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Boxes to package your game in. Sharing my experience.

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j0schm03
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Joined: 10/19/2009
New box with graphics

After doing a lot of searching for cheap ways to get a professional box for my game I FINALLY found a solution I thought I would share with everyone.

To start we've been using your basic box that can be found at the dollar store, it's your typical box that you would package a t-shirt in etc. But this gives for a poor presentation so we have been seeking an alternative. After speaking with a bunch of companies we were getting discouraged at the minimum 1,000 or 5,000 boxes that most companies required, even for a blank white game box.

Finally we found Marion Paper company in Indiana. We requested a couple samples and we were very impressed. Instead of getting a custom printed wrap for the boxes we decided to go with 8.5x11 stickers that we can have printed at our local fedex kinkos.

I'll upload a couple pictures of the boxes. They're called set-up boxes with fully telescoping lids. It's exactly what you find on all your game boxes.

In the pictures we haven't printed any stickers just yet, but I printed out a low resolution of our box graphics to get some sort of idea how it will look in the end.

Let me know what you guys think. I just had to share because we've been looking and contacting company after company to finally find what we need. Hopefully it helps someone else and saves them time from searching like we did. This company has been great to deal with so I would definitely recommend them to everyone!

Onto the pictures.

j0schm03
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Here's the links to a couple

Here's the links to a couple more pics. I didn't know you can't post pictures in a reply for some reason it won't let me.

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a87/Just_Bag_it/IMG_2175.jpg

http://i9.photobucket.com/albums/a87/Just_Bag_it/IMG_2174.jpg

Got the dimensions custom made to our specs and the final boxes are going to be 0.05pt chipboard. The ones pictures are smaller than 0.05pt.

scifiantihero
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Joined: 07/08/2009
Looks nice.

So can you give any more specifics: minimum order, pricing, etc?

Clever Mojo Games
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Joined: 04/19/2009
Marion Paper Box Company

Here's their set-up box web page from a Google search...

http://www.marionpaperboxco.com/setupbox.php

...looks like good info there.

larienna
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I was looking lately for game

I was looking lately for game boxes to package my prototype and my homemade version of vinci. It was really hard to find and I did not find anything at the dollar store, Maybe I could check again.

I end up using foldable shipping boxes. Here is what it looks like

http://www.bgdf.com/node/2751

There are various size available, the only annoying thing is the closing mechanism.

j0schm03
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Minimum order I don't believe

Minimum order I don't believe they have one. Obviously the lower the quantity the more expensive. But we ordered 100 to get us started and its about $2.00ish per. And these are some nice boxes. The foldable ones we were getting from the Dollar General were about $1.00 each and that's those cheap t-shirt ones. So it's well worth the investment for us. We've still got a good profit margin on each game sale and we can finally try to get the game on store shelves.

So that small extra cost should be well worth it if we can bring in more sales.

We actually almost ordered some shipping boxes like the ones posted above. When we got our prototype from GameCrafter they sent it in a box similar. But then we found this company and went with the real deal.

Brykovian
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Thank you for that

Thank you for that info, J0 ... and very timely for me. I've been looking for boxes lately (same reason as you -- TGC's packaging) and was starting to think that Candy Boxes were the way to go. But the sizes were limited and the tops didn't fully telescope over the inner section.

Now I've got something new to check out -- I love that the sizes are custom.

-Matt

OPM
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Joined: 12/16/2009
Have you guys looked into

Have you guys looked into metal tin cases at all? If anyone knows a good Made in America source I would be interested.

j0schm03
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Joined: 10/19/2009
I'm glad my info could help

I'm glad my info could help someone :) that's what I was hoping for.

As far as the tin cans mentioned above I have not looked into it at all so I'm not sure on that.

InvisibleJon
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Joined: 07/27/2008
FYI: You helped me too!

Looking for a box solution for a POD board game we're making (called Inevitable). This is a very nice option. Thanks for sharing this great find!

slam
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Joined: 07/28/2008
This is good news. I get my

This is good news. I get my plastic packaging from placon.com for around $1/piece plus shipping, but people definitely prefer the "real" game boxes, so I might consider switching. Also, they seem to have flexibility with sizing.

truekid games
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Joined: 10/29/2008
it looks like that company

it looks like that company does printed wraps too, if anyone gets a quote for those and wants to share, that'd be useful info too :)

j0schm03
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Joined: 10/19/2009
Yea that's what we started to

Yea that's what we started to notice is that people always commented on the boxes not being professional.

So far from our speaking with the company and placing our order they've been a huge help and a pleasure to deal with. Even better, we live like 2 hours away from there so we can pick up the boxes which is cheaper than paying shipping!

bluepantherllc
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Marion Box

Pleasant people.

Their quotes at volumes 2k and higher are in line with other places.

What makes them reasonable is the fact that they will do smaller quantities. You're still going to pay a setup charge - it's just amortized over the piece price. For 300 pieces 9x6x2 with plain blue wrap on the top and white on the bottom (no printing) it was over $2 each.

That's a deal breaker for retail, but a great deal for self-publishing, especially if you don't want 5000 boxes in your house or warehouse at one time. Even if you add in printed art on the box for a bit more.

j0schm03
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Yea luckily for us our costs

Yea luckily for us our costs for making the games themselves is very low, so the box cost wasn't much of an issue. It's atleast put us in a position where we can hopefully approach some retailers and test it out.

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