General Forum

I was told by my PO, by 3 different clerks over the years, that PWE's marked "non-machinable" or "international" should never go through the sorting machine.  They seperate them from regular envelopes when they take them.  Even my post lady seperates them when she picks up.  So, based on that, if a PWE is "MARKED PROPERLY" then it should never hit the conveyor belt for sorting.  That's why you pay the additional charge, because it's suppose to be hand-sorted.  I was also told that putting "DO NOT BEND" on the envelope doesn't keep it off the belt, "NON-MACHINABLE" does, "do not bend" is mainly for the carrier.  I've always put "non-machinable" since I started shipping orders on Sportlots in 2005 and never had an issue with them being damaged.  Just recently, I have received 3 PWE's that were marked "Do Not Bend" that were damaged, one arriving in the USPS plastic bag.  One had not paid the surcharge, but was obviously too thick for the machine. Fortunately, only 2 damaged cards. I've probably shipped over half my trades here, "non-machinable" and no issuses reported.  If I use the cut ultra pro sheets with thin cardboard, I write "non-machinable" on left side of envelope, and "Do Not Bend"  along the bottom.  In Bruno's case, I think the PO messed up.

With continued price increase, there will be more PWE trades,  so I hope everyone finds out from their local PO what works best.  There doesn't seem to be consistency in the system.  A small PO about 8 miles from my PO wanted to charge the bubble mailer rate 3.78 on a PWE, because it was over 1 ounce.  I told her about  shipping "non-machinable" with surcharge, but she said the envelope was too thick for machines.  I tried to explain what "non-machinable" meant, but she insisted that it was a parcel.  I asked for a 3 ounce stamp, .85 cents, put it on the envelope, and mailed it from my home.  I keep a good supply of the 2 and 3 ounce stamps, but had run out.   Not sure that training is consistent.

BobbyL

To be fair, using a bubble mailer does not guarantee a proper shipping method either. I once got two 1948 Bowmans that were wrapped in bubble wrap, taped shut, and had more bubble wrap inserted into the mailer. The cards were not in a toploader or even a penny sleeve, I consider it a small miracle that they arrived undamaged. I've also gotten a bubble mailer and several boxes where the cards were just loose in the box, with no protection or even padding, nothing to protect them from flopping around inside the box and taking damage, which they did. 

I've also gotten mail addressed to Ben Kingsley and also with my address totally mangled, including spelling my towns name wrong and a zip code that started with 53, when my actual zip starts with 12. The one addressed to Ben was actually from a Database member, I laughed when I saw that one. 

Gentlemen, let's keep things civil here.  I think there are two entirely different arguments going on here. While I do agree with Billy's points about care in shipping, I dont think they apply to Bruno's original complaint.  Bruno complained about three separate occurrences. Two involved how long it took a package to get somewhere, and the other was about a package somebody mailed to him.  While the sender may have been at fault, Bruno was NOT the sender.  Billy, maybe your eyes focused on those three letters PWE and clouded you judgment.  I would back your points wholeheartedly in a thread about "why did the envelope I sent get damaged?" but this isn't that thread.

I'm with switzr. Let's keep it civil. It could be time to let this thread and these arguments die and slowly move down the list of posts, and maybe start a nice argument about whether Update sets should be considered part of the base set. Or maybe something about how we enter prices here....?

v3

As is customary I logged on this a.m. before 7:00 and upon seeing the forum post by sandyrusty I immediately knew where this would likely be heading. Billy got me started here a little over a year ago when I reached out to him in an attempt to negotiate my very first trade as that was the reason in the first place for joining. In what now appears as ironical during my several conversations with Billy, it was Bruno who actually contacted me and we sucessfully completed my first onsite transaction as all the while "in the background" Billy and I carried on and did complete that "other first" trade a few weeks later. There has been lots of water under the bridge, so to speak, since that time and so it was shall I say "troubling" to see my two brethern getting "personal". Anyway hopefully as switzr1 and v3 stated of late, let's maybe take a deep breath and exhale. Didn't really mean to ramble on but sometimes the head (and heart) makes one do these things.

I have a trade from Phila to Texas.  I guess it is on spring break because it went to the  SAN JUAN PR DISTRIBUTION CENTER It has gone farther south then it is to Texas I think.   I messaged trader to let him know 

I do not know who fault this is because I might of messed up[ zip code and entered one for San Juan

One of the reason I put receivers address inside package too, where they can see it.   There is a form somewhere where you can list what went missing and if they have it you can get them if they believe what they have is yours.

I was told by neice that  DO NOT MACHINE is better if dropped off with the window clerk at post office not,   given to carrier or in a mail box outside post office,  as they go in a separate tote 

Bruno in this corner wearing red shorts with silver trim vs. Billy in this corner wearing blue shorts with gold trim. LET's GET READY TO RUMBLE.

Seriously, it just doesn't help to argue here, BELIEVE ME, I'm one that has a sufficient amount of experience arguing in what I believe in here. Who gets the last word? True, drop the debate, apologize or not, end the threads and it will quietly disappear with the other posts in time .

Billy you're completely off base on this one. It was a large package, its 243 cards. It cost  $16 to mail. No cutting corners on it. It came back with road rash and ripped and a bunch of stickers on it. Even my return address sticker was ripped and unreliable. A few cards did get bent but I have replacements for them. It really looks like it fell off a moving truck when you look at it closely.  Tomorrow, Monday the 17th. It will be mailed for a 2ed attempt and I'll be clicking on the tracker twice a day for this one.

 What bugged me was the week of emails to confirm it's was my package, on top of 3 months of not knowing what happened to it. I did get, a little short with the girl in the emails but after 3 months of where the hell is it?!? then We found it, then they did not have it, then they did have it. Was pushing my buttons. Having one get lost and bashed up Is bound to happen to one of use. We all mail a lot and most all the time are fine when reserving. It's that thing. Who was the guy that came in 2ed in the Olympic? We only remember the ones that stand out and for us here it's the ones that don't go well, that stand out.