By: Blake

If you own a small business or just sell items on eBay that requires you to ship products from your home or storefront, then you most likely have a problem with getting shipping boxes cheap. Of course you could buy shipping boxes, but most people don’t want to spend their hard earned profit on cardboard. Dumpster diving and collecting boxes from stores are cheap alternatives, but if you don’t want the hassle of jumping through hoops to obtain free shipping materials then check out this easy way to get FREE shipping boxes delivered to your front door!

Surprisingly a lot of people don’t know that the United States Postal Service (USPS) and the United Parcel Service (UPS) provide free boxes when using some of their services when ordered on-line from their websites. They offer many different size boxes as well as express and flat rate boxes so finding the right box for the job should be easy.

How do you get them you ask? For USPS, all you have to do is go on to their site: USPS.com

  1. Click “Shop at the postal store” which is in the left column
  2. Click “For Mailing/Shipping
  3. Choose the type of box you want

The Priority Mail, International, and Express boxes are free of charge and they will be delivered to your front door.

  1. Get free delivery confirmation with USPS when printing the label on-line.
  2. Avoid lines at the post office by printing labels at home.
  3. Use the drop off box at the Post Office and smile as you leave people standing in the long lines!  

UPS is a bit different because you have to create a user name for the site, its free to sign up. After you have done that:

  1. Mouse over the “Shipping” tab at the top and click on “Get UPS labels, packs, and more”
  2. Click on “Add supplies”
  3. Choose the type of packing you want - Next day air, Second day air, or International
  4. Pick the size box you want

UPS doesn’t offer free UPS ground boxes, but for many expedited shipments like Next Day, Second Day and Three Day Select, shipping boxes are available for free and they’re delivered to your door.

If this method doesn’t completely solve your box problem, it certainly will take the work out of getting some of the boxes you need and will keep some of your profit in your pocket.