Mickey Sadler provided the address of an Ohio company that will make
music roll boxes in small quantities.  One of the main factors to
consider in having boxes made is shipping cost.  The kind of box most
or all music rolls come in is called a telescoping box, because the top
of the box fits completely over the bottom half.  Since these boxes
cannot be shipped knocked down and flat, they are bulky--especially the
10-tune specialty roll boxes.  Most of us who have had boxes made find
that it works best to have them made locally, where you can pick them
up or have them delivered at low cost.

The minimum quantity and the price will depend on the company and its
eagerness to have your business more than anything, I think.  But if
you take a sample of the box you want to the box-making companies
listed in your local yellow pages (assuming you don't live in a hick
town (?) like Etiwanda), you will find that companies will quote you
terms and can replicate the box you want as to materials, shape, and
color.

Long-time Play-Rite customers will remember that it switched from
authentic pasteboard telescoping boxes for its specialty rolls to
knock-down corrugated-cardboard boxes.  They did that to save money and
to avoid the bulk problems associated with the better boxes.  Several
of us independently have had the better boxes made in our respective
localities for under $5.00 each.

A quirk of U.S. Postal Service regulations means that an empty box can
only be shipped by regular 4th class (parcel post), assuming first
class is out of the question financially.  That rate factors in both
weight and distance.  However, if you put a music roll in the box, then
it qualifies for what is commonly known as book rate, a cheap rate
governed only by weight, distance being irrelevant.  That is, it costs
the same to ship 5 pounds across the U.S. as it does to ship the 5
pounds to the next city.  Only certain classes of goods qualify to go
book rate: bound books, sound recordings, and films being the three
that come to mind.  That's why the box has to have a music roll inside
to go book rate.

Off the topic, there is a supposedly true story about a builder in the
far-north wilderness of Alaska that needed to have bricks shipped to
him from the mainland.  He shopped around and found that the cheapest
way was to have them delivered in small packets by the U.S. Post
Office.

Matthew Caulfield

 [ Etiwanda is up-to-date!  The first telephone link west of the
 [ Mississippi was installed from here to the railroad freight depot
 [ in San Bernardino, 11 miles distant.  (That was "Long Distance"
 [ service in 1891 ! :)  -- Robbie