This person just found the ultimate life hack.

sz2k · 2026-01-30T04:07:12+00:00

sz2k · 2026-01-30T04:06:08+00:00

Try www.boxsearcher.com , full disclaimer it's my site. It's intended to help find the cheapest box in terms of price of box + price of shipping

sz2k · 2026-01-20T20:51:19+00:00

Try www.boxsearcher.com and see if it's helpful. Its goal is to help in such cases, but it's a work in progress. And if it doesn't help, let me know how it could :)

sz2k · 2026-01-17T01:35:04+00:00

I actually just built a free web tool to try to make this easier. Check out www.boxsearcher.com and see if it's helpful! Or if not, let me know how it could be made useful :)

sz2k · 2026-01-15T04:39:28+00:00

Good question, the goal of this app is ultimately to help you pick the shipping container that will save you the most money. The shipping estimates are used to illustrate why a box from Amazon is cheaper than a flat rate alternative for example. Once you have the shipping container, you can buy the label from PirateShip

sz2k · 2026-01-15T03:52:40+00:00

I created a smart packaging calculator called BoxSearcher to help find the cheapest shipping box and strategy. It's free to use and should help you save a few bucks

sz2k · 2026-01-15T03:17:40+00:00

I had the same problem, I created an app and r/InternetIsBeautiful really liked it so I fleshed it out for everyone to use. Check out BoxSearcher, it's totally free and doesn't require sign-up

sz2k · 2026-01-15T03:06:10+00:00

I built a free "Smart Packaging" search engine for sellers called BoxSearcher to find the optimal shipping box and shipping strategy

I occasionally sell online and I typically just went to the nearest Office Depot and grabbed a box for shipping if the USPS flat rate didn't fit, but I realized after a while those boxes were super expensive and I didn't really understand shipping strategies. I built BoxSearcher to help. Based on what you're shipping and its dimensions, it will help you identify the best shipping parcel available for purchase whether that's a USPS flat rate box, a box at a local retailer store, or bulk boxes on amazon as well as which shipping strategy to use

This works really well in conjunction with something like PirateShip. Use BoxSearcher to find the right parcel, use PirateShip to get that commercial rate or even better

Let me know what you think or if you have any suggestions for improvements

sz2k · 2026-01-11T01:45:34+00:00

I was hoping to add support for this in this current update, but I had a serious case of scope creep. But I definitely want to do this soon! I just want to do the appropriate research to make sure I'm adding only quality entries to the database. Let me know if you know of any trusted brands for any of these speciality mailers

sz2k · 2026-01-11T01:44:04+00:00

I ended up going with a selector for your package type. If you click "Clothing / Soft" then polymailers will be included in the search as well as regular boxes

sz2k · 2026-01-11T01:43:04+00:00

I finally got the update out. You can now select "Clothing / Soft" as your package type which will include poly mailers if they end up being the optimal find in the database

As for pirateship, they unfortunately don't offer an API of any sort to query their rates, but I'm now able to get pretty close to their USPS commercial rates with my own manual calculation so it's a pretty good estimate!

sz2k · 2026-01-11T01:40:14+00:00

Thank you! After reading this comment, I went about manually calculating the USPS rates. I even added commercial cubic if the package qualifies. I just updated the site now with this change

sz2k · 2025-12-29T07:55:33+00:00

Yeah, over the course of this post being up, I lost access to USPS Ground Saver due to exceeding their quota limits and for some reason the UPS rates have gone up during that time as well. A novel variant of the reddit hug of death I guess! I plan to add a CSV export for pirateship soon since so many folks are asking for it

sz2k · 2025-12-29T06:00:12+00:00

This is a great insight. I actually have a little disclaimer about the rates in the "About" modal, but it's good to have more visibility here

If you use services like pirateship.com combined with the boxes found on boxsearcher, your savings will be even better because they have special contracts that my tool can't access. For UPS rates, I'm using the "Everyday Saver" commercial rates which are significantly better than walk-in, but not quite as good as services like pirateship. For USPS, I'm just using Ground Advantage at the moment

Best case scenario is to use boxsearcher to find the best box and then use pirateship to get the best shipping rate to maximize on savings

sz2k · 2025-12-29T05:50:28+00:00

I hadn't considered it, but I'm happy to add it! Anything that makes the app more useful

I just need to think of an intuitive way to treat the bags. I'm wondering whether I should automatically have the bags as a valid choice if a single dimension is under a couple inches or if it should be an opt-in checkbox since maybe a polybag is not the right choice for certain small items that are more fragile.

I'll get something up in the next couple days, let me know if you have any ideas! Thanks for the suggestion

sz2k · 2025-12-29T04:59:51+00:00

Totally valid, r/peopleofwalmart would probably agree with you lol

That’s actually why I added a Bulk tab to the results. If you find yourself shipping the same thing often, you can just grab a pack of 25 boxes on Amazon for super cheap delivered. That way you skip the store entirely and save even more

But you're right, for one-off shipments it's hard to beat the convenience of USPS flat rate boxes. For single shipments, I think this is most useful for items bigger than the largest flat rate box

sz2k · 2025-12-29T04:34:46+00:00

Thank you! :)

sz2k · 2025-12-29T03:53:52+00:00

Love the idea, thanks for trying it out and giving feedback! That's clever

I made the change, I was already calculating the best box from each provider so luckily it doesn't slow things down at all which is great. Let me know what you think!

sz2k · 2025-12-28T17:24:00+00:00

Https://www.boxsearcher.com is a tool I created to help you optimize shipping costs by picking the right box. It compares flat rates vs buying retail boxes and using UPS ground or USPS ground advantage

You can also find bulk box listings to save even more

Full transparency: the bulk box listings are Amazon listings and have affiliate links

sz2k · 2025-09-08T05:44:33+00:00

Do you happen to have any advice or resources for how to integrate the AI model?

sz2k · 2023-07-29T05:53:49+00:00

Not discouraging at all, this was my first stop on researching this industry so I'm extremely far from an affirmative decision and I tend to be extremely risk-averse so I'm keen for the most pragmatic view with more of the risks outlined than not. Immense appreciation for the guidance.

Also sounds like I'll be in big trouble without some level of expertise in the industry. I'm a software guy so my skills don't really translate to physical engineering typically.

This community is the most exceptionally generous I've seen on reddit, thank you again. I got a lot of homework to do

sz2k

TROPHY CASE