OT: Top Loaders Shortage

[Buythatcard]

If you have tried to buy some top loaders, you will notice that many of the distributors are out of stock. Due to the Covid, they are not receiving their shipments and some won't be getting anything until 2022.

I have been selling on eBay for over 18 years and have shipped every card regardless of its cost in a top loader. I am running very low on my top loaders. I spent several hours last night trying to buy top loaders of different sizes. I always buy bulk so that I can get the best deal.

The distributors where I usually get my top loaders from were out of stock as I mentioned earlier. But what really pissed me off are all of the hoarders out there. I saw prices that were almost 10 times more than I usually paid.

I cannot ship my raw cards out in just a bubble envelope without protection. So, I bit the bullet and bought top loaders from some of the hoarders. Ended up paying about 5 times more than I usually pay. I did not buy as many as I usually do because these expenses will cut into the little profits that I have left after eBay takes their share.

While this crisis continues, I am looking for other ways to protect the cards that I ship. In addition to the top loaders, I bought some card Savers which are semi rigid, to see if they can offer some protection. I think that when I run out of top loaders again, shipping the card in a card saver along with wrapping some cardboard around it might be a good idea.

The problem with cardboard is that I don't want to spend my whole night cutting cardboard up into smaller pieces. Does anyone know where I can purchase pre cut card board pieces or does anyone have a better way to ship out the card once top loaders are nowhere to be found.