This guide is primarily about packing your pram following your sale on ebay. The main reason it has come about, is that I receive prams with broken 'feet' all of the time, despite advising people to cover them with 3 layers of cardboard. Of course I have also made these mistakes and I've tried to pass on this tip to others. I hope that this guide will help people to see and realise the problems that can occur and that others can learn from my mistakes rather than making expensive ones of their own. I used to think, the insurance will cover it, but the courier will not cover you for breakages if the pram wasn't packed securely/properly.

I sell used prams on ebay, and therefore they come without their original packaging. At the beginning I used to think that stuffing a bit of cardboard down the end of the box would suffice,or bubble wrap or magazine would solve the problem, but it didn't. Sellers that I've bought from have also thought the same as me and have covered them in loose cardboard, jiffy bags and even 5 inches of bubble wrap... but still they didn't work. They still arrive broken and at my expense. Mamas and Papas charge £50 to repair them as they use an air powered rivet gun to fix the problem.

So how do we solve this?

First of all we need to know what's fragile on your pram. I have a picture here, of a pram with one foot that's covered and the other exposed, so you can see what it looks like:

You need to cover each 'foot' with at least 3 layers of cardboard and tape it around the foot, but also to the frame so it doesn't come off in transit. Another important issue to remember is that it's put inside a box securely and it's not free to move around. Either pack the gaps with cardboard, bubble wrap or recycle your old newspapers and stuff them inside black bags, to put in the gaps. Or cut the box to size and tape securely. Sounds obvious, but couriers have had to resecure boxes delivered to me in the past. 

In summary:

• Cover fragile parts with cardboard
• Ensure your pram isn't free to move inside the box
• Tape the box securely with proper parcel tape (gift tape and masking tape will not do)