Since I began my quest to enter all my trade bait into the Trading Card Database site in February, there have been 18 trades generated along the way. Eleven of them have been completed just in April alone so far. As many of you know, PWE (Plain White Envelope) trades are very popular on that site.
Everything has been going swimmingly, except for a couple deliveries that showed up a bit traumatized. Nothing was lost or stolen, but the envelopes barely survived. Addresses are obscured for internet security.
This one came in rather shredded, but the sender packaged everything in an inner cardboard sleeve, so no harm done. I've had PWE's arrive in Post Office bags when they're this beat up, but this one hobbled in on it's own. I imagine it must have happened in the delivery truck.
This next one was also dual packaged. The inner sleeve was undamaged, but was exposed to the elements on the way somehow. The end of the outer envelope was neatly sliced off.
I can't even guess how that happened. Random inspection? I know I've been getting a lot of envelopes lately, but is that suspicious?
This last one isn't a damage case, but was interesting to me because of the packaging overkill. I'll never criticize someone for packing cards to withstand any disaster, but I felt bad that this guy spent so much to ship six cards.
There is an outer clasp envelope sealed with tape at both ends, an inner bubble mailer packet, and inside that, the one team bag of cards.
Again, I'm not saying this is a bad job. Just this...
It was from the west coast, so it cost over five dollars! I mean, it's not Canadian prices, but dang!
I've linked these before - These are the semi-rigid photo envelopes I get from Amazon - 400 at a time (17¢ each). Or 75 for $17 (still less than a quarter each). They have a strip across the adhesive so you don't have to lick them and they fit two card savers side by side. I get up to about 8 or 10 cards in one packing them this way. By that point, it's usually over the weight limit and I'm already using the additional ounce/non-machinable stamps as it is. You can see them in action in this post.
What's your preferred method of making someone's mailday?
This must be a new thign the post office is doing, randomly slicing people's PWEs. I've made 600+ TCDB trades, almost all via PWE. Never had any incidents until last week, when one small envelope arrived sliced open just like yours. The cards were fine, but... WTF?
ReplyDeleteAnother thing, why are we all purchasing non-machinable stamps to only have everything machined anyway?
ReplyDeleteI just received an ebay purchase of one card that was in a $5 envelope because it was packaged with two large corrugated cardboard pieces taped around it. I didn't pay that much for shipping and even weirder, the seller was a half hour away, they could have driven it to me.
ReplyDeleteCardboard inside a paper envelope is overkill if you are also using a plastic sleeve (i.e. 1/3 of a card page). In fact it is probably the cause for a lot of the ripped envelopes, as the cardboard is stressing the thinner paper leading to rips which are a lot worse than the very small chance that something will damage the card inside the plastic within the envelope.
ReplyDeleteIt's also comical to see people writing things like "non-machineable" and "do not bend", as if the post office is looking at each envelope for hand-written instructions as to how to handle them.
I write "Non-Machinable" on all mine, and they're in the semi-rigid envelopes that don't want to bend anyway, so I'm thinking they wouldn't make it around the bends in the machines.
DeleteI'll put up to 18 cards in 1/3 of a card page, secured with painter's tape. Then I'll wrap a plain sheet of paper around it with a thank you message, stuff it in a PWE and sent it out with non-machinable postage.
ReplyDeleteYou sold me on those semi-rigid photo envelopes a while back. That's my go-to these days unless I'm sending a bunch of cards.
ReplyDeleteIf the post office is slicing off the end of envelopes for whatever reason, you'd think then that the least they could do would be to tape it back up before it goes any further.
ReplyDeleteIt's Samurai Postmaster w/ John Belushi...
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