Irreplaceable Changes the Math: Document Before You Pack
The defining fact of antique shipping is that a reimbursement check doesn't replace the item — there is no reorder button for a Georgian side table or a grandmother's porcelain. That inverts the usual shipping priorities: before a single sheet of bubble wrap, the professional sequence starts with documentation. Photograph the piece from every angle in good light, capture maker's marks, signatures, and existing condition flaws, and — for anything of real value — get a current written appraisal. This file is simultaneously your insurance basis, your damage-claim evidence, and your provenance record for the buyer.
Claims live or die on this paperwork. Carrier declared-value programs pay documented value, not sentimental value, and they scrutinize antique claims precisely because value is arguable; a dated appraisal plus pre-packing photos closes the argument. The second documentation habit: photograph the packing process itself — the wrapped item, the cushioning layers, the sealed box. Carriers can deny claims for 'insufficient packaging,' and photos of a professionally-packed sequence are the rebuttal.
Pack by Material, Not by Object
Antiques fail along their material fault lines, so the packing method follows the material rather than the object type. Porcelain, glass, and ceramics take the double-box treatment our ceramics guide details — wrapped, suspended, two inches of cushioning per layer. Old wood is dimensionally fragile: joints loosen with age, veneers lift, and finishes imprint — so furniture-adjacent pieces want glassine or soft paper against the finish (never bubble wrap directly on old shellac or lacquer, which can imprint patterns in heat), then padding, then rigid protection. Textiles, documents, and ephemera demand acid-free tissue because ordinary paper and newsprint transfer acids and ink onto exactly the surfaces that carry the value.
Metals bring tarnish and scratch concerns (soft cloth first, then cushioning), clocks and mechanical pieces need their movements secured or removed — a pendulum swinging in transit destroys itself — and mirrors and framed pieces follow the painting playbook with taped glass and corner protection. The universal rules on top: fill every void so nothing shifts, assume the box will be dropped and stacked under weight, and when a piece combines materials (a mirrored vanity, an upholstered chair with carved legs), protect each material by its own rule.
💡 Never tape anything directly to an antique's surface, and never let bubble wrap touch old finishes in warm weather — plastic against aged shellac or lacquer can imprint permanently. Paper or glassine first, always; the plastic layers go outside.
When to Stop Boxing: Freight, Crates, and White-Glove
Every antique shipper eventually meets the boundary where parcel service stops making sense. The thresholds: weight and size (a marble-topped commode isn't a parcel), value (five figures deserves better than a conveyor network), and fragility-plus-irreplaceability (a piece that cannot survive one bad drop shouldn't take seventy chances). Past the line, the options ladder up — custom wooden crating with an LTL freight carrier for the robust-but-large, blanket-wrap furniture shippers for uncrated pieces, and white-glove antique and art transport services for the genuinely precious, with inside pickup, climate-aware handling, and specialist insurance.
The estate-and-auction reality drives most of this traffic: pieces bought at auction or inherited across the country, where the shipping decision arrives once and matters enormously. The honest guidance dealers give: get quotes on two tiers (crated freight vs white-glove), compare against the piece's appraised value, and remember that specialist shippers' insurance is written for antiques while carrier declared value merely tolerates them. For everything below the line — smalls, ceramics, silver, books, ephemera — well-executed parcel shipping with full documentation serves the trade every day.
When It Arrives Broken: Filing a Claim That Actually Pays
Antique damage claims are denied more often than most sellers expect, and almost always for reasons that were decided before the box shipped. The three killers: no declared value (carriers default to roughly $100 of liability, which is what you'll receive for a $4,000 piece), insufficient documented value (a claim needs an appraisal, a sale receipt, or comparable-sales evidence — 'it's been in the family for a century' establishes sentiment, not a number), and the packaging defense, where the carrier argues the item was inadequately packed and therefore isn't covered at all.
Move fast and keep everything when damage occurs. Carriers run short claim windows and — critically — they may want to inspect the packaging, so do not discard the box, the cushioning, or anything else that came with it; throwing away the packing materials is the single most common way a legitimate claim collapses. Photograph the damage in place before unpacking further, alongside the box exterior showing any crush or puncture. Then file immediately with your pre-shipment photos, the appraisal, and the packing photos attached. The pattern to internalize: a claim isn't won at the moment of damage — it's won at the moment you packed, declared, and documented. Which is exactly why this page starts with the camera and not the bubble wrap.