I have never traded cards before, so I'm wondering what kind of protective mail materials people recommend for shipping these.
I have card sleeves, but I was just going to stick it in a 3" x 5" thank you card in an envelope with a single postage stamp. Should I be packaging these in bubble mailers?
Pardon my ignorance.
I don't know about putting them in thank you cards, but using a plastic sleeve between a couple pieces of cardboard works just fine. You might need an extra stamp or two if you do that, though. Some people put cards in toploaders (harder plastic sleeves), but it's okay if you don't have any of those. Bubble mailers are definitely good, but regular envelopes are perfectly fine (at least for smaller trades).
If its 1-4 cards you can put 2 of them back to back in a single plastic toploader. What i do is put the cards in the thin penny sleeves, attach a sticky note bookend (you can buy these for like 300 at the dollar store) and then that goes in the toploader. That will fit inside of a simple thank you card and can go through regular postal mail (be careful about putting too many in an envelope; 4 is the sweet spot i think and you may need 2 or more stamps on it, or take it into your local post office)
And more than that/if you want more secure tracking to follow the package along and you'll want to put it in a small bubble mailer. What i do is get a 5x7" size one, and then put the cards in top loaders together and put them in between two pieces of sturdy cardboard (you can recycle existing cardboard boxes by cutting the pieces down!), taping that up and then putting the cardboard and cards into the bubble mailer.
I typically use penny sleeves and top loaders and tape them to the inside of a thank you card as well. But going to the post office and asking for non-machine processing can really help. It's not that much extra, maybe 25 cents. I've received some trades where the envelope was torn open, most likely by a sorting machine and this can lead to cards getting lost in the mail. Another thing I've been trying to standardize across all my trades is simply putting the cards in a ziploc after putting them in a top loader and putting them in the card like that to prevent water damage.
But that's just from my experience. If you are doing bigger trades, perhaps bubble mailers could work better.
Hi I’ve done a couple of trades and I’ve never had any issues. I always mail them out in small 3 5/8 in x 6 1/2. They are a bit smaller than the standard ones.
Inside the envelope, I usually use a thank you folded postcard , or make my own postcard with hard construction paper. Inside the postcard, I make a smaller envelope for the card. Inside the small envelope, I place the card inside a penny sleeve or a top load card holder. Then once I have that ready, and the envelope is prepared with the address, I always use scotch tape and wrap it all around once diagonally and once vertically. This will protect the envelope from being broken or having anything falling out.
The hard construction paper and the extra envelope is for extra protection from bending. The size of the envelope helps also, because it helps keep the cost down on the stamps.
I mail these out using a forever stamp, and they have always been within the weight limit.
For smaller trades, I place the cards in a penny sleeve and toploader and mail them in a thank you note and envelope with regular postage (1 stamp for 1 oz, 2 stamps for up to 3 oz), and for large trades, I place each card in a penny sleeve and toploader and bind the stack together on all 4 sides with a piece of painting or masking tape (keeps them more stable/protected all together and prevents any cards from slipping out of the toploader) and mail them in a bubble mailer. As someone else commented, cards can be shipped in between some cardboard in a regular envelope and it’s just as protected as a toploader.
