General Forum

I'm probably in the "over-taping" crowd!  Haha.  Like Ben Franklin said, "An ounce of blue tape is worth a pound of damaged cards."  (Or something like that.)

That said, I've started putting "tabs" on the blue tape (folding over the end) so it's easy to get the tape off.  I've had cards arrive where they were safe during the journey but in danger when I tried to get them out of the tape!

Well said, threw away several as somebody decided that the Mummy look in scotch tape was the way to go. I got the pretty blue stuff in my office!! Don't use rubber bands, Chuck got a bunch from a seller of mine and used one with too much tension. cards had a slight curve to them but luckily no damage.

captkirk42 wrote:

DO NOT USE REGULAR SCOTCH (CLEAR, CELLOPHANE) TAPE. Especially NOT on toploaders, or card "savers" If tape must be used use painter's tape or a similar type of tape. If you do use tape do not overuse it either. Just enough to keep whatever closed. If you feel that a toploader needs to be taped use some regular paper to cover the opening and then tape the paper to the toploader, or wrap the whole thing in a sheet of paper and tape the paper shut. NOT the toploader.

I only SIGH my name when I stare at myself in the mirror, then start sobbing uncontrollably!!!! LOL

One thing I can't understand for the life of me is why some people still take their packages to the post office and buy the shipping there. It's a good bit cheaper for me to do it through PayPal and stick it in my mailbox for pickup. I've got several padded envelopes where people are paying 50 cent or more than I am for shipping. It's super easy to ship through Paypal guys. Give it a try. 

I definitely agree with the points made so far. Regarding identifying a package, since some collectors probably have multiple trades going at once, plus maybe ebay or other purchases coming in, I do my best to identify my packages. I include a little business card with a thank you message, my username, and mention of TCDB, and my real name. You can buy perforated sheets of blank cards and print them at home very cheaply, and hopefully they make it a bit easier for the recipient.

good rule of thumb i follow is to ship cards out the way i would want to recieve them...

Can't see how it's cheaper using PP when the post office has set rates and you have to pay PP to use it.

With Paypal shipping, you get Commerical Base pricing which is a good bit less than retail.  Instead of a bubble mailer costing $3.50 to ship at the PO, I only pay $2.96 via Paypal.

I'm one who just drops it off at the post office. In order to use Paypal would I need a way to weigh my package? I'm just a personal collector, a hobbyist.

Yes, I picked up a cheap digital scale 3-4 years ago for $20-25, good up to 76(?) pounds that measures to the tenth of an ounce.  Shipping savings have paid for it many times over.