General Forum

This can be broken into two parts.

First, it's been my impression since the US Postal Service switched over from "First Class" to "Ground Service", mailings have been slower.  Previously, when I would mail letters or packages, most arrived within 3 or 4 days max ( anywhere in the country ).  With this new "Ground Service", most arrive 5 to 10 days.  For example, today I received a PWE from OK ( I live in NJ ) which was mailed February 20th.  Today is March 2nd.

This leads me to my second issue.

I know cost is important to so many of us traders.  But from my perspective, I have been seeing more and more super thick PWE's come to me looking like they have been run over by a car!  The cards are not damaged, just the envelope itself.  Now I know how the system works.   Virtually all mail is processed by machines.  All PWE's go through a processing machine and scanned.  I have talked to some postal employee friends who tell me that many of these super thick PWE's clog the machine.  When that happens, someone has to "unclog" the machine.  I'm getting the impression that these thick PWE's are set aside on purpose, then moved along at a later date.  Note: One day last week I received 7 trade packages in the mail.  SIX were PWE's, and like I said, looked with they had been run over by a truck.  One package was a bubble envelope that took 3 days to get to me.

I'm not saying we should stop PWE trades!  I'm just noticing that more people are trying to cram 10 and 20 cards into a PWE and some of these trades may never make it to their destinations.  

Yes, costs are rising, but sending a bubble envelope from NJ to anywhere in the US is still a bargain at $5.

Thoughts?

I have about 4 trades that are in the wild. I am comfortable with the time on the other 20.  Taking forever to make it to Alaska for one. 

I did a trade and both of us shipped on Monday. Maryland to jersey and parter got their PWE on Wednesday. Their bubble mailer has not arrived and last update was Thursday and it was still in jersey. I wish I just had unlimited money to send trades. But $5 is about 20 cards now at about 3-4 oz. My wife shipped her friend a gift and with a book and a few other things was 7.50, not priority too. And it was only 7 oz.

Funny thing how some packages can travel, recently got a package here in NJ from Anchorage AK and it only took 3 days.  

I have about 6 eBay items that I have no idea where they are and 2 or 3 that show delivered that have never made it to my mailbox.

I think the fairer question nowadays is "who hasn't had an issue with USPS in the last couple years?" 

IMO, part of the issue is the mindset of needing to use cardboard to protect cards in PWE's which adds bulk to the envelope (and cost). My first 500+ trades were PWE's with no cardboard and I had zero issues. 

I won't comment on the USPS because we all have had issues with them. Canada Post is no better. 

Bubble mailers are fine but unless you are rarely trading, or trading high dollar cards, I can't justify the cost. 

YES!!!    We all have had issues with the USPS and other shipping services.     Slow, Damaged and not getting there.   It is life in this age of sending and receiving cards. 

There are a lot of other postings about this issue.  

Yes the cost is going up and most of us try to save for both sides, all we can.   

Are you willing to pay $5 to send 20 cards to someone and only getting cards worth $3.00?    Are you willing to ask a trader to send $3 worth of cards and pay $5 for shipping?

More than once I have sent 2 PWE instead of a package.

I completely agree.  The extra cardboard is unnecessary and could cause more issues with envelopes getting stuck in soring machines.  Kraft envelope using 9 pocket page folded in thirds (so no opening is outwards) has been working well for me and makes packaging and sending trades extremely simple.

i have no problem until the last year with the USPS and packages. I had one from Canada that was made in January that has not showed plus one from the US.  This can also be costly to the sender if your cards get to and you do not receive them back.  So mailing more than one PWE can be also costly and if not enough postage could cause issues