In the 20 years that Mannequin Madness has been selling used mannequins we rarely had had to file a damage claim with FEDEX.
That is because we take great care in packing our recycled mannequins. Many of the used mannequins we sell are no longer in production, so if they get damaged in transit they are irreplaceable. Like these Ralph Pucci mannequins we shipped last year.
Note, we also shipNEW mannequins but we don’t pack them. Those mannequins are already prepackaged in boxes from the manufacturer in China. We have more damage claims with the new mannequin than with used mannequins that we pack.
The reason the new ones are more likely to be damaged during shipment is, first they are traveling from China to the USA in containers. Next they are delivered to the warehouse of the vendor who sells them to us. And then they are shipped to our customer. So that is a lot of handling.
Plus the mannequins that are produced now tend to be made of a lighter weight fiberglass, so they are more prone to breakage.
And in our experience, the quantity and quality of the packaging materials the manufacturers in China use in the boxes is skimpy compared to ours.
We created the attached guide below to provide step by step instructions on best practices for packing a mannequin because it is an acquired skill.
When we originally created the guide, we were using styrofoam peanuts to insulate the contents. But we are using air pillows which are so much easier and not as messy. Even better, we get the air pillows for free because local merchants call us to recycle the air pillows they receive from their deliveries.
Click here to download the PDF
