Gift Box Blues

when you've got stuff to package
and it needs to look real nice
then you start researching boxes
and find ridiculous minimum orders
(like a thousand) ouch!
then you find some cool packaging
but it costs five dollars a box
that's when you've got...
the gift box blues

Lol- I don't know how many hours I have put into finding just the right boxes so far. The ideal solution would be boxes that I can use to store finished items in before they sell. That could help keep me organized, and if things are already packaged and ready to go, that would also speed up the shipping process. I have shelves in my workspace where I can stack gift boxes, and I have items ready to be boxed up. The challenge now is to find the boxes.

There are a lot of creative ideas that one could use for packaging. Several sites had these little reusable backpacks (that are often used as giveaways with advertising on them). One had a minimum order of 100- it went up from there. That's kind of a problem for me. And the other problem is the risk of buying 100 of these things without seeing them. Plus, if one were to use something like that for packaging, it wouldn't do anything to protect the item, it would only be like gift wrap. Now, the idea of people wearing little Penguin Feathers backpacks around is pretty cool. I may eventually look into this further. It would be good advertising.

However, I am not to the point of advertising yet. First I need to have items to list, then I need to list them... I have some cool stuff that I haven't listed yet because I don't have the packaging figured out. *sigh* so many elements to figure out!