When I get new students, I keep seeing them stuffing their reeds in and out of the soft plastic shipping holders that come with the boxes of reeds. The primary problem is that the soft plastic doesn't hold the reed flat. Additionally, the Rico holders have little nubs that, if a student isn't careful, can quickly put dents in the tip of the reed and render it useless.
Rico/LaVoz makes a hard plastic reed guard that #1: holds the tip of the reed flat and #2 protects the tip from damage. I tell my students that it will save them money because their reeds will survive longer and play longer. Utah is a pretty dry climate, and reeds don't like that. Reeds would much rather bask in the humidity of Louisiana. The only problem I've found with the LaVoz holders is that the larger size does not quite hold Vandoren baritone sax reeds (though I think it holds Rico, but I don't use Rico so I'm not sure). I still have to use the Vandoren shipping holder, since it is better than nothing. Another option for the bari reeds is a piece of plate glass with wide rubber bands to hold the reed tight against it.
