PerfectSpecimen wrote:If you ever buy ultra pro 80 count magic sleeves. They come in bundles of 40 wrapped in plastic with its own adhesive. I save those. Then I put my cards in a penny sleeve and into top loaders. Then put them in the sleeve packaging and sometimes put a small piece of tape for good measure. Works great.

You can buy something similar to those too. They are called "team bags".

To add to the excellent collective knowledge in this thread, I would like to offer a detailed guide inspired by my experiences trading on Deckbox:

"A Casual (and Slightly OCD) Trader’s Guide to Shipping Magic: the Gathering Cards"
http://www.3-sided-die.com/2014/05/a-casual-and-slightly-ocd-traders-guide-to-shipping-magic-the-gathering-cards/

I absolutely welcome any feedback from this community and hope it is useful and helpful to you all.

brightmatrix wrote:To add to the excellent collective knowledge in this thread, I would like to offer a detailed guide inspired by my experiences trading on Deckbox:

"A Casual (and Slightly OCD) Trader’s Guide to Shipping Magic: the Gathering Cards"
http://www.3-sided-die.com/2014/05/a-casual-and-slightly-ocd-traders-guide-to-shipping-magic-the-gathering-cards/

I absolutely welcome any feedback from this community and hope it is useful and helpful to you all.

This is a great guide. I totally agree with not using packaging tape to close top loaders...grrrr.

One note about taping the cards to the envelope: I've had one envelope get ripped open in transit. The cards stayed in the envelope, but I now use a single piece of scotch tape to secure the top loader to the envelope in case that ever happens again. I don't know if that annoys others.

Agreed, a very informative and thorough guide. One addition I would suggest is a recommendation to purchase insurance for very valuable cards. I purchase insurance for trades over $100.

One note about sending more than one top loader in an envelope. I can get 12 cards in a PWE without it feeling thick. Three cards are placed in a penny sleeve which is inverted in a top loader, three more secured to the outside of that top loader in a penny sleeve (either put them in a team bag or use strips of paper to avoid taping sleeves to toploaders, because that's obnoxious). This gives you a pile of six cards that is thinner than two top loaders laid on top of one another. Then put a second set beside the first. I will secure these in a piece of printer paper that has been tri-folded and creased well (so the envelope is not puffy) then I write the person's name and address on this piece of paper to make sure it actually gets to them. They are taped in place so they can't overlap while in transit, so the envelope should stay flat, because it doesn't seem to matter when I write non-machinable.

See the photo and it will make sense.

Timber, Kammikaze, gumgodMTG: These are all excellent suggestions for my guide, and I really appreciate both your interest and your methods. I've made a few updates to the article, specifically to include the insurance and issue with envelopes arriving empty. I intend this to be a "living document," and will be glad to include other great suggestions like these.

gumgodMTG: Would you be OK with me citing your packaging concept and linking to and/or posting the image?

brightmatrix wrote:Timber, Kammikaze, gumgodMTG: These are all excellent suggestions for my guide, and I really appreciate both your interest and your methods. I've made a few updates to the article, specifically to include the insurance and issue with envelopes arriving empty. I intend this to be a "living document," and will be glad to include other great suggestions like these.

gumgodMTG: Would you be OK with me citing your packaging concept and linking to and/or posting the image?

Yes, that would be fine. :)

gumgodMTG wrote:because it doesn't seem to matter when I write non-machinable.

Snippet of a conversation I had with one of the managers of my local PO:

Manager: "There is not a single operation in the Post Office any more that is dealt with mail by hand."
Me: "Does that mean that when I put at 21c stamp on an envelope and write non-machinable in bold red pen that my envelope gets machined anyway?"
Manager: "Yes, but it goes to a separate machines similar to package belt so the things would not get squished inside"

Non-machinable is a big misnomer. In fact, it's completely false lol. Should be "slightly-non-squishy-machinable."

Kammikaze wrote:

gumgodMTG wrote:because it doesn't seem to matter when I write non-machinable.

Snippet of a conversation I had with one of the managers of my local PO:

Manager: "There is not a single operation in the Post Office any more that is dealt with mail by hand."
Me: "Does that mean that when I put at 21c stamp on an envelope and write non-machinable in bold red pen that my envelope gets machined anyway?"
Manager: "Yes, but it goes to a separate machines similar to package belt so the things would not get squished inside"

Non-machinable is a big misnomer. In fact, it's completely false lol. Should be "slightly-non-squishy-machinable."

I had this same conversation with someone at my post office. His exact words were "It's going to go through rollers even if you write that on there." But this is also why I focus on having the envelope no more than two top loaders thick. The only envelope I've had ripped open (that I sent) was one that was using one of those wider mouth top loaders. It was less than 1/4" thick but still more than the "rollers" could handle. I've also had one ripped open that was sent to me, but thankfully the cards were still taped to the envelope (which was placed in those sorry we screwed up your package envelopes).

"Non-machinable" probably means that it goes through one of these new fangled sorting machines that has super technology to "reduce double picks" and handle thicker envelopes. Look how easy it is to remove jams on this one...
http://youtu.be/vxtkYBN5kJg?t=56s

Hey guys I am new to all this, and just want to make sure I have shipping sorted. the guides are great, for a few cards. but I question how to ship 30-50 cards?

Thanks for any assistance you can give, sorry if its been already answered or I just didn't get it.
I just want to make sure I am doing the best ship I can for my first trades :) dont want to overload a bubble mailer or anything.

Kermit wrote:Hey guys I am new to all this, and just want to make sure I have shipping sorted. the guides are great, for a few cards. but I question how to ship 30-50 cards?

Thanks for any assistance you can give, sorry if its been already answered or I just didn't get it.
I just want to make sure I am doing the best ship I can for my first trades :) dont want to overload a bubble mailer or anything.

A bubble mailer should be just fine for 30-50 cards. I would just put the cards in a plastic baggie taped shut around them and then tape them between 2 toploaders. Just make sure you go to the PO so they can give you the right postage for the weight otherwise its going to either going to get set back to you with insufficent postage OR actually sent to the other person and then they would need to pay the postage.

Another option would be to just send in a 500 count box as a package. Either way works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jotEMEqg-4c

How to Pack right, and how to send internationaly by the cheapest way possible.
I've been noticing that a lot of people have afraid to shipp internationaly so guys, here's the solution.

Rainho1991 wrote:https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jotEMEqg-4c

How to Pack right, and how to send internationaly by the cheapest way possible.
I've been noticing that a lot of people have afraid to shipp internationaly so guys, here's the solution.

This is only a solution if the trade meets very specific criteria: expensive enough to justify the $1 stamp, few enough cards to not be too thick and low enough value that it doesn't require tracking.

Edit: However I will say that I agree with everything he says about putting the card into the top loader and avoiding putting tape over the opening. I still prefer to trade with the 70 cent stamps if trading within the US and using a PWE, and I use PayPal for anything that needs tracking.

well, 1$ stamp... i don't know how are the prices in the USA but 1$ is very cheap for international...
I guess that the tracking can be added after by paying a little bit more.
I'm just posting this because i've traded with a American guy and he have overpaid ( a lot ) for the service, it's just a little help for everybody o want's to trade international.

Rainho1991 wrote:well, 1$ stamp... i don't know how are the prices in the USA but 1$ is very cheap for international...
I guess that the tracking can be added after by paying a little bit more.

It can't. You either pay $1, which is cheap but has no tracking or you pay something closer to $15... International mail is lame like that. However shipping to a few countries (including Canada) you can fill out a customs form, and the customs number can be used for tracking. But the number of countries that do this is still pretty small.

edit: so I guess what I'm trying to say is that it's less convenient and can be more expensive to trade internationally if you have to ship as a package. If you can get away with sending cards as a letter, then sometimes it's not that bad.

The guy i've traded with have paid around 8$ with tracking, i've paid 2.8€, around 3.5$.
Idk, but i'm guessing that shipping prices are very abusive in USA.

I try to package things as good as possible but there were a few things brought up here I hadn't realized. Wish I would have read this over sooner, thanks for all the tips!