Shipping - clueless sellers
 

I just received a package via USPS that contained an OJ that I purchased through fleabay.

Talk about the OJ gods protecting a piece of cardboard....

The card was in a baggie (thin sandwich baggie) and placed in a very thin standard 4x7 bubble mailer. NO STIFFNER - NO NOTHING ELSE - NOT EVEN A LABEL SAYING "DO NOT BEND".

Holy crap, the card made it to me without being bent or mutilated.... I am in awe and completely dumbfounded how the card made it to me without being damaged.

Any horror stories about shipping? Can people really be this clueless?

ive had cards come in just a manila bubble mailer before, no sleeve no cardboard and make It just fine. I however bulletproof my stuff....graded card sleeve, cardboard, wrapped in bubble wrap and then in a bubble mailer. some people just don't understand lol.

I have won ticket stubs on Ebay from different guys and have had a couple over the years throw them in a regular white envelope with a stamp on it and charge me 5.00 or so for shipping. Not even between cardboard or even a card shield, nothing. Throw it in an envelope put in the guys mailbox for the postal person to pick up and wash there hands of it. Guess they thought going through the mail would give it more patina. Idiots

I once had a graded card shipped to me in a cut down priority envelope that was nothing more than the front and back of the envelope loosely taped together. I could see the slab through the sides of the "envelope" and it still arrived on time and undamaged. I don't know how the seller was able to ship it with tracking and not be told to put it in better packaging.

I have also had several cards shipped in nothing but a plain white envelope and only a penny sleeve and a sheet of paper for protection. They all survived the postal system and arrived faster than most if not all packages with tracking.

The first image. I received like this from an Ebay seller. "Received Without Contents". A large pile of rarer vintage boxing ephemera I was really looking forward to. Still haunts me today. Stuffed in a plain white mailer. Shipping label was barely held on by a couple of pieces of scotch tape. Not even holding the whole label down. No tape holding the contents in. No surprise not a single item from the entire group lot made it to me in the package. Not the fault of the USPS.

2nd image was SHIPPED by me. It started as a durable poster tube. An adhesive label that also had several layers of shipping tape reinforcing it to the tube. The only thing returned to me was the label, neatly sliced off of the tube, in a USPS baggy that said "WE CARE" and a copy of a package search request I filled out when the item went missing in the system. This was their way of telling me they found the package in their system. A neatly sliced off shipping label attached to literally nothing.

No accounting for what or why something might happen to a package sometimes.

These stories are just so weird. It's like the x-files of USPS package shipping. First the seller that sent you the ephemera with no protection. I'm convinced some sellers really hate their customers.

Then the cardboard tube...wow. I've mailed stuff in those poster tubes. They are strong and sturdy. What on earth could have happened to it that only the label survived? Did it burn in a fire? Did a delivery truck fall off a cliff and then they found the label in the rubble? :confused:

15+ years ago I had dozens of ebay transactions involving 100's of Zeenuts from a seller who wrapped the raw cards in a double layer of paper towel and and sent them in a regular white envelope. All came to me in fine shape, but they did not escape damage as they still smell like cigarettes. Heavy smoking and cards do not mix.

Brian

Years back, some college students tested to see what could be mailed just by writing the address and placing a stamp on the unwrapped item. All sorts of items went through, but the USPO drew the line at a fish.

about 5 years ago, I purchased a 1928 Yuengling Ice Cream - Gehrig - PSA 8

Guy shipped the card raw in a bubble mailer. per USPS the sorting machine must've caught/snagged on the the bubble mailer... Shattered the PSA case in 4 places, bent the card on both ends and the shattered plastic sliced the card down the middle.

Seller refunded, and he insured at full value, so no money was lost - but I cried. The hobby lost a stunning Gehrig that day

Jeez, Priority Boxes are Free. I know I worked in Package Delivery for a dozen years, so I know what packages are subjected to, going from hub to hub, but some things you assume people should foresee when they send something out, especially of high value, but many seem completely oblivious to sometimes.

Yeah, you do this long enough that's just the tip of the iceberg.

I just got a package returned to me yesterday. Said "Vacant Building - Return to Sender". Contacted the buyer and they said the person next door died recently, so that house is empty, but he is alive and well, and I had the right address on the package so......................

Maybe the delivery driver didn't have their glasses on that day and got confused by the house number or something. :confused:

Years ago I bought an old glass advertising sign (photography company) and the woman said she packed it really well. She used a couple pieces of crumpled up newspaper and a handful of packing peanuts. The box was less than 25% full. I received a pile of broken glass.

I sent this out earlier today. Graded card wrapped in multiple layers of bubble wrap in a Priority box with extra tape to hold it together and insured for the value of the card. That's the mail lady holding the box bc I told her I wanted to get a picture of it before it shipped out.

https://i.imgur.com/CJQCgXO.jpg?1

Shipping clueless sellers
 

My (almost) worst experience was caused by USPS, with cudos to the seller. Seems my card in a postal box got soaking wet somewhere in Texas and arrived with the box still soaking wet, but sealed in a plastic bag , with a "I'm so sorry note from USPS." Instead of letting it dry out first, they sealed the moisture in. Fortunately the graded card was so well packed by the seller, the card was o.k...what was someone thinking!

Forgive me for going slightly off-topic as my example isn't card-related. It's just so dumb and funny I had to share:

My wife is a crafter. She ordered a jar of some glue from Amazon. Jar was maybe 4" in diameter and 4" tall. Amazon shipped it in a box 18" long on all sides - with no padding or protection whatsoever. The jar, of course, was damaged and glue got all over the inside of the box. I contacted Amazon and the ASKED ME TO SHIP IT BACK. I said I didn't think the USPS would appreciate me shipping a box of glue like that (duh). They agreed and said they'd ship another. And they did.

Exactly the same way as the first. Exactly the same damage.

So they sent a third.

Exactly the same way as the first. By some miracle, it arrived in one piece.

I just thought that was funny. I've had unbreakable stuff shipped by them with tons of protection but a breakable jar of glue? Who needs padding for that?

My large 1903 AL Horner Composite came to me with the glass frame broken and in many pieces. Talk about luck that the photo wasn't damaged. There were a few breathless minutes checking it out when I received it. The seller said he paid a lot to have it shipped but whomever the shipper was failed miserably.

Similarly ...
 

We had a similar experience with a twist ... a few years ago we ordered 1 bag of some special potting mix or perlite (don't recall). Got a message saying it was on back order and expected to be available in about 10 days ... next day UPS shows up with the bag. Day after that he shows up ... with the bag. He was laughing each time I saw him over the next 8 days when he showed up with the bag, which finally went off availability hold.

Unlike your glue, Amazon didn't want any of them shipped back, so we got more of the stuff than we really need. Too bad it wasn't something more generally useful for others around us, but folks attending the annual city-wide yard sale were OK with it.

--
Mike

I once bought a bunch of 1967 Topps high number cards from a guy on EBay. He just shipped them completely unprotected (no penny sleeves, no top loaders, no stiffeners of any kind) in a plain white envelope. Fortunately, they were all still in great shape when they arrived.