shipping PWE style

[TEAMREEF]

????? for all. Is shipping a card in a toploader, team bag then surrounded by bubble mailer and tucked into a PWE acceptable. Ive tested it out on a few trades of a few cards and no complaints just wondering people thoughts on this. I dont want to have my name on avoid lists

[doniceage]

Well in theory it the close to the same if your using a bubble mailer. As long as you let your trading partners know you might not have any problems. Is there any cost savings when you send it this way?

Don

[geschrocks33]

I always wondered about this too. I'd be glad to see the feedback thrown in from this thread

[reoddai]

????? for all. Is shipping a card in a toploader, team bag then surrounded by bubble mailer and tucked into a PWE acceptable. Ive tested it out on a few trades of a few cards and no complaints just wondering people thoughts on this. I dont want to have my name on avoid lists

I need to know the motivation for your question.

Are you trying to re-use bubble mailers?

If so, I do this all the time. If the bubble mailer has too much writing over it, its not really re-usable. But if you stick it in a clean envelope, well, then it still protects the card and can be sent no problem. Just be sure to seal the internal bubble mailer so that the card won't slip out.

Are you trying to send mail more cheaply?

Then, its important to consider how thick is this bubble mailer? I thought that the point of the bubble mailer was two fold. First, the bubbles themselves provide some sort of cushion and/or protection to the card while being shipped.. Secondly, bubble envelopes are less likely to be processed by machines since they are oddly sized. Or, they are put into machines that bend them less.

Canada post says that to ship something as a "regular envelope" it can only be a max of 0.5 cm thick. A top loader is already about 2 mm thick. That would leave a max of 1.5 mm of bubbles on either side of the card. Any thicker and Canada post should be charging you the same rate as if it was just in a bubble mailer.

How much protection are you really getting at 1.5mm of bubbles? Especially as it travels through a machine that usually deals with paper that can bend twist and turn in ways that you wouldn't care to have done to a card. Yes, sometimes it comes out okay, but you can see that the card is being slightly bent every time it goes through conventional letter mail. Is that something you really want to do to save 50 cents?

[sanjosefuji]

If I were trading with you, I wouldn't have a problem. I don't like it when people send higher end cards in PWE, with just the soft sleeve, top loader, and team bag (I've had people ship me things with less protection than this). However, you're adding the bubble mailer part, which is more protection.

Personally, what I've found to work best is the yellow 6x9 envelopes, because they're fairly cheap and they have plenty of room for you to stuff cards and recycled bubble mailers in them. I used to throw away tons of old bubble mailers and buy my own, but I felt guilty about all of that shipping material going to waste.

I think it's important though to scratch out the previous senders information for privacy issues though... but that's just me.

[TEAMREEF]

I need to know the motivation for your question.

well just curious more than anything on what people think. It costs the same to ship in a smaller sized bubble envelope as it does to ship this way. So posting cost isnt the issue more the cost of new supplies all the time when I feel using what I have is more than enough protection. As long as it fits through the slot without catching or pulling(they have one at the office to test its a big plasticy thing) I dont see machine damage as being a deterant to sending this way. It sure is easier to write addys on a normal envelope and yeah this way in theory I could cut up a 5x7 bubble mailer and use it for 4 mailouts. A simple small piece of tape ensure the card wont fall out no matter if you a part of the seal or not

[reoddai]

well just curious more than anything on what people think. It costs the same to ship in a smaller sized bubble envelope as it does to ship this way. So posting cost isnt the issue more the cost of new supplies all the time when I feel using what I have is more than enough protection. As long as it fits through the slot without catching or pulling(they have one at the office to test its a big plasticy thing) I dont see machine damage as being a deterant to sending this way. It sure is easier to write addys on a normal envelope and yeah this way in theory I could cut up a 5x7 bubble mailer and use it for 4 mailouts. A simple small piece of tape ensure the card wont fall out no matter if you a part of the seal or not

The +1 all the way!

Its also conservation

Cheers,
reoddai