Proper packing (was: Need advice)

it's true things will move around w/peanuts, but couldn't you just put a piece of cardboard between the bottom layer of peanuts (and maybe also around the sides and top) to prevent settling. I used to be concerned about using sytrofoam slabs (which I'm able to get a lot of these days). But the newer kinds are very soft. Several layers will provide adequate protection imho (except for hard drives maybe). You could also create a sandwich, one layer of slab, a layer of peanuts, another slab, etc. I don't like paying for boxes and shipping materials when you can obtain all you want if you grease the right palms. Or dive in the skip. Years ago a guy who was shipping a lot of monitors stated that oftentimes these units would be put on a vibration machine to shake off loose solder and whatnot, and test the units overall integrity. I kind of doubt that's done in general, it sounds more like a mil-spec type test. But it just stands to reason if something can't take a bit of jarring, it's bound to fail somehow anyway.