TOPIC: shipping?

I have been hearing about shipping and high costs for trading that way? Is there any reason I cant wrap a few tokens(3-6) tightly and put them in an envelope and ship them 1st class for less than $1?

Of course I'm talking just about small tokens like $1-$2... not the $100 ones

You can ship things however you want. most people use the flat rate shipping boxes because they are quick and areally priority.

Kirk Bauer uses photo mailers quite a bit

Thanks Wade

Any other shipping tips would be greatly appreciated. Also should I be posting on a different spot for questions like this?

The photo mailers Kirk uses should be cheaper to ship, especially if you aren't doing 2-3 day and insurance.

They ship perfectly fine and I've never had one tear open.

I'm actually planning to get a set myself for shipping

I've been sending tokens through the mail for years, and would be happy to share some of my observations on this topic.

First, if you put tokens directly into a paper envelope with no padding, the envelope is likely to tear, and tokens can fall out. Even if you wrap them in, say, a piece of light cardboard, they can still be stiff enough to tear the paper (though, less likely to fall out due to the wrap).

Second, tokens are shaped like coins, and money is notoriously prone to going "missing" in the mail. Any envelope which has a coin-shaped payload in it will be a target for thieves. Some folks on the forums have fascinating stories about receiving packages which had been deliberately torn open, or sliced along the seams, or were completely missing when they came down to the Post Office to pick up the package which was being held for them.

Third, tokens can be damaged in transit if they're not well padded. This is much less of an issue with the chip tokens, but the old woodie tokens would often arrive at their destination broken in half.

So, while there's nothing inherently wrong with sending tokens in a plain envelope, there's definitely some risk, and you should be prepared to replace a missing or damaged shipment.


Having said that - I often mail tokens in a padded bubble envelope, with the shape of the tokens lightly disguised by wrapping them in paper or thin cardboard, and have only had them go missing twice in close to 100 shipments... and one of those times was probably my fault for not securing the adhesive tape on the bubble envelope properly.

thanks for the insight raven.

thanks arc

I've shipped tokens in an envelope before. The trick is to keep the tokens from stacking on top of each other so they don't get stuck in the machine and ripping the envelope open. So I found a little manila envelope that holds 2 tokens side by side. This small envelope isn't cardboard so it doesn't rip the outside envelope. I've never mailed more than 2 tokens so it works well for common or uncommon shipments.

thanks

I've done lots of shipping in both first class envelopes, and packages.

The trick with envelopes is the tokens rigidity make your mail "non-machineable" - if they run through the automated machines at the post office they are likely to get shredded.

Here is what I've found works very reliably:

1. Put tokens in a magic card sleeve and tape them shut.

2. Tape the card sleeve to something else, like an folded up sheet of paper or index card so they don't slide around in the envelope.

3. Ideally, get some square envelopes - these are inherently non-machineable, so are more likely to be hand sorted at the mail center (if you use a standard envelope even if you pay the non-machineable fee and stamp your letters as non-machineable, sometimes they get put through the machine anyway).

4. Apply clear packing tape along the outside edges of the envelope to give it more integrity. Do not tape over the postage stamp or barcode.




If you do all that you should be fine, and your shipping cost is:

Envelope + Tape + Sleeve + insert (sheet of paper, etc.) + postage + non-machineable surcharge.

The non-machineable surcharge is 21 cents.

Tokens weigh around 1/2 an ounce each. First class mail can be up to 3 ounces. Standard stamps cover up to 1 ounce.

So - if you are mailing a single token a standard stamp + 21 cents will cover it. If you are mailing 2-5 tokens you'll need to pay more in postage.


If you ship in a "PWE" (plain white envelope) without taking these sorts of precautions I can virtually guarantee your stuff will get destroyed or lost and not delivered.


Having done this for a while, I eventually got tired of the bother and now just ship everything in a ziploc bag placed into a bubble mailer for packages under a pound or so, which can be bought affordably in bulk, with postage around $2.60 which includes tracking.



Here are some nice envelopes that are inherently non-machineable, so should get hand sorted more often than not:

smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B007BFKRUU/ref=oh_aui_search_detailpage?ie=UTF8&psc=1


If you decide to just go with bubble mailers, here are ones that I have never lost a token with:

smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B005R4V46S/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

If you ship bubble mailers, you'll want to be able to print labels, these are cheap and work fine:

smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B001PF1BSE/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o03_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1