How to send us a good photo of a stack

When someone reaches out to sell us boxes, we always ask for photos. About half of the photos we get are not useful. The other half let us quote within an hour. Here's the difference.

Three angles, one count

The useful photos cover three angles:

1. A wide shot of the entire stack from about ten feet away. Shows total quantity and overall condition.
2. A close-up of the side of one box. Shows wall thickness, flap condition, and any logo print-through.
3. A photo from above the open top of one box. Shows liner condition and inner-flap state.

And an actual count, even an estimate. "About 200" is genuinely more useful than "a lot."

Lighting matters more than you'd think

Bright but indirect light is best. Direct sunlight washes out detail. A dim corner of the warehouse makes everything look worse than it is. If you can roll the stack to a loading dock with the door open, you'll send better photos in five minutes than you would in an hour of careful staging.

What to mention in the email

Three lines is enough: approximate count, indoor or outdoor storage, and any known oddities (chemical residue, wet history, branded sides). That plus three photos and we'll quote inside an hour.

What not to do

Don't pre-bale. Don't pre-sort. Don't try to clean them up. We grade and price what's in front of us, and pre-staging usually loses you money because boxes that would have graded individually as B end up bundled as recycle-grade. Send what you've got, the way it sits, and let us figure out the value.