Products · cartons
Used shipping boxes, by the bundle or the pallet.
- Typical price
- $0.42 – $1.85 / carton
- Sold as
- Bundles, pallets, bales
- Minimum
- One pallet
Ask what sizes are in
Carton stock changes weekly. Send internal dimensions and a tolerance and we will match against what landed this week.
Answer first
Three ways to buy used cartons, and only two of them are boxes.
Bundled cartons are sorted, flattened and strapped in counts of 25 or 50, ready to use. Palletised mixed cartons are a working assortment of sizes for people who pack varied product. Baled OCC is compressed scrap sold by weight to mills — feedstock, not packaging. Confusing the three is the single most common mistake buyers make, and some suppliers are happy to let it happen.
We price and describe all three separately, and we will always ask what you intend to do with them before quoting.
Formats
What each format costs and suits.
| Format | Typical contents | Price basis | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Single-size bundle | 25 or 50 identical cartons, flattened and strapped | $0.42 – $1.85 each | Repeat packing lines, e-commerce, kitting |
| Mixed pallet | 200 – 600 assorted cartons, roughly size-banded | $95 – $210 per pallet | Varied product, moving companies, resellers |
| Double wall heavy | Sorted heavy cartons, 275 psi and up | $1.10 – $2.40 each | Industrial parts, export packing, machinery |
| Gaylord-full loose | A gaylord filled with unsorted usable cartons | $120 – $180 per box | Charities, workshops, prop and set departments |
| Baled OCC | Mill-spec compressed bale, roughly 1,100 – 1,400 lb | Market price per ton | Paper mills and recyclers only — not reusable stock |
Questions
Carton buying, answered.
Can I buy used shipping boxes in one specific size?
Are used cartons clean enough to ship to customers?
What does a bale of used boxes contain?
What is the minimum order?
Where they come from
Six sources, and what each one produces.
Carton stock is entirely dependent on who cleared out what this week. Knowing the source explains the condition, the consistency and the price.
- 01
E-commerce and 3PL inbound
The largest single source. Vendors ship to fulfilment centres in cartons that are opened once and compacted. Usually excellent condition, frequently single-size in large lots, and almost always available.
- 02
Contract packers
Component cartons arriving for kitting operations. Consistent sizes, clean interiors, often with one neat label. The best carton stock we handle.
- 03
Appliance and furniture retail
Very large double-wall cartons with high board strength. Awkward to store, excellent for anyone shipping bulky or heavy items, and priced low because demand is thin.
- 04
Print and paper trade
Heavy reinforced cartons built for paper weight. Often the strongest single-wall stock available and rarely recognised as such.
- 05
Retail back-of-store
Mixed sizes, mixed condition, plenty of shelf-edge labels. Cheap, useful for moving and workshop use, poor for anything customer-facing.
- 06
Returns processing
The most variable. Mixed sizes, previous shipping labels, some tape residue. We sort these hard and price them honestly at the bottom of the range.
Grading cartons
What we check, in the order we check it.
Cartons are graded faster than bulk boxes but against the same principles: structure first, cosmetics second.
Goes into sellable stock
- Square, dry, no soft spots when squeezed at a corner
- Seams intact, manufacturer's joint unopened
- No more than two previous labels, none over a seam
- Flaps complete, no tears extending past a score line
- Board certificate legible where present
- No odour of any kind, including 'clean' cleaning products
Goes to the baler
- Any damp, any water line, any warping
- Wax coating — contaminates the recycled furnish
- Food residue or staining of unknown origin
- Tape residue across the printed face, if being sold for reuse
- Crushed corners on double-wall heavy stock
- Anything that previously held chemicals without a liner
Who buys them
Eight uses that work particularly well.
- E-commerce sellers covering the old label with their own
- Moving and relocation companies buying mixed pallets
- Charities and food banks, where cost is the binding constraint
- Workshops, makerspaces and prop departments
- Kitting and sub-assembly lines using one repeat size
- Internal transfers between buildings on one site
- Trade counters selling loose to walk-in customers
- Film, theatre and photography set construction
- Typical bundle
- 25 or 50 identical cartons, flattened, strapped, counted. The standard unit for a repeat packing line.
- Mixed pallet
- 200–600 assorted sizes, roughly size-banded. Best value per carton and the right answer for varied product.
- Gaylord-full loose
- A bulk box filled with unsorted usable cartons. Cheapest per unit; you supply the sorting.
- Standing request
- Tell us the internal dimensions and tolerance, and you get first refusal when a matching lot lands.
- What we will not do
- Sell you baled OCC as reusable stock. They are different products and we price and describe them separately.
- Minimum
- One pallet. Below that the freight costs more than the cartons are worth and we will say so.
Tell us the size and how many a week.
Carton stock moves fast. Standing requests get first refusal when a matching lot lands, which is how most of our repeat carton customers buy.