I ran a bookstore for four years and received hundreds of books in the mail. The majority of them arrived in bubble mailers, this seems to be the preferred method of packaging for online book dealers. I’ll tell you right now that I’m not a big fan of bubble mailers. I’ve written about book mailers on this site in the past, expounding the virtues of making corrugated mailing boxes out of rolls of b-flute cardboard. I have tested and compared quite a bit and it all comes down to one fact.
From time to time books inside bubble mailers wil get justled around during delivery and end up with banged corners. My experience is that this happens at least 10% of the time, way too high in my view. B-flute keeps the book secure inside the package, there is no movement. I’ve had zero returns and no complaints after sending out thousands of books.

One other positive I’ve heard mentioned about bubble mailers is that you can now by an environmentally friendly bubble mailer. These mailers may be made from recycled materials but it’s pretty tough to beat plain cardboard when it comes to being biodegradable. The edge definetely goes to b-flute when it comes down to being environmentally focused.
To wrap up, it comes down to a simple decision. Do you want to save money or do you want to make sure your books arrive bump free. I’ll tell you from a buyer’s perspective that if a book shows up in a bubble mailer and has a bumped corner or worse (I once received a book that had no additional plastic wrap covering the book – the mailer was not properly sealed and water got in!) I will forever note the name of the seller at not only not buy from them again but recommend to others not to buy from them. I chose to skip the bubble mailers, protect my outbound books as well as I can and go with the b-flute packaging sustem. If you run an online or a B & M bookshop then consider the b-flute system as well.
Comparison of JiffyLite and E-Lite bubble mailers
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