General Forum

I know we've covered this indirectly in the forums as part of a larger discussion about postal costs/delivery/etc., but I'd love to hear any specific thoughts about paying the non-machinable surcharge when you mail a PWE.

With a PWE, I pay for non-machinable when I used a standard-sized, rectangular envelope. I want to do what I can to make sure the cards arrive safely and in the same condition I sent them.

But, when I started trading in early 2021, a first-class stamp was 55 cents, with 20 cents for each additional ounce, and non-machineable was an extra 20 cents. As many of you know, it's now 68 cents, plus 24 cents for each additional ounce, and non-machinable is now 44 cents. A two-ounce PWE with non-machinable (typical for a trade I send out) has gone from 95 cents to $1.36. As I'm now budgeting more carefully for my card spending, I'm considering dropping non-machinable.

Do you folks think non-machineable makes any difference? Is it worth it? Do any of you regularly buy non-machinable? When I get PWE trades sent to me, many of them are not non-machinable, and the cards are usually just fine. If there is any damage at all to any card (which is very rare), it seems to be from inferior packaging rather than how the post office handled it. All opinions are welcome, pro or con.

I've read in several forum posts on this site that quite often, even if you pay that non-machinable surcharge, they just run it through the machines anyway.  Many of these posts from people who claim to work for, or know people who work at such mail facilities.

Speaking as a card trader located in Canada, where I am not aware of any sort of non-machinable option, I have done over 300 trades including as far away as Australia - and have never had a complaint about the cards arriving at their destination damaged.  I would say that proper packaging of cards goes a long way.

Hope that helps.

I haven't used the non-machineable surchage in a couple years, and haven't received any negative feedback about it. As you initially mentioned, it doesn't seem to guarantee it won't go through the machines. And as thirstydeer points out, proper packaging is probably most important.

I don't pay for non-machine either.  I either put think cardboard in or lately have been using the print sheet with a thicker 9-slot page.  I try to limit that because with packaged shipping being so much cheaper now - roughly 3.86 to ship a 3 ounce package, which is usually 45 cards - I try to keep at a max if 18 in an envelope or go big.

As stated above, I firmly believe that envelopes stamped Non-Machinable with the extra postage paid, still get machined. I see them in the daily emails I get so I know for a fact they have been machined. That being said, most of my PWE transactions are over one ounce. The Non-Machinable postage I believe covers the extra ounce as well. So I futilely write Non-Machinable and stamp 95% of my PWE trades. The smallest one or two card transactions are the only one I single stamp. All that being said, I have had envelopes destroyed that were marked and stamped appropriately and I didn’t have duplicate cards to replace the ones lost. 

I agree with the consensus here that non machinable probably makes no difference.  Since I started using kraft envelopes and 9 pocket pages folded I've had no issues.  This allows the package to be flexible and not too thick to be caught in any machines and also makes packaging quick and opening of the item quick as well.

I have been paying for the non-machinable stamp for most of my trades.  I do believe that they get machined in route. another aspect is they seem to take much longer to deliver.  I know all snail mail is going slow recently, but I have had multiple PWEs take 3 weeks or better to deliver.

I will echo many of the comments all envelopes will get run through the machine regardless of what postage is put on the envelope or what you stamp or write on it.  The issue comes when it can't go through the machine and gets kicked out for review.  That's when you might get it sent back for additional postage.  It really comes down to the flexibility of the envelope on whether or not it'll make it through the sorting machine.  If you think it's too stiff it might be worth the additional postage to not have it sent back, but sometimes you can roll the dice to save the postage.  One other thing to watch out for is thickness, if the envelope is over 1/4 inch thick USPS might try to upcharge you to a package rate.  

depending on the number of cards (and never with mem cards) I use one of two methods. For 5 or more cards I used a 9 pocket page and cereal box cardboard in a legal size envelope with 1 stamp and an extra ounce stamp no non machine. For 4 or less cards I  use penny sleeves a card saver style top loader and a greeting card with 1 stamp. I quit using non machinable as it makes no difference as somewhere along the line it will go through a sorting machine. For a trade that involves mem cards thicker cards and higher value cards I always use a bubble mailer and pay package rates.

In my years here, I have never paid for non machinable. PWEs have always consisted of 9 page with cereal box. I cant recall the member, but I do remember them stating that they ceased using cereal box as well, with no issue.