Shipping Problems - How to address? (Article added!)

[envoy98]

Hi everybody, let me start off by saying thank you to everyone who is on this site and is making it one of the greatest, and safest trading communities on the net! We appreciate all of you and all you do to help keep this site growing and getting better everyday!

In our pursuit to be the best, we want to address a couple of things that on occasion have been a problem and solicit your feedback. Obviously we want to do this prior to making any changes or implementing anything if it wouldn’t be utilized.

Over the course of my being here I’ve seen many, many wonderful trades go down without a hitch, and that’s great! I’ve also seen trades that have gone bad for one reason or another. The issue the staff of SCF wants to address is shipping. I know this is or at least can be a sore issue for some of you and for most of you it is not a problem at all. We want to put some suggestions together to help all of you ship and receive your cards in the condition they were in when they left the other traders home.

So, with that in mind, here are some suggestions and recommendations on how to ship safely so both you, and the person you’re trading with, receive their cards in the best possible shape.

White / Manila Envelopes vs. Bubble Mailers

1.White / Manila Envelopes – Rarely are these a good idea, and we
strongly discourage their use. All regular first-class mail that is shipped in
the regular white envelopes gets run through an automatic canceling
machine which is a machine that stamps the postmark on your envelope. It
also has to be run on a conveyor belt and run through a sorting machine as
well. Lots of rollers running over the top of that envelope, great for
efficiency of the PO so you get your stuff faster, but potentially bad for the
guy on the other end. If you are going to use white envelopes, make sure
you get the other persons ok first and please, use proper card storing
techniques when you put them in an envelope. It’s more important there
than anywhere else.

I’ll touch on this one again at the end of the article

2.Bubble Mailers – Ah yes, good old bubble mailers. This is, at least in
the staff’s opinion, the absolute bare minimum that should be accepted
when doing a trade.

a. They are extremely affordable (we’ll get to that one later)

b. They can be had in large quantities so you don’t have to order them
often

c. They offer the best level of protection

d. They don’t cost much more to ship (in fact single cards will ship 1st
Class for as little as 40 cents. A single stamp on an envelope costs
37 cents!) I’ve gotten away with up to 5 cards for 40 cents, and
most of my shipping doesn’t exceed 60 cents unless it’s a higher
value trade and I am using 1 screw holders and so forth, then it
might reach 80 cents! A very small price to pay for quality shipping.

e.They are very easy to obtain! (we’ll get more into this later as well)



So how can I ship more safely when I already use top loaders?
Great question! We’re glad you asked!

Here is what I do; you are welcome to take some of this, all of this or none of this if you want. I also invite other users and staff to contribute their own ideas and techniques as well.

1. First Step - Protecting the card itself!

a. Penny Sleeves! Every card should first be put in a penny sleeve. If you need some, there are lots of people on here that would be
happy to sell or trade you some. Your local card shop should have
them for $1 or less for 100. Pick some up.

b.Top-Loaders! Not flimsy card savers, but the firmer 3x4 Top
Loaders. They run from $1-2 for a pack of 25 and should be
available from your local shop as well. All cards should be shipped
in these at the very least!

c. 1 & 4 screw holders/snap-tites. Up to you on these. On higher
value cards I usually use at least a 1 screw. I don’t like the looks
of the 4 screw holders so I don’t buy them, but they work just
fine. Snap-Tites usually aren’t a good idea as they can come apart
in shipping if not taped, and once they’re taped it’s hard to get the
tape off and clean them up for display. But it’s a personal
preference on these. Any card I have over $50 is pretty much in a
1 screw case (.79 at the local shop) and all of my cards over $100
are in the ½” thick Pro-Mold 1 screw cases. It’s amazing how nice
these make the cards look!

d.Team Bags – Personally, nothing leaves my house without being
wrapped in a team bag, but these for some reason seem a bit
harder to come by. If your local shop has them, they are about $2
for 100 of them and they fit right over the top-loaders and have a
sticky flap that folds over and keeps the card in the top loader.
(Better than piece of scotch tape, but that works too.

e. But what about those thick jsy / patch cards? Piece of cake, a lot
of people don’t have top loaders thick enough to hold them. However, there are top loaders available that hold just about anything these days. In most cases what you want for those are 75pt or 120pt holders. What I have seen a lot of people do, is put the card in a penny sleeve if it will fit, or between two penny sleeves, and then put a regular top loader on each side of the card and either tape it together on all four sides or use a team bag which is a bit cleaner and more stable. This should provide adequate protection and keep the card from getting damaged.

f.So to review, all cards, at a bare minimum should be in a penny sleeve, top loader and a piece of scotch tape over the opening to keep the card from sliding out. We would prefer to see a team bag, but it’s up to you.


2. Old Bubble Mailers – These are invaluable! First of all, they’re free to you! Take the bubble mailers other traders send you and keep them, don’t throw them away! If they are small to medium sized bubble mailers, cut them into 3 strips, just wide enough for a card in a top-loader to fit. Then, you can slide the card in there, tape the edge shut and put that in a manila envelope, or another bubble mailer. This way, the card at least has some packing material around it and should arrive safely at the other end.


3. Bubble Mailers – You can get these off eBay, you can re-use the ones you get from other traders and from sellers on eBay, you can buy them from Office Supply stores or the post office, you can get them online (much, much cheaper)… They can be easily obtained and will make your traders on the other end want to trade with you again. So what size do you get? Most people use the the #000. These are a bit larger than 4x6 and will hold up to 5-7 cards or so pretty comfortably. I usually have 50-100 of this size at my house at any given time, and I usually try to have a small stash of the larger 6x9 mailers as well. These are great when I pull my famous High-End trades and I send people cards in the $3 holders that need a bit more room. Or if I’m sending team-lots or a bunch of cards to fill a set or something.


4. Priority Mail – This seems to be becoming a lot more popular on here, especially with the higher end traders. We just require that you ship the cards; how you do it is up to you. If you want to use FedEx, UPS or Priority Mail, that’s great. Priority mail is a bit faster, gives you up to a pound of weight for only $3.85, plus a 10 cent discount for DC if you want it. (see below)


5. Delivery Confirmation – Again, we recommend using this on ALL transactions. However, there are some things people need to know about Delivery Confirmation (also referred to as DC or a “tracking number”).

a. DC is only available on first class, priority or express packages and on a first class package (bubble mailer for example) it needs to be at least ¾” thick. Most cards in a top loader aren’t that thick so stuff the darn thing with a paper towel or use the cut up bubble mailer trick I talked about earlier. They’re light weight enough to not add much weight and increase the postage a ton, and they offer additional protection. (Which is the whole point of this article in the first place)

b.DC on a first class package is 55 cents extra and offers you extra piece of mind knowing for a fact your package was delivered. DC is 45 cents on a priority or express package.

c.The moderators of SCF will always try and help with trade disputes, however without proof of mailing (dc, cash receipt or something else, it’s impossible to take sides and know who’s telling the truth or not)

d. If you sell and take PayPal as payment, anything you sell needs to have a DC number attached to it for proof of delivery. Period. DO NOT SHIP SOMETHING WIHTOUT DC IF YOU TOOK PAYPAL!

e. If you do online mailing with www.usps.com dc is usually free and you can provide a tracking number right away.


6.Insurance – Again, we recommend it just-in-case, and on all higher end trades we strongly encourage you to use insurance. There are some anti-scam measures that exist by using insurance (not from our end, but from the Post Office’s end) plus you know that if your package is lost (it does happen) you can at least recover some cash value for your cards.
a. Note: An Insurance number IS NOT A TRACKING NUMBER!


7. Signature Confirmation – PayPal requires anything over $250 be shipped with Signature Confirmation. This costs $1.80 at the post office and forces the person to sign for the package upon receipt. It includes a tracking number just like DC but also includes a copy of their signature. It’s a great thing, but probably only suitable for higher end trades.


8. Paypal – If you take paypal as payment for something, make sure you ship promptly and make sure you put dc on anything under $250 (total payment amount) and Signature Confirmation on anything $250 or above. (that’s the total payment amount, not the “book value”) So if you sell a $500 card for $50, you don’t need Signature Confirmation. But if the payment was for $250 then it is absolutely required or PayPal will not protect you if the other person files a Non-Receipt complaint. (Please read other rules/guidelines on www.paypal.com website.


9. Online Postage - www.usps.com - If you do online mailing with www.usps.com dc is usually free and you can provide a tracking number right away and even send an email to the buyer/trader letting them know you have printed off & paid for a shipping label! No need to even go to the post office! I started using this recently and it’s tough to stand in line at the PO now. You can even schedule a pickup with the PO to come and get your package for you! So if you have a hard time getting to the PO or can’t your parents to drop stuff off or take you, give this a try!


10. Other Suggestions –
Here is something I started doing in addition to the cut-up bubble mailers. With as much wax as I buy and rip, I always get a ton of those “dummy” cards in my packs. Upper Deck and Donruss/Leaf/Playoff have pretty thick ones in their packs. I started saving them up and now have an 800 ct box FULL of them! I usually put one or two cards in top loaders, and then in a team bag, then I add one of these thick (nearly unbendable) dummy cards to it and seal up the team bag. It not only makes the team bag a bit tighter and holds the cards in better, but it also makes the cards a lot less likely to be bent while in transit. They’re free and they work great! If you don’t have those, you can cut some cardboard off a box of something you have around the house and just tape that to either side of the top loaders or team bags and that will make it a bit more rigid as well. If you don’t have a box, call up the post office, they’ll drop off a whole box full of priority mail boxes for you. Use those for shipping and use one to cut up and stiffen up your packages.


11. Where Can I Get Bubble Mailers / Team Bags / Top Loaders?
a.Bubble Mailers – eBay is a great place! I usually use www.mailersandmore.com for my bubble-mailers, they run about .16 each if you buy 100 and have them shipped, and they’re usually at your house in 3-5 days. Plus, they take PayPal so you don’t even need a credit card!

b. Team Bags / Top Loaders etc… - Local card shop is probably the best bet, however ask around, there are traders on SCF that have this stuff and either deal in it or are willing to pick that stuff up for you and trade it or sell it.

c. Why doesn’t SCF just sell bubble mailers or other supplies in the CC store? Hmm, glad you asked. In fact, we’ve just started kicking around that idea. What do you guys think? The mods and advisors would have to foot the bill (unless other people are willing to donate as well) but we could get 500 or 1000 of them in the CC store and make them available to all members. We are discussing how many to make available in lots. Maybe minimum order quantities of 10 or 20 at a time? Would anyone take advantage of this? What about other supplies? Team bags, penny sleeves, top loaders? We are definitely looking for feedback on this topic.

We realize there are times when shipping via priority mail or using a bubble mailer or some other “safer” method isn’t really feasible due to the value of the cards. However, keep this in mind, if the cards aren’t worth protecting properly before you get them, what are they worth when they have roller marks, dinged corners and creases in them? What if they aren’t in the envelope at all?

Please keep in mind, these are suggestions and are the "Preferred" and recommended method of shipping, but both parties are free to agree on whatever method suits them the best.

The idea behind this article is to let everyone read what’s expected and educate others on good methods and availability of supplies etc when it comes to shipping. We not only want to be the best and safest place on the web to trade but we also want to make sure everyone is happy with their trades, and making sure the cards arrive safely is a huge part in that.

We really do appreciate all the quality traders we have on this site and we hope you can appreciate our position on this shipping issue. We welcome and encourage your feedback on this matter. We don’t want to get to a point where we start to require insurance or delivery confirmation or bubble mailers and so we are trying to educate everyone and make these supplies as easy to obtain as possible.

Now let us know what you think!