I have a pallet of chairmats, like the kind that allow you to use an office chair on a rug. I bought them so cheap, I didn’t really think it through entirely and listed them on ebay. I sold one be shipping cost shocked me. Shipping them flat runs $90+ with the cheapest carrier.
I removed one from the cardboard and managed to roll it into an 8" roll and wrap the cardboard around it. This took a monumental amount of effort, far too much for the $7 I netted after fees. If I could roll these to 6", I could shave another $8 off the shipping cost and actually make this worthwhile.
So, does anyone have an idea on an easier way to roll these things? I’d even consider buying a cheap tool or building some kind of rig. They are very rigid, and they have studs on the bottom. I tried tightening one with a ratchet strap but it wasn’t working, it would have broke the mat.
Those things are a certified bitch to handle. As you’ve learned, they’re shipped to the store flat on a pallet for a reason.
You might consider changing your selling strategy to sell them in 10-packs shipped flat and thereby amortize the $90 shipping to $9 apiece. Slower to sell in bulk, but plenty of new businesses need one for each desk they’re outfitting.
If you are going to roll them individually, you’re not going to succeed by rolling it loose and hoping to tighten the coil from the outside. Those spikes will ensure that won’t work. So you’ve got to start by rolling the first turn really, really tight. Other than using 3 strong dudes, two to roll and one to tape the coil closed, I don’t have any good ideas.
Warming as suggested by Xema might help, but I bet you’d need to get them impractically warm to soften them much. And risk getting stuck with returns when the buyer can’t get it flat enough easily enough.
Another ‘use heat and the user will hate you’ vote.
Heating sheets of plastic is how you SET the shape. The person trying to unroll it is going to have a new sculpture with which to decorate his/her home or yard.
Depending on where you live, maybe Craigslist would be a way to restrict sales to those who can pick it up in person and avoid shipping.
If you do try heat, make real sure you are prepared to lose the test piece. Roll and unroll.
Or advise buyers to soak mat in 120 degree water in the bathtub for 15 minutes before trying to unroll.
My SO suggested cragislist and those facebook tag sale groups, but I’d rather not deal with those people for a $10-15 profit. Half never call or show,some show up and want to haggle again, and everyone is late without exception.
I can’t even sell them in packs of 10 because they weight 17 lbs each. UPS limit is 50, I think you can get to 75 is you pay for oversize. Either way, best I’m doing is 3-4 packs, and the odds of finding people who want 3 of this specific brand and size chairmat seem very small to me.
Here’s the course of action I think I’m taking. I emailed a local mom and pop office supply company and offered the chairmats to them at a 30% markup(which is still insanely cheap). There aren’t many of these places left, but I’m looking for other independent office supply places that might want them.
If that doesn’t work I’m going to hire a couple of laborers and see how many of these they can roll and pack in a few hours. If that turns out too expensive to still turn a profit, I’m going to give them to the salvation army and at least get the tax write off.
I see Home Depot has 48" long zip ties fairly cheap, and other places online have them up to 60". Maybe start rolling the mat, then have a helper put three or four zip ties around it. Then maybe you can cinch them down as you roll it tight?
Years ago I worked at a UPS sorting center and saw lots of tires shipped with strapping squishing them and holding sets together with just a label attached. Amazing how much a wide racing tire can be squished… I think some type of strap or duct tape is your best bet.
Does the mat lay flat after being rolled up for a week or so? I would be worried that you would impart a permanent curl in it, rendering the mat unusable.
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I can’t even sell them in packs of 10 because they weight 17 lbs each. UPS limit is 50, I think you can get to 75 is you pay for oversize.
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UPS weight limit is 150, so you could ship bundles of eight.
If you ship them individually, you’ll probably run into paying dimensional or dim weight. The formula is (length x width x height / 166) Round up to the next whole pound. The dimensions for irregular or non-rectangular items are considered as a normal rectangular box that would contain the item.
If you’re able to roll the mats into 12" cylinders and they’re (just guessing here) 48" long, the dim weight would be 12x12x48/166 or 42 pounds. If you can crush them down into 8" cylinders, the dim weight becomes 8x8x48/166 or 19 pounds.
You scoot your house around? What are you using for foundations?