How do you like your cards packed?
 

We all receive cards from dealers or other friends, mailed and insured in some fashion. My question: How do you like to receive cards? I'll offer a few observations, and then get out of the way:

1. Holy Grail Packing. A few years back on SNL, the late Phil Hartman appeared in a series called "The Anal Retentive ..." I remember two in particular. The Anal Retentive Fisherman possessed an "outboard motor cozy," to keep his machinery safe from dust. The AR Carpenter, after cutting a piece of wood, put the remaining piece in a plastic bag, zipped it, stapled it, put in it another plastic bag, wrapped the whole mess in aluminum foil and labelled it.

I get cards from people who have studied these techniques. The cards arrive in boxes. These are full of electrostatic peanuts (in my house, "flumpter"), in the midst of which is a package showing my name and address. Inside this package is a smaller brown envelope lined with bubble wrap, again with my name and address. Inside that is a triple round of bubble wrap secured with transparent packing tape. The card lies within.

The irony is that the card is generally a common I've purchased only to fill out a set.

2. No Frills. On the other end are those who pack cards of some considerable value as though they were wrapping yesterday's fish catch. The card lies inside the usual bubble wrap lined brown envelope, receiving no further protection. On several occasions, slabbed cards packed this way have arrived in cracked holders, though I'm sure they didn't leave home this way.

Well, that's enough of that. What, in your opinion, is a reasonable way to send and protect the cards we love?

(For my own part I HATE flumpter, and have sliced through both the triple bubble wrap and slab with the knife I use to open anything.)

Magic tape is terrible. It has its uses, but putting it across the top of a toploader isn't one of them.

I like bubblewrap... especially when it is being used a second or third time. Buyer/sellers, save those old envelopes.

If something is wrapped to the point that I need a knife or scissors to get into it, then it is wrapped too much.

I use this method:

1. if raw place in semi-rigid holder, if graded leave as is
2. place between two pieces of cardboard
3. wrap with bubble wrap
4. place in padded mailer
5. label and send.

The package ends up being fairly small but not too small and usually weighs between 3 and 4 oz. Price with under $100 insurance and DC is typically ~$4

I like cardboard on both sides of the card, inserted into a used bubble wrap envelope (the only green in me) and inserted in a small flat rate priority box. This would be only for more expensive cards that merit priority mail

Twice I have received cards from an eBay purchase that were in flimsy top loaders in a basic envelope. Shipped with a stamp. Both were surprisingly fine.

I preferred the cardboard sandwich inside bubble envelope.

That's pretty much how I pack. Penny sleeve upside down in a toploader to protect from the tape, stiff cardboard both sides, taped together into a bubble envelope. Most of what I sell is inexpensive. The few nicer cards I've sold have usually gone in a small priority flat rate box, with peanuts, bubble wrap, whatever other reusable packing I can find.

Yeah,the tape over the top of the toploader is a nuisance and usually wrecks the toploader. I'd be happy to hear of a better way to seal it so the card won't get out.

The worst I've seen was cards sent in a plain envelope, not even a penny sleeve.

Steve B

It isn't "the tape over the top of the toploader is a nuisance", it is when it is magic tape that it is a pain. It doesn't peel as well as normal tape, and it is more likely to leave a residue.

Inverting the sleeve is good. It's obvious to anyone who's bought a card and received it stuck to that bit of tape across the hole in the toploader. It's amazes me how seldom it's inverted.

Pwe
 

Plain white envelope all the way and TONS of tape. I want my vintage to look like a potato chip by the time it arrives :)

On a serious note: sleeve, top loader, team bag, padded mailer and cardboard for graded slabs....

I write the address in black Sharpie on the slab with a first class stamp and off it goes. Works every time. :D

Actually, I use Pat's method below. For multiple graded cards (which I am shipping a board member this morning), they will bet boxed up in a 400ct box with buble wrap.

I've told this story before
 

but once won an auction that promised delivery in a protective plastic container. The card arrived in a zip lock sandwich bag inside a #10 envelope. No other packaging. Paid $6 for that about 15 years ago.

Ditto.

All of the stuff I sell is already in a graded slab so on lower priced cards I usually just go with the trusty bubble envelope. If it's a more expensive card I ship it in a priority mail box filled with styrofoam peanuts. This might be OCD on my part, but no matter the value, I always give the slab a good polishing with Novus #2 and put it in a resealable BCW graded card bag. As a buyer, nothing is more irritating than getting a graded card in a scratched to hell slab.

I only have a single pet peeve.. excessive TAPE.
Nothing irks me more than having to use a knife or scissors to extract a card from its packaging.

ditto.

Nothing worse than spending 5 minutes cutting/peeling tape to get to the card.

Also, with free shipping becoming more common, I've gotten cards just stuck in a plain white envelope and mailed for 44 cents.

One time a while back I bought a pretty nice NM '56 Topps Football Elroy Hirsch. In the auction it was pictured in a toploader. When the card arrived in the mail, it had been removed from said toploader and place between two pieces of cardboard that had been cut from Coca-Cola 12 packs(we all know how flimsy those are), and mailed in a simple white envelope. I'll tell ya, I wasn't too happy because sometime during the mail process the damn thing got folded in half. I can say so definitively because the Coke box pieces had the exact same fold. Seller gave me full refund, told me to keep the card and supposedly bitched out his wife(who supposedly packed it). Maybe she thought she was saving him money so he could re-use them? Who knows?

Also, excessive tape drives me f'ing nuts...I've gotten 'em where the cardboard pieces were practically laminated in tape, and so was the bubble mailer. And the tape on top of the toploaders are a big pet peeve of mine. Had one card that slid up into the tape somehow on a semi-rigid holder, and lost a small chunk of the top border once.. Aaarghhhh!!!!

Of course they were Zeenuts
 

Multiple years back I had numerous ebay transactions from a seller who wrapped the raw cards in a paper towel and and sent them in a regular white envelope. All came to me in fine shape.

Brian

Almost forgot about them. I bought a couple of cards from them...All were somehow fine.

I agree with Jaybird (as others have also) except I prefer a different number 2.

2. Place between two pieces of 1/4 inch thick gold (platinum also acceptable).