How many of you have ever received a comic that was simply dropped in a brown envelope?  How many of you have shipped a comic by simply dropping it an envelope?  Shame on you!!  If you buy comics very often on eBay it will be no time before you have this experience.  Only a week ago I bought a comic published in 1946 that came in a brown envelope with Saran wrap around it and a three inch diameter chunk of Styrofoam.  More damage was done to the book in a span of three days than it had experienced in the past 62 years.  Very sad.

I have shipped and received thousands of comics and I believe there are some basic principles you can follow that will assure you that 99.9% of the time your comic will arrive safely to your intended recipient.  I have two goals when shipping:  1) provide a protective environment for the comics so they suffer no damage during shipment and 2) make the method low cost to the buyer.  Because no one wants to pay huge shipping expenses (especially when buying lower cost comics of less than $1 each) and they also don’t want to get damaged comics, balancing these two competing criteria is key. 

The MAIN THING TO CONSIDER when packaging comics is to MAKE SURE THERE IS NO ROOM FOR THE BOOKS TO MOVE within the package.  Movement = Damage when shipping.

Raw Comics
For 1-10 raw (i.e., non-professionally graded and slabbed), standard-sized comics, I have found the procedures below work well.  Comics packaged in this fashion can be shipped media mail if applicable, first class mail, parcel post, or priority mail.  Using the procedure below you can ship 2-3 comics and still use first class mail which can save your buyer some $ over prioity mail and still get there quick!

1. Place comic(s) in protective plastic bag and backing board.
2. Wrap with newspaper or similar.  My main purpose for doing this is to keep any tape from sticking to the comic bag and also to provide some small level of protection for the next step.
3. Cut two oversize cardboard pieces and sandwich comics in between. 
   a.) At least one piece of the cardboard should be double-wall especially if you are only mailing one comic out.
   b.) Tape all four edges using packing tape (scotch tape will not hold the boards together, especially if it’s cold).  You want to apply enough pressure on the comics to keep them from sliding around between the two boards but not enough to squish and actually damage them. 
   c.) The newspaper wrap will help keep the books from sliding around in between the cardboard.

For 10-20 comics, follow the steps above except instead of using an envelope, the most economical packaging will be a corrugated mailer as shown in the photo.  These can fit different sized stacks of books.  I think it’s still important to sandwich between cardboard even when using this box but it's not as critical as when using an envelope.  These boxes have flexible sizes and you can bend the flaps to package different numbers of comics securely and are also relatively inexpensive if you buy from a large supplier like packagingsupplies.com or uline. 

For 20+ comics, a Priority Mail flat rate box works great or one of a similar size.  At this point, you can choose to sandwich the comics between cardboard or not depending on how comfortable you feel with the rigidity of the box. 

CGC/PGX Graded Comics
Essentially follow the same guidelines as above.  The primary concern when packaging CGC books for shipping is the integrity of the plastic case.  If you have handled many of these, you realize that the integrity is not very high.  The greatest risk to these books is a broadside impact or any kind of torsion which can easily crack the case.  The best method I have found for shipping these books (again, based on my shipping methods and from receipt of major dealers in these types of books) is as follows:

1. Wrap with newspaper or place in a protective plastic sleeve to prevent scratches to the plastic.
2. Place in a bubble envelope or wrap with a single layer of bubble wrap.
3. Sandwich semi-tightly between two slightly oversized (about ½” on all sides) pieces of cardboard.
4. Wrap again with bubble wrap or protective shipping material.
5. Place inside a box (large Priority Mail or UPS boxes work well) and cushion with packing peanuts, paper, bubble wrap, or other cushioning material.
6. Seal it up and confidently ship it out.

I hope you have found this info helpful and realize there is no reason to have to break the bank to ship comics safely and securely.  Remember to have fun with your collecting!!!!