eBay Goober - Doesn't Make Sense

I picked up two PC cards on eBay last week and they arrived today. I opened up the Priority Mail Flat Rate box to find two pieces of cardboard barely taped together freely roaming the box (someone attempted to at one point) with the two cards in toploaders with no penny sleeves!?!?!?!!! I know penny sleeves are both hard to come by and extremely expensive, but the two cards were purchased for $35+ from him. I'm also wondering why nothing was used to fill the box (kleenex/tp come to mind) to keep the cardboard from wandering. I mean, he used a flat rate box - so the extra 2 ounces wasn't going to cost another penny to send - at least tape it to one side. Neither one is really banged up, so I breathed a sigh of relief there, but...really? No penny sleeve? What a goober!

Wow. He is lucky that the cards got to you safely.

To quote my Dad (God rest him) once again:There are three types of people~masses, classes and *****.
Fortunately for you, no real apparent damage resulted from his brain cramp.

Frank

Yikes that's bad and weird. I've seen a whole new level of cheap lame shipping since I've been picking up 1988 Topps autographed cards for my long-term set project. I've had several sent to me in a PWE with absolutely no protection or just a penny sleeve. On another site I bought autos of MATTINGLY and GWYNN and they were sent both in the same toploader in a PWE. A McGwire auto from eBay was sent in a PWE inside a toploader with no penny sleeve.
Richard

Sounds similar to something my dad always comments on:

You see...people either "get it" or they "don't get it" - you can tell which one he is.

Boots said:

To quote my Dad (God rest him) once again:There are three types of people~masses, classes and *****.
Fortunately for you, no real apparent damage resulted from his brain cramp.

Frank

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Glad you got lucky. I just got a similar box in the mail -- couple of hundred base sent loose in a 300-count box. I think that if eBay were to add another category to feedback, it'd help a lot. Currently there's only speed of shipping and cost of shipping to assess, but quality of packaging is often at least as important when dealing with collectibles. If sellers were directly rated in that category, they'd probably improve.

This is a topic that that needs a high exposure tutorial to show the many people who apparently have no idea or interest in packaging fragile items carefully to avoid damage. I have battled this for the last decade and a half of buying things online.

Some of my favorites include:

Flat rate boxes crammed with cards in stacks with no inner protection.

Large mailers (padded) that are several sizes too large for the item, so it floats freely inside the envelope. Of course the genius who uses the 11x17 envelope to send a single card will also not bother to use cardboard, sleeves or any other stiff item to protect the item from bending when the much too large envelope is inevitably bent or folded to fit into a mailbox (because it's flimsy, of course).

Bare cards placed in PWEs.

Flat items sent with more substantial items (bins, balls, etc), where the flat is not protected and takes the shape of the bulkier item. The Dodgers just did this to me, although it was a free fan pack and I appreciate the generosity, they sent me some team issue postcards, schedule, newsletter and...yes, a couple of pencils and small pocket sized spiral notepad. Nothing like pencil and metal spiral gouges in postcards!

mrmopar - I think I've been fairly lucky in eBay dealings thus far, with the exception of this person. I did send him a message and gave him some tips for safely sending cards - he responded and thanked me for the advice and that he will use my suggestions to improve his shipping in the future. He sounded genuine in his response and he is a newish eBay seller it looks like. Hopefully he uses the advice!

I think ever dumber was that he sent two cards in a flat rate priority envelope- wasted like $3 sending it that way

Unfortunately, communication is really important and even when you think it's a given or common sense, you need to hammer in what you expect.

In addition, some of these sellers are newbies, noobs, cheapie and/or dumb behinds!

Over time, you'll get stories like this all the time...sometimes it still gets there safely, other times it's OM#^**%G!

Here's a disaster that happened recently. Shipping was stated at $6 priority mail and I told the seller I didn't need Priority as long as it was in a bubble mailer, penny sleeve/toploader for 1st class. He said $3 then.

Personally, I thought I hammered home my point, but when I got a "Certified Mail" on a PWE, I knew I was screwed. Inside was a short printed HOF QB jersey card that was in a penny sleeve between to pieces of paper. The guy took the time to tape 3 sides of the paper, BUT forgot the most important side where the penny sleeve opens. Needless to say, the card went to machine sorting and ended up with a crease from the swatch to the side of the card and was dinged heavily on one top corner.
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Another recent story...I bought 10 #1/1 cards to eventually flip for $300. In the scans all cards were in toploaders/One touch holders. What did I get? Top and bottom cards in toploaders and the other 8 in penny sleeves - what a cheapskate.

What is common sense to one is a mystery to another. Even good traders/dealers/sellers have bad habits. Your best bet is communication.

I got a 4-5 colored patch from a guy, sent in a pwe with NO Protection. No penny sleve, toploader, nothing.

I will try to get a scan later.

Paid $35 for it too

If it's damaged file with Paypal - his job is to get the card to you in the same condition it was in when he sold it.

BiggioDiogu759 said:

I got a 4-5 colored patch from a guy, sent in a pwe with NO Protection. No penny sleve, toploader, nothing.

I will try to get a scan later.

Paid $35 for it too

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Goobers

Reminds me of a lot I bought on Ebay a few years back, the cards were just thrown (no penny sleeves or anything) into an old christmas card box and mailed--needless to say, most had dinged corners and were pretty much worthless--lucky (i guess) paid almost nothing for them.