----------------------------------------
BRYAN SAYS:
I do have some shipping tips if you want to use them later or whatever. If not, that's cool, too, but I've been meaning to tell you about them anyway. I know you have to roll a lot of prints really fast, so my tips could be worthless. Still, they might be of some use.
Whenever I roll prints up, I always put some kind of covering over them so that the inks are protected. The kraft paper can easily scuff the inks. The premium product to use for covering prints is glassine (I use the 32x40 sheets http://apps.webcreate.com/
Here's an example of rolling a print with something over it: http://i1131.photobucket.com/
I think rolling the print smaller than the tube is a great idea since it's so much easier to remove the print from the tube, but I go a little further with it in two ways. First, I use painter's tape over the kraft paper (painter's tape is a lot easier to remove than normal tape and is easier to handle). I fold down the painter's tape up top so that you have a little tab you can pull to open the kraft roll. Be sure to place the tab so that when you pull down on it, it doesn't catch on the edge of the paper (hard to explain, but check out the photo): http://i1131.photobucket.com/
Second, I square off the ends of the kraft roll so that it won't move around in the tube. Instead of the kraft roll bouncing around in the tube, it is supported on each end (instead of it being like this ( --------- ), it's like this ( |-------| ) ). In other words, I use some kraft paper to make each end look like this: http://i1131.photobucket.com/
Finally, I make sure the kraft roll can't move around from side to side, so I use bubble tape or plastic bags to kind of pack it in. http://i1131.photobucket.com/
One more thing. I noticed you guys use 3" Yazoo tubes. Might I recommend 4" tubes? It always makes me nervous packing a 24x36 print in a small 3" tube, haha. But I guess if cost is an issue and if it's worked before, 3" works great, too.
(note: sarah is looking into some of these, but probably won't do all of them, so i don't want to say this is how we'll be shipping prints from now on (mostly cost reasons) - but i thought it was a nice list of ideas regardless that people might find helpful.
