I’ve seen lots of boxes. Boxes of new and used college textbooks, to be exact. Why have I seen so many boxes of college textbooks? Because I’ve often been the one unpacking them. One of the neat things about college textbooks is that many educational institutions (e.g. universities, colleges, etc.) require college textbooks for their courses. The students purchasing the textbooks can sometimes buy “used textbooks,” which means that the textbooks have been previously owned, and subsequently sold by students who no longer need them for their education. When these students sell textbooks, they have a lot of options: sell their books to other students, or their friends, or, sell their textbooks to their college campus bookstore or educational supply store, or, they can sell their textbooks online to a web-based textbook buyback company. So, anyway, here’s a hypothetical story (I’ll make my point a bit later). The box of textbooks arrives on my table, intact (yes, intact — that means SEALED), and I very carefully open the top of the box (it’s the top, because out of all the 6 sides of a box, that’s the side the label is stuck on). Inside the box will be a number of new and used college textbooks all laying flat, carefully packaged ever so well. Bored yet? Okay, let’s fast forward to what I saw yesterday. The box of textbooks arrived on the table. (That part really happened.) The entire side of the box was completely split open. I could count how many books were in the box without even having to open the box. I tip my hat to the shipping company that made sure to deliver everything perfectly even though the box was splitting open and the contents were ready to fall out. All of the textbooks were still in the box, all accounted for. See, in my experience, the post office, or whatever shipping company is delivering books really does do a great job. Sometimes, some people don’t write addresses clearly, or they use one thin strip of tape and expect that to hold all the contents intact, or they will use an old dirty pizza box to ship things in, or they don’t even bother to properly seal the packaging. But still, rain or shine, most all deliveries happen perfectly every day, efficiently and smoothly. So whenever I see my mail carrier, they always get a big smile from me, as I appreciate their good work. Anyway, back to the box of books with the sides splitting open. I think it broke open because the box wasn’t strong enough. I don’t think it was meant to hold textbooks. The person shipping this box of college textbooks was wanting to sell back textbooks to an online textbook buyback company, and they didn’t use a box that was strong enough. Well, not everybody has access to really strong, good quality boxes, so I’m not going to say it was anyones fault. In fact, a lot of boxes look sturdy, but that doesn’t necessarily mean they were meant to hold heavy college textbooks. Here are two thoughts I have. One: I have found something that, for me, really helps keep a box from splitting open on the sides, especially with boxes of new or used college textbooks: lots of tape. Wrapping tape around the perimeter of the box a few times helps keep it from splitting open on the sides. Of course, anything could happen — the box could still split open. But by wrapping tape around the perimeter, it helps keep prevent the box from splitting on the sides more so than if no tape was used at all. Two: if your shipping a box of books and you’re at the shipping company, ask the clerk if they think your book box is packaged properly per their standards. You may find that the clerks might be quite helpful and are happy to share ideas about proper packaging.