Can we all agree to stop shipping items in envelopes? 0

[90sChild]

I've been buying on ebay 20 years now and the only damaged items I've ever received were because of thin paper/cardboard mailers.  I've never had a problem when something was sent in a legit cardboard box.  Yes I get it that sellers can't just have a pile of 100 boxes sitting around.  But at what point does convenience start ruining your inventory with returns and disappoint customers?  I'm just so frustrated after patiently waiting months on end for a mint book I need to show up, only to have it ruined in shipping.  I'm not even talking rare books here, just some 1990's trade paperbacks that are fairly uncommon but somehow I can never get near mint.  Often times it is not even worth the price or time of everyone involved to return a damaged $10-20 item.  I try to be reasonable with the sellers but sometimes all they want is to just refund the shipping and move on, people doing high volume don't always care about condition.
If anyone has these books laying around let me know.  In the mean time, please for the love of everything, stop sending your items out in envelopes.  The mail system doesn't care about properly handling your items through their machines.
That's my PSA/soapbox for the day.

 

I guess I should explain there are multiple ways to avoid paying $10-15 to ship in a box, so I will add that here.

Media Mail: A book like a trade paperback, a marvel omnibus or hardcover that reprints material, an IDW artist edition, etc. can all be sent via media mail due to their lack of advertisements.  

If you are sending comics with advertisements, any box over a pound is going to mean priority mail.  On average this should cost you around $6-7 if you print using paypal's discount postage.
https://www.paypal.com/us/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_ship-now

What you want to do is keep it first class mail, under a pound.  You can expect around $4-5 for this which is not that far off from media mail anyway.  3-4 comics can easily push the weight up past a pound, but 1-3 books can get by under this 1 pound limit. 
If you are only sending one or two books, with an average box weight of 8oz you should not have any issues staying under 16oz.  

 

Edited April 16, 2019 by 90sChild

[ExNihilo]

if I'm being honest, if I'm buying a $20 variant, I'd rather not be paying another $12-$15 for a large cardboard box when a $3 mailer works just as well.  Most envelopes I received, the book is in a gemini mailer inside the envelope.  Thus far (knock on wood) I haven't had any issues.

Granted, you do get some sellers who just don't know how to package books.  I just avoid those.

Edited April 16, 2019 by ExNihilo

[Number 6]

20 minutes ago, 90sChild said:

I've been buying on ebay 20 years now and the only damaged items I've ever received were because of thin paper/cardboard mailers.  I've never had a problem when something was sent in a legit cardboard box.  Yes I get it that sellers can't just have a pile of 100 boxes sitting around.  But at what point does convenience start ruining your inventory with returns and disappoint customers?  I'm just so frustrated after patiently waiting months on end for a mint book I need to show up, only to have it ruined in shipping.  I'm not even talking rare books here, just some 1990's trade paperbacks that are fairly uncommon but somehow I can never get near mint.  Often times it is not even worth the price or time of everyone involved to return a damaged $10-20 item.  I try to be reasonable with the sellers but sometimes all they want is to just refund the shipping and move on, people doing high volume don't always care about condition.
If anyone has these books laying around let me know.  In the mean time, please for the love of everything, stop sending your items out in envelopes.  The mail system doesn't care about properly handling your items through their machines.
That's my PSA/soapbox for the day.

Do you specifically request box shipping?

Do you offer to pay extra for any additional cost associated with box shipping?

[Spidey 62]

13 minutes ago, ExNihilo said:

Granted, you do get some sellers who just don't know how to package books.  I just avoid those.

Unfortunately, you don't know to avoid them until after you have received a bad package. 

[90sChild]

I always bring up boxes on raw/unslabbed items that I'm specifically buying for condition.  Sometimes the seller is just non-responsive, doesn't offer it, doesn't grasp sending in a box that isn't flat rate priority mail, etc.  The right move is to obviously find out first before bidding, but sometimes if I don't see an item until it ends up in a search with 12 hours left and I don't get a response, I'm still going to take a chance and bid.  Sometimes the seller still won't respond after the item in which case you just pay and hope for the best but I do agree this a poor way to go about it.

Edited April 16, 2019 by 90sChild

[theCapraAegagrus]

Yes.

[oldrover]

You can ship safely in a Priority Mail legal envelope if you pack it right. Lotta room for bubble wrap bags and cardboard inserts. I’ve even sent slabs safely in legal PM envelopes, again, inside two bubble wrap envelopes and surrounded by cardboard. 

I insured them, of course.  But most I’ve sent that way were mostly covered by the $100 PM free insurance. 

I don’t do that any more though. Again, my paranoia. LOL

JMHO. 

[D84]

Just now, oldrover said:

You can ship safely in a Priority Mail legal envelope if you pack it right. Lotta room for bubble wrap bags and cardboard inserts. I’ve even sent slabs safely in legal PM envelopes, again, inside two bubble wrap envelopes and surrounded by cardboard. 

I insured them, of course.  But most I’ve sent that way were mostly covered by the $100 PM free insurance. 

I don’t do that any more though. Again, my paranoia. LOL

JMHO. 

You can fit a Gemini mailer in one of those.

[lou_fine]

7 hours ago, ExNihilo said:

if I'm being honest, if I'm buying a $20 variant, I'd rather not be paying another $12-$15 for a large cardboard box when a $3 mailer works just as well.  Most envelopes I received, the book is in a gemini mailer inside the envelope.  Thus far (knock on wood) I haven't had any issues.

 

Well, as long as the purchaser is willing to pay the full cost of postage for shipping in a box along with the cost for all of the related packing materials, the seller should not have an issue with this.

But does it really make sense to to be spending more on the cost of shipping relative to the cost of the book, especially in the case of common everyday drek books?  

[Phantalien]

You can ship a lot of things in envelopes as long as you know how to pack it properly.  It does not mean it should be done every single time.  I deal mostly with trading online miniatures and CCGs but I buy 50-100 of those BCW card boxes, which lasts me a long time until it is time to resupply.   Those Gemini mailers seems great for comics and they are costing me $0.70 per mailer if I buy 100 of them.   They seems like a sound investment for sellers to ensure there are no hiccups...

However, if someone doesn't want to go that route they should take the time to acquire and cut a lot of cardboard boxes so they have a good amount on hand to take care of their shipping needs.    Doing that prep work is so annoying and daunting but it makes the whole process to ship soooo much easier and the whole process hassle free.

[comicginger1789]

I live in Canada. I can ship 2 comics, in cardboard and inside a paper envelope for $6 to the US. Or I can ship in a box and it costs $18. I always offer this to the buyer. No one picks it because its expensive.

I do make it mandatory if the book I am selling exceeds $75 though. Anything less, and I will take a loss if the buyer is unhappy. Been selling 12+ years, only negative has been one lost parcel. No one has ever been upset that I dont use a box. 

Granted, there are people who dont pack securely. That is a different issue though.

[DavidTheDavid]

I sold a relatively small dollar amount of low cost comics on eBay, about $3k over the course of three months. For books $10 and understand, I used Kraft envelopes with no problems, at least that anyone told me about. It was cheap and effective. I don't mind receiving books, even costlier ones in an envelope, if they're protected properly. As others have noted, you can often fit a mailer in an envelope and save on costs. Most important is prudence and care in packaging.

[sagekilz]

About 50% of my job is literally shipping items/parts to customers.  I use FedEx, DHL, USPS and UPS respectively and REGARDLESS of who you use, as long as YOU, the shipper, package the item properly, damage will be non-existent or minimal.  It stands to reason that as long as the item is 'bundled" in a way that negates travel damage you're fine.  Granted there are instances when it's out of your control BUT before an item is shipped, the shipper can guarantee with 99% certainty the item will arrive at its destination in perfect working order.  

Using a bubbled mailer to send a slabbed book is perfectly safe, as long as the book is secured inside something else before going into the mailer.  Simple as that.

Edited April 17, 2019 by sagekilz

[Roo_Phillip]

I'll chime in here.  I'm new but I've been spending $ like a drunken sailor on raw comics and have seen lots of different shipping methods, both on books bought here and on EBay.  The only comics that have arrived damaged were mailed using envelopes and cardboard pieces.  The "cardboard sandwich in an envelope" method works fine AS LONG AS THE COMICS ARE IMMOBILIZED within the cardboard.  If the comics can slide around loosely between the cardboard, all it takes is one good whack somewhere in transit and a corner is now poking out, waiting for the next whack to dent the corner.  Most sellers who ship with this method have used blue painter's tape or something similar to immobilize the books safely within the confines of the cardboard.  I can't understand why some people who regularly sell comics don't get this.

 

But then again, I've heard the phrase "I've been sending comics this way for a long time and never had a problem" three different times now, 2 from EBay sellers and one here, so I must be an unlucky guy with an extra clumsy mailman.  

 

 

[90sChild]

The cardboard sandwich method still isn't something I'd use on a book worth more than $20, try bending two flat piece of cardboard with your hands at any points.  Should be able to do it easily with less than 5 pounds of pressure.  Now try bending a square cardboard box with your bare hands.  Probably not going to get anywhere until you try crushing it.  
Some people mentioning that boxes are automatically more expensive, and again just remember I edited my first post to add more information on how to ship with boxes affordably.

Edited April 17, 2019 by 90sChild

[DavidTheDavid]

2 hours ago, Roo_Phillip said:

I'll chime in here.  I'm new but I've been spending $ like a drunken sailor on raw comics and have seen lots of different shipping methods, both on books bought here and on EBay.  The only comics that have arrived damaged were mailed using envelopes and cardboard pieces.  The "cardboard sandwich in an envelope" method works fine AS LONG AS THE COMICS ARE IMMOBILIZED within the cardboard.  If the comics can slide around loosely between the cardboard, all it takes is one good whack somewhere in transit and a corner is now poking out, waiting for the next whack to dent the corner.  Most sellers who ship with this method have used blue painter's tape or something similar to immobilize the books safely within the confines of the cardboard.  I can't understand why some people who regularly sell comics don't get this.

 

But then again, I've heard the phrase "I've been sending comics this way for a long time and never had a problem" three different times now, 2 from EBay sellers and one here, so I must be an unlucky guy with an extra clumsy mailman.  

 

 

I’m boggled by people who don’t secure the comic inside the mailer.

[lou_fine]

1 hour ago, 90sChild said:

The cardboard sandwich method still isn't something I'd use on a book worth more than $20, try bending two flat piece of cardboard with your hands at any points. 

Exactly right!  

[Gaard]

I'd be willing to put money down on the fact that if you sell comics, you also buy comics. For those that use envelopes to ship, are you ok with receiving envelopes also?

[Gaard]

I'm somewhat confused also ... it seems like some are ok with less expensive comics being damaged, but if it's worth more (monetarily), it's not ok.

[Pete Marino]

I put a cardboard sandwich (wrapped in bubble wrap) inside of a u-line rigi-mailer and have had 0 issues shipping all over the place for years.