General Forum

i think 8 cards is pushing it. depending on the PO. test the waters with it. I've got mail returned with 4 before and had 6 go through in a regular fat top loader with a piece of tape wrapped in computer paper. 

I would also recommend that you state in your trade conversation that you are sending in pwe.

Most do not mind, but a vocal minority is highly offended by pew. If that trade  partner is one of those. hopefully it is listed in their profile. If not. Then you can consider if trade is worth the extra postage,  or not...

Mark

Anyone who's received packs of TCDB trading cards over the past 3 years can vouch that none went as a package.  And each pack held 11 cards.

It really comes back to the employee you deal with.  It is not different here in Canada.  Some employees would have everything go out as a package and charge you insanely more; others are very cooperative and interpret the rules the way they should be.  For PWE, as some said previously, I put a stamp on them and drop them in the mail box.  All have been delivered.  For small packages less than 3/4" thick, I go to either the outlet on my military base or to one of the outlets in the local drug store.  Packages requiring customs declaration are pretty much all the same as they are measured and weighed to figure out the cost (though some employees are a lot more liberal in the measurements than others (and not always in the customers favour).

Morale of the story: shop around and find the "good" postal outlet / employee.

Of course, it's relative to the PO because I've received many PWEs that went through the sorter despite the non-machinable stamp. Never have received damaged cards despite that, though. 

Oh yeah, the old Post Office Vigilante. I had to stop going to the living people and using the machine in the lobby for my postage. Too many idiots piss them off earlier in the day and they take it out on me with their own idea of the rules. 

UPDATE:  I went to a different post office.  The clerk assisted me cheerfully and accepted my PWE as a non-machinable piece of mail.  She even put 3 "do not bend" ink stamps on it.  At least now I know which P.O. to go to first.

You summed it up in your closing remark. We only have two choices here and the "real P.O." is not as "friendly/helpful" when applying their interpretation and therefore I find our local Shoppers Drug Mart P.O. the better option.

I'm not sure of the total count that can be included but I have often received cards inside of greeting cards that were sent in the greeting card PWE usually with just a stamp maybe two. Sometimes I think the postage was paid another way but still fairly cheaply.

I have thought about sending cards via the greating card w/it's PWE route but haven't yet.

My best option, slap on a stamp [there are multiple denimoinations to choose from], non-machinable. I found that writing DO NOT BEND encourages bending  *Some PO workers think that way.* And let my lovely mail lady take it away. Gone.

Never go to the PO. Don't need to, do everything on line. Try it.