4 ms·

Why were the boxes taped so insanely?

mdorazio 10y ago
I'm not 100% sure, but I've gotten several boxes from China packaged the same way, so I think it's to make them moisture/water resistant during shipping and to guarantee nothing comes out.
paulgerhardt 10y ago
Cheap waterproofing, tamper proofing, 'packet' anonymization, and a means of tailoring a box to the custom size. It needs the waterproofing in part because of the insane monsoon weather that blows into south China and will soak you in seconds and because a lot those packages get shuttled around in the back of open half-truck-half-motorcycles until they get to major distribution nodes. It's 10 cents per square meter. It's also partly cultural (everyone else does it this way) - and most sellers are small operations of a handful of people. It provides seller protection for online purchases. It doesn't make high value items look inviting. The cardboard is frequently sourced or reused from whatever is lying around and cut to size so there's less need for filler when using 'standard' Amazon A1, B14, F3, etc style boxes.
toomanybeersies 10y ago
I guess it's somehow cheaper than shrinkwrap.
jdietrich 10y ago
It looks janky as hell, but it really works. It's a crude sort of composite structure. Waterproofing is the obvious thing, but the tape makes the boxes much tougher. The tension of the tape makes the box much stiffer and more resistant to crush damage. The tape layer also smooths the surface and prevents the cardboard from snagging on package handling equipment. If the box is punctured, it's held together by the tape and is much less likely to rip open. Many Chinese sellers use expanded polystyrene boxes for shipping fragile items, of the sort you'd see in a fish market. They're quite flimsy on their own, but become unbelievably tough when wrapped in tape.
SXX 10y ago
They used to ship them to countries with shitty mail services like almost all of ex-Soviet Republics. It's the only way items can be delivered undamaged there.

I'm not 100% sure, but I've gotten several boxes from China packaged the same way, so I think it's to make them moisture/water resistant during shipping and to guarantee nothing comes out.

paulgerhardt 10y ago

Cheap waterproofing, tamper proofing, 'packet' anonymization, and a means of tailoring a box to the custom size. It needs the waterproofing in part because of the insane monsoon weather that blows into south China and will soak you in seconds and because a lot those packages get shuttled around in the back of open half-truck-half-motorcycles until they get to major distribution nodes. It's 10 cents per square meter. It's also partly cultural (everyone else does it this way) - and most sellers are small operations of a handful of people. It provides seller protection for online purchases. It doesn't make high value items look inviting. The cardboard is frequently sourced or reused from whatever is lying around and cut to size so there's less need for filler when using 'standard' Amazon A1, B14, F3, etc style boxes.

toomanybeersies 10y ago

I guess it's somehow cheaper than shrinkwrap.

jdietrich 10y ago

It looks janky as hell, but it really works. It's a crude sort of composite structure. Waterproofing is the obvious thing, but the tape makes the boxes much tougher. The tension of the tape makes the box much stiffer and more resistant to crush damage. The tape layer also smooths the surface and prevents the cardboard from snagging on package handling equipment. If the box is punctured, it's held together by the tape and is much less likely to rip open. Many Chinese sellers use expanded polystyrene boxes for shipping fragile items, of the sort you'd see in a fish market. They're quite flimsy on their own, but become unbelievably tough when wrapped in tape.

SXX 10y ago

They used to ship them to countries with shitty mail services like almost all of ex-Soviet Republics. It's the only way items can be delivered undamaged there.