Fab ebay sellers - help me please!

Frugal_Fox

Hi

This is the first time I've posted on this board, so forgive me if I've made a fatal error.

I'm looking for cake boxes - I'm happy to buy them on ebay or do any of you know other places to get them rather cheaply! I'm not looking for large cake boxes - ie not for 'proper' cakes, but I bake gingerbread men/shortcake/flap jack etc and I'm looking to source ways of sending my 'bakings'. I'm currently a debt free wannabe and I want to send my baked goods to relatives etc for presents - thus keeping expenditure down! Also I'm considering selling them on ebay maybe later in the year.

Can anyone help or am I just barking mad.

FF

x

tatts_2

You could buy a Craft Crease and Fold Board (currently on Ebay for around £6/£10) you can then make your own boxes any size or depth very quickly and easily!
Or buy from a craft retailer ( i.e cannycrafts.com) for around £13/£15 for the plastic kind, I have this one and its very good!)
You can then choose the colour card to go with the theme of the occassion or the goodies inside the box, and decorate the boxes with peel off corners or cheap embellishments.
They really are very simple and easy to use and so quick too!
(you'll never buy a gift box again! lol)
Your outlay would then only be card stock and adhesive/double sided sticky tape!

alternatively, you could go into a craft shop and buy a cake box template, (about £2/£4) which take more time to do as you have to draw the shape and then crease, cut and assemble by hand) or even cheaper still... go to a bakery or cake shop and buy a cheap cake box and carefully take it apart and make your own template from that!

I make gift boxes etc to sell (locally) and charge around 80p for a small decorated box, if you were to buy from a supplier regulary, you would probably need them already assembled and that would increase your postage charges, may work out exspensive in the long run!

I highly reccommend the crease and fold board.........it has so many uses and you'll wonder what you did without it before if you buy one! *grin*

Hope thats of some help to you. Good luck

soolin

I can't add anything to tatts excellent post about various places to get boxes. However, I can respond to the bit about selling cakes on ebay.

The selling of food on ebay carries a lot of prohibitions, and sending them in boxes will not be sufficient as food needs to be sealed and carry a best by date. See here for all the rules and regs on ebay:

http://pages.ebay.co.uk/help/policies/food.html

Soo

Frugal_Fox

Tatts -

Thank you so much for your fabulous post. You have given me loads to think about - so will def go off and check it all out. Many many thanks.....

FF
x

Frugal_Fox

Soo,

I had considered that ebay would have regulations regarding this, and hadn't got round to reading them - thanks for the link, I haven't checked it out yet, but will do later. I already periodically sell my gingerbread etc - school fair etc, so do have labels - which I believe meets all the regs - ie traceable, addressed plus best by date. This would probably be enough, and I do have my Basic Food hygiene, which although does not certify my kitchen at least means I have some knowledge over what not to do!!

Many thanks for your post and looking forward to reading the regs later... will let you know if I go ahead.

FF

Frugal_Fox

tatts wrote:

You could buy a Craft Crease and Fold Board (currently on Ebay for around £6/£10) you can then make your own boxes any size or depth very quickly and easily!...

Hi Tatts

Silly question - but what do these 'boards' look like? I put in 'crease board' and the picture just looked like a rectangular 'thing' with horizontal lines on - is this what I need? Never was much good at origami!!!

FF

Kaminari_2

Have you given any thought to using plastic resealable containers like ones you can really cheaply from the pound shop? These should be strong enough to send, are reusable and should help to keep your items fresh.

D&DD

Hi Foxy have you tried craft creations the place that does the card blanks etc?? They are normally pretty cheap and they always used to have boxes will go have a look for you

D&DD

Right they go for around 13p each upwards on craftcreations so not sure if thats cheap enough or if they go up to big enough sizes for you? https://www.craftcreations.co.uk is the site BUT just had a thought...
I used to do a lot of craft/school fairs etc and I used to buy a huge pack of plain white paper bags (cheap as anything from Makro) then put them through my printer adding my own logo and details Look rather professional too might do you for the fairs etc ??

tatts_2

Frugal_Fox wrote:

Hi Tatts

Silly question - but what do these 'boards' look like? I put in 'crease board' and the picture just looked like a rectangular 'thing' with horizontal lines on - is this what I need? Never was much good at origami!!!

FF

Hiya..:)
ebay £7.00 free p+p......good bargain I think!
heres the link!.......http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ultimate-Card-Box-maker-Creaser-Folder-FREE-P-P_W0QQitemZ8261470435QQcategoryZ103484QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem

Its not difficult to use at all, my 7 year old neice uses mine with ease!;)

simple instrutions to use are........
Cut two pieces of card, one very slighty smaller than the other ( 2mm off the length and width..so only trim 2 sides) depending on the size you want to amke your box ( experiment with sizes!)
butt one piece up against the edge of the board, use the crease tool to run a line down the groove, turn the card and do the same on all the edges of the card ( 4 liines in total) do the same with the other piece,making sure you use the same groove for each line you make, snip the corners then glue the little flaps in........voila finished! (apart from decorating it of course if you want to! lol)

If you want to pm me your address, I could send you an example in the post if you like? totally up to you of course, with me being a stranger and all that.... I can personally vouch that I am not a stalker, have wierd intentions etc etc,lol I wont be offended in the slightest if you'd rather not.

Hope that helps you on your quest anyway

And thank you for the comments on the 'excellent post'..
Craft and art is my speciality area lol. (actually, its probably more like the cause of my overspending habits!!! Im sooooooo addicted! rofl)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Ultimate-Box-Maker-FREE-P-P-The-original-The-Best_W0QQitemZ8261474623QQcategoryZ103484QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem
HERES THE LINK TO THE BOXmaker..........
Though its £7.95 and free p+p off the same seller ( 100% pos feedback by the way!)
the card creaser does exactley the same thing, but thought id put the link in to give you example pics of the kind of boxes you can make.

just noticed you dont get a bone folding tool or embossing tool with this board, you can use a DRIED up ballpoiint pen, or buy an embossing tool which only costs about £1 froma craft shop. (if you buy them in packs of one) or buy off ebay! heres the link for that too!.....
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/EMBOSSING-TOOL-PEN-STANDARD-SIZE_W0QQitemZ8260821324QQcategoryZ103484QQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem to give you an idea of what you might need for it.......
or a bone folder is here. ( I find these better to use as you can flatten your creases better with the side of this, giving sharper/crisper folds)
http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/Provocraft-Bone-folding-tool-Bone-folder-New-in-pack_W0QQitemZ8243290119QQcategoryZ103484QQssPageNameZWDVWQQrdZ1QQcmdZViewItem