A lot of shippers won't take glazed pictures, but if you do package it in- bubble wrap, ply board or some other rigid material, then bubble wrap again then plain paper. Also a sticker that informs the carriers depot staff that the item is too heavy to hit a six with works sometimes.

yes, but to be honest, as long as the work is not under glass (vs. plexi which is fine) my best experiences have been with Master-pak boxes. Its a little costly (about 100usd for the box depending on size) but they come through perfectly and are made so literally a caveman could do it. I would check it out.

If shipping glass you kinda need to put a Union Jack style/pizza slices taping across the glass. If you do this and for any reason the glass breaks it will hold the glass together and away from the print.

It's not fool proof but works well and either prevents or minimises the damage. Cleaning the sticky residue off the glass is a pain. But not as big a pain as opening a complete mess up.

Masking tape works ok but you need to use plenty of it to almost cover the glass. Gaffer tape as with most things is great but you work hard to get it off. Do not use on plexi impossible to get off I find.

Then ship and pack as best you can

I used Flight logistics for shipping recently, one of the few places that would do insurance above £2.5k. Very impressed with them.
Wrapped the frame in bubble wrap until there was 4cm on each side and put into double walled telescopic cardboard box giving 4 walls.

Thanks for the flight logistics heads up, just awaiting a call back for sending two large pieces to the states. No quote on cost for something so big but they seem to deal a lot with sending artworks so grateful for this thread

Still waiting on a call back from them, but I would much prefer paying extra and knowing that it ends up at the destinations in one piece. I really would have used a standard courier so I have found for myself this thread very helpful

Careful with the useful and informative posts Ploppi could ruin your hard earned reputation !!!!

Yeah ive had the footprints as well, never skimp on packing materials, most packages will be stood on, dropped and even thrown, i sent a few pieces in a crate to dubai, the plane had to crash to damage the works, one side of the crate was smashed in, must have hit it with a forklift, luckily no damage to prints!