Shipping & packing

Pack the ball so it cannot move. Use a rigid outer box no bigger than it needs to be, with the ball either in its factory carton — the carton itself snug against the outer box — or wrapped in bubble wrap until it is a press-fit against all six walls. Nothing may shift when you shake the sealed box, and the ball must never touch the outer wall directly.

How to pack a bowling ball → The step-by-step guide: both methods, the shake test, what the photo has to show, and where to get a box for about a dollar.

What we recommend: the ball in its factory carton — the box it came in, or a free empty one from any pro shop — nested in a 10×10×10 outer box so the carton presses against the walls with nothing between them. No factory carton? Wind half-inch bubble wrap around the ball until it press-fits the same box. Then shake it: if nothing moves, it's packed.

• Bigger is not safer. A ball loose in a large padded box is worse than one wedged in a small one — sixteen pounds with three inches of run-up will punch through a wall. If the sealed box rattles, it isn't packed, and more fill will not fix a box that is too big.
• Buy half-inch large-cell bubble wrap, not the small stuff. Three-sixteenths bubble is what consumer stores sell by default and it compresses flat under sixteen pounds, so it stops being a shim exactly when it is needed.
• The best inner box is free: pro shops throw away the cartons balls ship in, every week. It is sized by the manufacturer for this exact object, and nobody sells anything better.
• Your bowling towel is not packing material. Carriers name towels, clothing, blankets and newspaper as improper cushioning — using them can cost you the claim on its own.
• Use a new or like-new box with no old labels on it, and seal it with two-inch plastic packing tape. A soft reused box, duct tape, masking tape or string are each grounds for a denial by themselves.
• Bag the ball first. A plastic bag or shrink wrap costs nothing, and it means a box left in the rain is still just a box left in the rain.
• A 'Fragile' sticker does nothing — carriers do not honour them. Mark the box if you like, but never instead of packing it.

Photograph the packed box before you seal it. If a ball arrives damaged, that photo is what separates a carrier claim from an argument you lose. Keep it until the order completes.

ReRack's prepaid label is the default. The buyer already paid for it at checkout, you print it from the order page, and it carries carrier insurance for the item price. Drop the box off and you're done.

Your own label is allowed — ship however you like and paste the carrier and tracking number into the order page. Tracking is what starts the buyer's inspection clock either way. But a loss or damage claim on your own label is yours to file with your carrier; Seller Protection explains the asymmetry.

Labels need a real, deliverable ship-from address and a phone number — carriers won't print without both. That's set once in your account.

Ship within 7 business days of payment. We nudge you at 48 hours. Past the deadline the order cancels itself and the buyer is refunded in full — which is bad for them and worse for you, so tell us if something has gone wrong rather than going quiet.

If tracking never shows delivery within 21 days of shipment, the order escalates to ReRack automatically and the payout pauses while we work out where the parcel went.

• Lost with a ReRack label — the buyer is refunded and the seller still receives their normal payout. The seller performed; chasing the carrier is our job.
• Lost with your own label — the buyer is refunded and the seller pursues their own carrier claim.
• Damaged, with a compliant packing photo — treated as a transit loss: buyer refunded, seller paid, we claim the carrier.
• Damaged, with no photo or evident non-compliance — seller-fault. The buyer is refunded and the seller is not paid, because a carrier will not cover a loss the packing caused.

United States only. ReRack does not ship internationally, to APO/FPO addresses, or to US territories. A non-US address is refused at checkout with a message rather than failing silently.