Our Packaging Promise

Anyone can promise careful packing. Here is the actual standard, written down, so you can hold us to it.

Most of what we sell has already outlived the person who bought it new. A pressed-glass compote from 1962 has survived six decades of dinner parties, at least one move, and a stretch in somebody's basement. It would be a poor ending for it to arrive at your door in pieces because we were in a hurry.

So we treat packing as part of the product rather than a chore at the end of one. Every order leaves our bench in Novi, Michigan packed to the same standard, whether it's a nine-dollar salt cellar or the centerpiece of a collection.

What happens to your order before it ships

1. Structural integrity first

We ship in sturdy, high-grade corrugated boxes that are new or genuinely single-use. Never a compromised carton — no soft corners, no crushed flutes, no creases across a panel. A box gets its strength from the fluted layer inside its walls, and once that's collapsed, nothing you put inside can compensate. Heavier and awkwardly balanced pieces go into double-wall.

2. Cushioning built for the object

Each item is wrapped in fresh, shock-absorbing small-bubble wrap and taped closed so it can't unravel in transit. Hollow pieces are packed internally first, so a thin wall isn't holding its own weight. Corners, feet, spouts, lids and glass elements are reinforced individually before anything is wrapped together. Nothing arrives cocooned in whatever was left over from the last order.

3. The zero-movement standard

Empty space is what breaks things. Your item sits centered with roughly two inches of clearance on every side — the minimum both UPS and FedEx publish — and all of that space is packed firm with clean void-fill paper and air cushions. Before the box is taped, we close the flaps and shake it. If anything shifts, it gets opened and refilled.

4. Reinforced, weather-resistant sealing

Every carton is sealed with the H-taping method in heavy-duty pressure-sensitive shipping tape: one strip down the center seam and one along each end seam, top and bottom. It's the method FedEx specifies by name, and it's what keeps a box closed through dust, damp and an automated sorting line that has no idea what's inside.

5. Sensible materials

We keep improving our materials without gambling with your order. Pristine, clean packaging that comes to us gets a second life rather than a landfill, we favor recyclable liners and paper fill where they perform as well as the alternative, and we don't over-box for the sake of appearances. Protection is the constraint; waste reduction happens inside it.

The Arrive-Safe guarantee

We hold a high standard and we still don't control what happens between our door and yours. If your order arrives damaged in transit, we make it right — no negotiation, no arguing about who's at fault.

What to do	What we do
Contact us within 48 hours of delivery.	We respond quickly, usually the same day.
Send a photo of the outer box and the item.	We handle the carrier claim ourselves. You never file one.
Keep the packaging until we confirm.	You choose: a replacement where one exists, or a full refund.