Printed Jewellery Boxes have arrived!

Last night I received a surprise package – rather bulky and heavy. I couldn’t remember ordering anything online to fit with the parcel, so I was pretty intrigued when I opened it. There was a lot of foam and some more boxes inside. Each of these boxes contained more boxes… Spring Jewellery boxes!

The results:

You might remember my post from awhile back, where I was searching for the right jewellery boxes and packaging. 

So, I’m rather excited to show off my first batch of jewellery boxes with my logo…

I love the feel of the black leather interiors. I'd love it even more if the supplier could do these with contrasting white interiors (they do have some, but not with ahinged box, unfortunately). Ideally, I like a mint green exterior too, but I couldn’t find anything off-the-shelf which fit.

Ring box and Pendant / bracelet box

Choosing a jewellery box / packaging supplier:

I ended up going to Talbots – a supplier I hadn’t heard much about – to order these boxes. I struggled to find a decent supplier of pretty boxes for very small amounts; it wasn’t really worth it to order the 1000 minimum from China to get the exact boxes I wanted. Some of the other suppliers I looked at were:

• Potters: good customer service, a fairly good range, although nothing that totally inspired me, but when I received samples they turned out to be a bit disappointing in quality. They also couldn’t / wouldn’t print on the outside lid for the boxes I wanted, which was a complete deal-breaker.
• Finer Packaging: has some very nice products I was interested in, but they were more expensive and had a 100 box minimum order for each size, which I found a little prohibitive
• Tiny Box Company: I really wanted to use them, but they were out of stock in the one cufflink box I wanted, and they didn’t really have many others in the luxury range. Also were a bit on the pricey side.

Lots of boxes packed in boxes - taking up space on my dining table!

General thoughts on using Talbots as a box supplier:

So, I have mixed feelings about Talbots right now. I’m undecided on whether I’d recommend them or not.

On the plus side:

• Really impressed with the quality of both the boxes and the printing (the detail is fantastic)
• They had a really great range of boxes, more in the unusual / luxury category than other suppliers, and they were really reasonably priced
• They were quite accommodating – I wanted a green foil ink and although not originally offered in their standard colours, they did manage to find it for me

On the down side, however:

• The sales / ordering process was excruciatingly slow – I first emailed them on August 7^th, so it’s taken over 2 months to complete the order. I found the Sales representative quite unresponsive – sometimes not replying for 2 weeks – and had to chase quite a lot
• The Sales Rep was also not great at answering my questions and would often ignore questions
• I specifically asked (more than twice) for a full breakdown of the costs and totals for each product I was ordering before she put it through… and she said she would, but I didn’t hear anything after that. Then suddenly, boxes arrive at my house that I’ve been billed for, and I hadn’t received a word – no dispatch comms, no total price I would be charged, nothing!
• I had emailed a list of products I wanted to order and the quantities – the Sales Rep then rang me back a few weeks / emails after to confirm the products. I repeated my order (some of the names of the product had changed since) and again, I’d asked her for an emailed breakdown (so I could check she’d got it right). Of course, when I received the order, I found she’d left off a whole product that I specifically remember her looking up the product code for, and missed another product that was in my email. Sigh.
• They weren’t able to print on the cufflink boxes at all. I was insistent on the phone that I’d like them printed, she said she’d find out… but I heard nothing until they just arrived, completely unprinted. To add an extra kick, it looks like I was charged for printing on those items (not a huge amount, but still…)

So, what do you think? Have you found a good box / packaging supplier?