How to safely ship cards

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YankeeBob63

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The biggest gripe I have with online trading is getting a package and finding out it was poorly packed. The result: dinged corners and damaged cards.

There are many ways to pack cards so that they make it to their destination in one piece.

Single Card
You can use a regular envelope or a bubble mailer for extra protection. Place the card into a penny sleeve, place penny sleeve into a toploader. Now the most important part pinch the top of the toploader and seal it with some scotch tape. This prevents the card from escaping during it's trip and getting damaged. If you are going to use a regular envelope don't just throw it in and send it on it's way. Make sure to either wrap it in a sheet of paper or tape the toploader to the inside of the envelope. If you leave it loose it will move around and there is high possibility the envelope will get stuck in a postal sorting machine. The maximum amount of cards I would place in a regular envelope is three.

Large Lots
There are various ways to send larger lots of cards. My method is as follows. First I break the cards down into piles of 25 or so and wrap them with old wax wrappers (u can use regular paper, tissue, newspaper) this helps keep the cards in a tight bunch. Next I tape the pile to a toploader using good packing tape, I make sure to tape vertically and horizontally (the pile should not be able to move it's now nice and centered on the toploader. Next I place a second toploader on the other side of the pile and tape both toploader together making a sandwich. I then slide the toploader sandwiches into a bubble mailer and off they go. Sometimes for extra support I will place a piece of cardboard inside the bubble mailer to make the package nice and sturdy.
Try to keep the piles the same size so that when you place them into the bubble mailer you have a nice flat surface. I save all my old toploaders so I have plenty when it comes time to pack up cards for a trade.

Another way of sending large lots is to place the cards into a plastic case. Everyone should be familiar with these cases. Tape the case shut and place it into a bubble mailer and off they go. Pretty easy to do, but unless you have a stockpile of old cases it can get expensive.

Starter Sets or 300+ cards
Best way to ship a large amount of cards is to put them into a 300,400,500,600 count box you can pick them up at your local shop. You can ship them in those boxes but there is no protection. I place the smaller box into a slightly larger box and pad the sided with newspaper.

The most important thing to do is place a note along with cards so that the other person knows who they are coming from. Members of this site don't forget to add your screen name.

Remember to spend a little extra time packing the cards you send out and you will always have great trades. Also spend the extra money and insure packages with a high value.
 
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Is it just me that hates taped toploaders. I cant stand having tape all over the toploader and then when i try to take it off it makes a sticky mess. I ship all my cards in team bags, does the same job as tape only a lot nicer.
 
Fordman7795 said:
Is it just me that hates taped toploaders. I cant stand having tape all over the toploader and then when i try to take it off it makes a sticky mess. I ship all my cards in team bags, does the same job as tape only a lot nicer.

A lot of collectors dislike tape on toploaders. It doesn't bother me either way. Usually, I just pack 'em up and send them to the next trader or toss them out if they're really bad.

As long as the card inside the toploader arrives safe and sound, I'm happy.
I don't collect toploaders, just cards.
;)
 
I dont collect toploaders either, but i dont want tape all over them when im trying to show them off. I do the same thing as you, ill send out the ones with tape all over them in trades and keep the better looking ones for my PC cards.
 
I use scotch tape on all of my trades, which as far as I can tell doesn't leave the sticky mess behind that packing tape or some variation of it does. I also fold over a bit of the tape on top of itself so it's easy to pull off. It's a very simple thing to do and quite honestly I don't understand why more people don't do it. It beats trying to pick off the tape if you don't want it on there.
 
Excellent points leChuck i have noticed as well that the Scotch brand tape comes off easier. I have also noticed more and more people are folding some over so it can be removed but only like 10% of people are. the other 90% are wrapping so much tape on it it takes me 20 mins to get it all off.
 
thanks for the info guys, i'm a new guy who hasn't traded with anyone yet but that info was helpfull and defiantly helped me to make a better trade soon.
 
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