How Do You Ship Lots Of Cards At A Time?

[vincentcwb]

Im looking for ideas to ship a lot of cards in the mail and shipping can be even more expensive than the actual cards.




How to cut costs on shipping?
How do you ship your cards?
Bubble mailers or boxes or envelopes?
what kind of mail do you use?
Any tips for sellers for mailing?



Share your tips
Hopefully we all can help.
Happy Collecting.

[vincentcwb]

Ask questions!
Share you tips!

[creasecollector]

Depends how you would define "a lot" of cards. I don't do much dealing, so a lot of cards being shipped out for me would be like 10. I would just pack them neatly in toploaders / team bags (depending on the card type) and use a bubble mailer or two and it gets the job done.

For some bulk dealers, 50-100+ (or more) cards if where it can get intense. Although I've never shipped that much cards at once, I suspect a large enough box to fit and package all the cards neatly would do the trick.

I can only imagine what it would be like to sell an entire PC or something like that in one go. The shipping tactics/costs (depending on where it's going) would be something, that's for sure.

[30ranfordfan]

What's a lot?

You're in Canada, so I know enough about Canada Posts rules comment on my tips & tricks:

I often use thick top loaders (180 pt, even 360 pt... or whatever the big ones are?) and put multiple cards, in penny sleeves, inside them. Make sure they fight tightly (won't fall out if you turn it upside down) but don't cram them in too tightly. If I was sending 7 cards, and they were a little too loose... I'd just add junk base cards to fill the top loader correctly. If I was sending two of those top loaders filled with cards - I'd use carboard (or base cards) and tape to keep the toploaders side-by-side in the package.

If the envelope is a little too thick (i.e. it wouldn't quite fit through CP's magic slot) or it's a little too heavy (for the $1.80 stamp, in Canada, I mean) I normally just put $1.80 on it anyway (use an actual stamp) without going to the post office... drop it in a mailbox... I've never had a problem.

If the envelope is going to be way too thick, and no chance of someone looking at it and thinking it's "reasonable": I have (on a few occasions) sent multiple envelopes for one deal. It's cheaper to use two bubble mailers + 2x $1.80 in postage.. than making one thicker package, and sending as a parcel.


For large lots (50+, 100+, 2000+, whatever) there's not much you can do. It's a parcel, and it's going to cost a lot to mail. Doesn't mean you can't do it - but it makes the cost of the deal a lot higher, so really needs to be worth it.

Couple of years ago... I made a deal that involved 1000s of cards. Instead of shipping it, I drove close to 400 KM to make the deal. Buyer had to drive about 200 KM, if I remember right.

[30ranfordfan]

Oh - and I use a bubble mailer for anything small enough to fit in a bubble mailer. I don't use "plain white envelopes" for anything.

I just use regular old mail though. Express is a waste of money, unless you're dealing with something valuable enough to justify it - and if I was, then I would absolutely do the express.

[odjickfan]

Oh - and I use a bubble mailer for anything small enough to fit in a bubble mailer. I don't use "plain white envelopes" for anything.

I just use regular old mail though. Express is a waste of money, unless you're dealing with something valuable enough to justify it - and if I was, then I would absolutely do the express.

On the truly lower-end, I sometimes use PWE, but I tell my trading partner before.

[30ranfordfan]

If both sides knew it was happening, I would have no problem with that. I do a bit of TTM autograph requests - that's all done with PWE, and I've never had an issue.

Most deals I make involve $10 worth of cards, or more, so the bubble mailer (and a $1.20 or $1.80 stamp, depending) is expected (I think).

The other thing I will note: If I get a card in the mail, in a bubble mailer, and the stamp was not post-marked (i.e. they didn't stamp the stamp to show it has been used).... I carefully open the mailer, and will reuse it. Tape it shut, tape new addresses (my return / where I'm sending) overtop too.

On the truly lower-end, I sometimes use PWE, but I tell my trading partner before.

[rydlar99]

Running breaks & batching things up this was an issue for me. If someone had a lot of cards (like 70-100+) I'd batch up, in top loaders, and box them & send with newspaper on either side of the box to keep them from jostling. If they had say 15-20 cards then, again in top loaders, I had various sizes of bubble envelopes. I use to make what I called 2x2 tiles, so 4 cards in a sort of rectangle, then stack them up til they hit the max width of a bubble mailer to not qualify as a package. Then green painters tape to make sure nothing could move. Slid it into the envelope and away you go.

I also had a scale here to help pre-weight / put postage on / split up orders into multiple envelopes if needed.

[Thick McRunfast]

The weight of the package (and size/shape) determines shipping cost, so it's difficult to save money when you're shipping lots of cards. They get heavy real fast.

Last month I brought a 330-count box filled with cards to the post office, and when the employee took the box he was like, "What in the world is in here??"

I do like to re-use bubble mailers whenever I can. You can even re-use painter's tape most of the time. Every little bit you don't have to spend on supplies can add up, especially if you make a lot of trades each month.