eBay Guides - How to properly package a sports card for safe shipment

Ive bought and sold tens of thousands of collectible sports cards in the past 10 years Ive been on ebay. One of the most important things Ive learned from experience is the proper way to package a card for shipment. Please read this review from top to bottom for an accurate guide to packing your sports cards for safe delivery.

Step 1 is to make sure you have the proper supplies.

What you will need for proper packing is the following.

#1 Soft Sleeves (Penny Sleeves) - They make regular size and thick size.
#2 Hard Sleeves or Magnetic Holder/1 Screw Holder Etc (Slider Cases and Snap Cases are not safe for shipping cards)
#3 The Proper Size Bubble Mailer (Yes there is a proper size mailer, and believe me when I say bigger is not better)
#4 Cardboard (The filler you get from most of today's product work AWESOME!)
#5 Scotch Tape or Painters Tape
#6 Packing Slip/Invoice (don't forget to let the person your sending the card to know who/where it came from)

Step #1: Make sure the card is in a soft sleeve and a hard sleeve. If the card is a thick card and you do not have the proper size sleeve, you can always sandwich it between two hard sleeves (I don't recommend this, but it is a far superior method then putting it in a dreaded snap case/slider case etc). They sell hard sleeves and penny sleeves to fit any thickness of card, even SWEET SPOT. If you don't know where to buy them, please feel free to contact me and I will point you in the right direction.

This is the worst... seeing a very expensive card showing up in a snip tight case.

Step #2: Insert the card (that is now safely stored in a hard sleeve) into a team bag. On each side of the card you can add a piece of cardboard. I use the fillers from my recent box breaks for this. If you don't have fillers you can use pieces of cardboard cut down to size, or some other rigid piece of material to keep the card from possibly being bent. This is for added safety, and trust me it helps.

Step #3: Once you have the card and its two buddies packed into the team bag you need to tape it shut to prevent the card from sliding out. You may think the adhesive on the team bag is enough, but the added tape is there to make sure. When taping the team bag shut, be sure to fold over a piece of the tape so that the two sticky sides are together, thus leaving a tab for the recipient to use to pull the tape open/off the package. (See picture below). Do not place tape directly on the hard sleeve, magnetic case, or screw down. Why cant you tape the hard sleeve directly? #1 because its nearly impossible to get scotch tape off of a hardsleeve or protective case. So this means that the tape must be cut, or ripped at the opening of the sleeve. This will leave a rough edge that can damage the card when you remove it from the sleeve. Also the tape (as stated above) is impossible to remove from the hard case with out leaving at the very lease a sticky residue, ruining the sleeve/case.

Step #4: Pack your little bundle of cardboard joy into a padded bubble mailer along with an invoice, or some sort of note to let the person on the receiving end know who the package came from, etc... (If its an eBay item, make sure the item #, your user id, your address, and your email address are also on the paper).

Step #5: Slap a label on it and let her fly!

Now to shed some light on the un-acceptable methods of shipment.

#1: Plain White Envelopes are never an acceptable method of shipment. I don't care what your mama say's, this is just plain WRONG!
#2: Snap cases RUIN CARDS...
#3: Cards in bigger envelopes move around to much, there for they are more likely to be damaged in transit.
#4: Never tape over the opening of the hard sleeve. This makes it nearly impossible to get the card out of the hard sleeve with out damaging the surface. Especially on bowman chrome, Topps chrome, etc.
#5: Priority Mail Cardboard Envelopes are not safe. You still need the padded bubble mailer inside of these.
#6: ALWAYS and I MEAN ALWAYS purchase delivery confirmation or signature confirmation. Even if your sending it to your best friend who lives only a mile away. I ship 99% of my cards with insurance, yes its expensive but it is worth the piece of mind knowing that if something happens and the package is lost I wont be shelling out the $$$ to replace the card.

I could go on a lot longer explaining all of the bad ways to ship a card, but I think you all get the idea here.