Bullets are heavy. It does not matter whether they were shot or lost by soldiers led by Cromwell, George Washington, Cornwallis,  Grant, or Lee.

     If dropped loose into a shipping pack two things happen. They rub and bump. That wears off the PATINA or oxidation which ground action caused. Good bullets are better if the PATINA is not rubbed, chipped or damaged.

     Secondly, they hurl themselves like little bowling balls against the package closure. I lost half of a group of relics because a novice seller packed this way, letting the package get beaten open. Some postal person put a bit of tape on the package and may have saved some of them. THIS IS NOT SHIPPING DAMAGE, it is inferior packing. In addition, a really nice but fragile brass artifact was damaged by the bullets.

     Boxes and envelope packs are both ok. Envelopes do pop open, however. Some shippers use staples and tape as well as the closure. But, I lost one shipment from England because some sly postal person carefully peeled the pack open. I got an invoice and receipt which were not quite the goods I wanted. Naturally, even with pictures of the pack and the items shipped, a postal investigation brought nothing, not even a note of no results.

     So, how to pack?  At minimum with large groups of objects bundle them and make several small packs of heavy items.  That seems to reduce the loose cannon effect. Especially with small groups, pack each item individually. One of the greatest relic people on eBay used to wrap each in a plastic wrap and tie the wrap with his data on a small tag. but Karl is no longer active.

     Some folks wrap each item in bubble wrap. Others hollow out holes in foam blocks. Just take care with the relics you send and the buyers will be happier. Oh, GLASS TOP CASES usually come through ok in my experience. However, the objects slide around like mad. A thin layer of foam sheet or thin bubble pack can sometimes be put in the case over the relics to help this. The smallest sizes of case present fewer problems this way.

  A shipment I received a few days ago recycled old coin wrap tubes to protect individual bullts. Twisted newspaper would be cheaper but not as tough, perhaps.

    Above all, THINK what you are shipping. I received a group of early battlefield pickups from an estate. An old man had kept them in a tobacco can. So, the seller gave them to a packing service. The bullets rattled like mad all the way from him to me, wearing their patina and damaging themselves. But the can was wrapped very carefulley.

     DIGGERS will be happier in the long run if they take care of the bullets they find. But some have found so many over the years they could not take care of them.

     Even fired bullets are worth treating gently. It is my eventual goal to alert people to how much can be learned from fired bullets. So, take care of them, too.

     Happy packing and unpacking. Cheerful comments and suggestions welcome. OH,  if anyone can figure out the happy medium between flimsy packing and MAKING IT IMPOSSIBLE TO GET TO THE ITEMS, broadcast it. One thing I sometimes do on internal tape inside a package is to fold down the tape end to give people a place to attack.