Vinyl Record Mailer

Vinyl record mailers, packaging and shipping boxes for UK record shops, labels, distributors and Discogs sellers. Rigid corrugated protection for 7" singles and 12" LPs. Also sold as LP mailers, record shipping boxes, vinyl packaging or 12" record mailers. Supplied flat in trade packs.

What actually damages a record in the post

Not breakage. Vinyl is tougher than collectors fear, and a cracked record is rare.

What arrives damaged is the sleeve, and it fails in three specific ways.

Corner dings. A record parcel sits flat in a sack with weight on top and gets pushed against other parcels edge-on. The corner takes the whole load through a few square millimetres of card.

Seam splits. The sleeve opening is the weak point. A record that can slide inside its packaging works its way against the seam until it splits.

Ring wear and scuffing. Movement inside the packaging polishes a ring into the sleeve where the disc sits. On a collectible pressing that's a grading downgrade and a price cut.

All three are movement and edge-loading problems, not impact problems. Which is why a padded bag — good against abrasion, useless against edge crush — is the wrong tool, and why a rigid corrugated mailer with reinforced corners is the right one.

Sizing: 7" and 12", and the postage difference between them

A 12" LP is 315 × 315mm; a 7" single is 178 × 178mm. Both formats are covered here, and the postage consequences are completely different.

The 7" mailer posts as a Royal Mail Large Letter. At 202 × 202mm it sits inside the 353 × 250mm footprint, and a single plus mailer is nowhere near the 25mm depth limit. That is the cheapest postal band available and it makes low-value singles worth listing.

The 12" mailers post as a Small Parcel. At 320mm and 344mm across they exceed the Large Letter width whatever their depth — no packaging solves that, because the record itself is 315mm. Anyone offering you letter rates on a 12" is describing something that doesn't exist.

A note on the largest size: it sits close to Royal Mail's 350mm Small Parcel width limit. Measure a made-up example before you build a rate card around it.

Singles, doubles and gatefolds

The deeper 12" mailer takes more than one record, which matters for two reasons.

Multi-record orders ship as one parcel. Two or three LPs in one mailer costs roughly the same postage as one, and it's the single biggest saving available to a shop selling by the crate.

Gatefolds and heavyweight pressings need the depth. A 180g gatefold double is substantially thicker than a standard single LP, and forcing it into a mailer sized for one is how seams split.

Don't over-size for a single record, though. A lone LP in a mailer sized for three will move, and movement is the thing that causes ring wear.

Who buys these

• Independent record shops dispatching mail order
• Discogs, eBay and Bandcamp sellers
• Labels and distributors shipping new releases and test pressings
• Reissue and mail-order clubs
• Collectors selling from a private collection
• Artists fulfilling direct-to-fan orders

Choosing between the sizes

Dimensions and pack quantities are in the table below. In practice most operations need two lines: the 7" size if you sell singles at all, and one 12" size matched to your typical order.

If you sell mostly singles, the 7" size pays for itself on postage band alone.

If your orders are usually one or two LPs, take the standard 12" depth.

If you regularly ship three or more, or gatefolds, take the deeper option and use it for everything rather than splitting your stockholding.

Practical detail

Rigid corrugated construction with reinforced edges, supplied flat and pre-scored for fast assembly, with peel-and-seal closure so packing needs no tape. The kraft surface takes labels and direct print cleanly — "Do Not Bend" and your shop name printed on the outer is cheap insurance and cheap advertising at the same time. Fully recyclable in normal paper collection.

We buy these as part of a manufacturing group, at volumes a reseller can't reach, and hold them across over 100,000 square feet of warehousing — so the size you standardise on doesn't disappear the week a big release drops.

Shipping something unusual — 10" pressings, boxed sets, picture discs? Tell us the dimensions and we'll work through it with you.

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.