Book Wraps Light-Duty

Lightweight corrugated book wraps for UK booksellers, second-hand sellers, charity shops and online retailers. Also sold as light duty book wraps, book wrap mailers, bookwraps, cardboard book wrap packaging, economy book mailers or wraparound book packs. Variable depth, peel-and-seal closure and a tear strip, supplied flat in trade packs, manufacturer-direct.

The sizes shown are maximum internal dimensions

Every figure in the size table is the maximum internal size — the largest item the wrap will close around. It is not the size of the finished pack, and it is not a fixed depth.

Two things follow from that, and both matter when you're choosing.

Size to your contents, not to the wrap. Measure the largest title you post regularly and pick the size that clears it. A wrap that is slightly too big still works; one that is a millimetre too small does not close.

The finished pack is a little larger than the internal figure. The board wraps around your contents, so the outside measures more than the inside. On most sizes that is immaterial. On the largest it is the difference between two postage bands — see below.

Variable depth: Large Letter or Small Parcel, depending on what's inside

A book wrap has no fixed depth. The scored board folds down to whatever is inside it and the flap seals wherever it lands, so one size covers a single paperback and a stack of four. That flexibility is the reason to use a wrap instead of a rigid box — but it also means your postage band follows your contents, not your packaging.

The two bands you'll be working between:

• Royal Mail Large Letter — up to 353 × 250 × 25mm and 750g. The cheapest band a book wrap can reach.
• Royal Mail Small Parcel — up to 450 × 350 × 160mm and 2kg. Where anything thicker than 25mm lands.

Light duty board is the thinnest grade we stock, which means it adds the least to the finished thickness. On a slim paperback, a CD or a DVD, that margin is often what keeps a pack inside 25mm instead of a millimetre or two over — and the step up from Large Letter to Small Parcel is the most expensive line in the Royal Mail price list to cross.

Packed to their full internal depth, all three sizes here travel as Small Parcels. Folded slim around a single title, the two smaller sizes come inside Large Letter. The 310 × 250mm size is a Small Parcel in practice: 250mm is its maximum internal width, Royal Mail measures the outside, and the board puts the finished pack over the limit.

Gauge a packed sample before you commit. Fold a wrap around your most common title, measure it as it will actually go out, and weigh it. 750g arrives sooner than people expect.

When light duty is the right call

Light duty is the volume specification — the thinnest board in the range, the lowest cost per unit, and the wrap that folds slimmest around what's inside it. That suits three situations.

High volume, everyday stock. If you're posting hundreds of paperbacks a week, the per-unit difference between grades is the difference that shows up in your margin.

Low value per item. Used paperbacks, clearance stock, charity donations, bulk media. Board heavy enough to protect a £4 book, without paying for board sized to protect a £40 one.

Slim contents. A single paperback, a CD, a DVD, a magazine — anything where keeping the pack under 25mm is worth more than extra board.

If you're sending hardbacks, boxed sets or anything signed or collectible, this isn't the grade. Go to medium duty or heavy duty instead.

Light, medium or heavy duty?

Light duty — paperbacks, CDs, DVDs, magazines and high-volume everyday dispatch. The thinnest fold and the best chance of a Large Letter.

Medium duty — the everyday all-rounder. Step up when you're mixing paperbacks with thicker titles, or shipping through networks with several handling points.

Heavy duty — hardbacks, art books, boxed sets, vinyl, signed and collectible stock. Reinforced board for where a damage claim costs more than the packaging ever would.

The honest rule: buy the lightest grade that gets your stock there intact. Paying for board you don't need is cost, and so is a claim you could have avoided.

What fits

• Paperbacks and trade paperbacks, single or in small bundles
• CDs, DVDs and Blu-rays, singly or in sets
• Magazines, zines and catalogues
• Slim softback and educational titles
• Documents, prints and flat card needing rigid protection
• Used and second-hand book stock at volume

For vinyl, use a purpose-made vinyl record mailer. For a rigid alternative that doesn't fold to contents, see book mailer envelopes. The full range sits in postal packaging.

Choosing a size

Three sizes, each quoted as maximum internal dimensions. The simplest way to choose is by the paper size you're posting:

• 216 × 154 × 52mm — A5 books (210 × 148mm), standard paperbacks, CDs and DVDs. The size most second-hand booksellers run as their default.
• 280 × 205 × 70mm — B5 and trade paperbacks (250 × 176mm), small hardbacks, magazines. Too small for A4.
• 310 × 250 × 70mm — A4 (297 × 210mm), large-format paperbacks, catalogues and art prints. This is the A4 book wrap size.

Size to the footprint; the depth handles itself. That's the point of a wrap. Choose length and width to suit your largest common title and let the fold take care of thickness.

Most high-volume sellers settle on one size for standard novels and a second for larger-format titles. Two sizes usually cover a whole range.

Buying by the pack

Supplied flat in trade packs with price breaks as quantities increase. Flat delivery matters on a wrap: these arrive as scored sheets and take a fraction of the storage a made-up mailer would.

We buy these direct from the manufacturer as part of a manufacturing group, at volumes a reseller can't reach, and hold them across more than 100,000 square feet of warehousing. No middleman margin, and stock on the shelf rather than on order.

Switching from another supplier and not sure which size matches? Send us the code or dimensions you buy now and we'll match it.

Delivery and returns

Next-day dispatch on UK mainland orders, with free UK mainland delivery and a £75 minimum order. Full terms on our delivery and returns pages.