the box must be in such a shape that it can be safely used by someone for moving, storage, or shipping, though it does not need to be able to handle the same weights and pressures the new box did. Small rips and tears are OK provided that the box can be taped back together and still have sufficient strength. Tape, labels, markings, printing, logos, etc. are all OK.

Size and Shape of Used Boxes

We categorize boxes by type, volume, dimensions, and size-equivalence. Buyers can get detailed information on any specific box by clicking on its name.

Box type is the main way we categorize boxes. Box type implies a shape, size, and purpose of the box which are specified in the box description and estimated volume and dimensions. Sellers may offer a variety of actual dimensions under the same box type as long as their boxes are clearly suitable for the task.

For example, moving boxes are primarily selected for volume so sellers should list boxes that offer volume comparable to the box type estimate even if dimensions are different. For shipping boxes, length of the longest side is most important and volume can vary widely. All boxes should have a typical rectangular shape. Special shapes, such as narrow boxes, have their own box types.

Instead of offering approximate dimensions, sellers can provide exact dimensions for their boxes or indicate that all boxes have the same size without specifying the actual dimensions. Since some buyers have specific size requirements and/or strong preference for same-size boxes such listings are highlighted in our results.