Packing for the post

 

Bubble envelopes are lethal for toys. Seriously. They offer no protection whatsoever, and actually add to the risk of serious damage. That's because in quite a few countries, envelopes get run through a roller system to be scanned, where the rollers clamp each envelope very tightly indeed, and there's something in the conveyor system that pulls each envelope along as well. 

All of which is clearly demonstrated by this letterbox-sized box that contained a book:

By the looks of it, this box got flattened by the roller system while a corner got ripped open trying to pull it along. The sides of the box have buckled while the book ended up taking the pressure, which at least it was robust enough to take.

Not so this poor Lego VW Beetle:

This little car was all complete with intact bumpers and started as a bargain because it had a low starting bid. The seller had done a poor job of describing it, so I was the only bidder. The seller also offered free shipping but that's where things went wrong. Loosely wrapped in a piece of toilet paper, the fragile little thing had simply been shoved into a bubble envelope and put in the post, with the devastating results shown above. I got a full refund, but meanwhile a little car that had survived intact for 60+ years had been wrecked...

Thankfully there are people who do a much much better job of packaging vintage toys to get them to their destination unharmed. Based on what I've received and with a few of my own ideas, here's how I go about it:

If the toy has parts that can shake loose, then I put it in a ziplock bag so they don't become lost as well. Some little Lego cars have tiny headlights and a Mercedes roadster that I bought as complete arrived with one headlight missing that must have escaped completely while underway. 

If the bag is wide enough then the toy can go in sideways and the bag can be rolled up with the opening staying flat. I don't put tissue inside because if anything gets loose then it may still disappear when taking out the wrapped item before its absence is noticed.

I do put a piece of kitchen roll between moving parts so they don't scratch. And some bubble wrap to support parts here and there as well. The hose reel at the rear is a repro that fits very tightly so I was confident that would stay put.

I then wrap each toy individually in more kitchen paper. Trailers are packed separately from their tractors.

Everything is then snugly packed into a small box, with wads of bubblewrap to fill up every space so nothing will move when in transit. I hang on to little boxes I receive, and my local DIY is also a very good source having a bin at the exit full of boxes in all sizes including very useful smaller ones.

The small box then goes into the exact middle of a larger box, with styrofoam pellets packed tight between the two. This tight packing ensures that any weight or pressure on the larger box gets evenly distributed throughout without any chance of the toys being affected, the smaller box distributing the pressure around the toys. 

The larger box also means it goes through a different roller system than envelopes with no chance of the kind of damage seen above. And there's less chance of it getting lost because of its size as well.
Do check maximum sizes with whatever shipping service you use, though I've found that the (fairly sturdy) boxes used for half a dozen wine bottles tend to be acceptable to most postal services and esp alternatives like Hermes, Mondial Relay etc. Two local supermarkets have empty boxes to take away at the exit so I keep an eye out for them.