How to ship trading cards safely: sleeves, top loaders and mailers

A card that leaves your desk in perfect condition should arrive that way. Most damage in the post comes from the same few causes: cards bending, cards sliding around, corners catching, and water. Pack against those four and nearly every parcel arrives safely.

This guide covers the supplies, how to pack cards of different value, and the habits that save you from disputes.

The supplies

• Penny sleeves: thin, cheap plastic sleeves. Every card worth protecting goes in one first, so nothing touches the surface.
• Top loaders: rigid plastic holders for a sleeved card. They stop bending.
• Card savers: semi-rigid holders, often preferred for cards going to a grading company.
• Team bags: resealable bags that a top loader slides into, which keeps the card from slipping out of the top.
• Painter's tape: low-tack tape for closing a top loader or bundling cards. It peels off without leaving glue.
• Cardboard and bubble mailers: stiff card to sandwich the cards, and a padded mailer around the lot.

Packing a single valuable card

1. Put the card in a penny sleeve.
2. Slide the sleeved card into a top loader.
3. Close the top with a small strip of painter's tape, or put the top loader in a team bag.
4. Sandwich it between two pieces of cardboard a little larger than the top loader, and tape the cardboard together.
5. Put the sandwich in a bubble mailer. Fill empty space so it cannot slide.
6. Send it tracked.

Packing many cards

For a stack of commons, bulk or a whole order from a rip and ship stream:

• Put the stack in a bag or wrap it, so the cards stay together.
• Pack hits separately in sleeves and top loaders, as above.
• Use a small box or a stiff mailer for large stacks; a soft envelope bends.
• Label each buyer's bag with their name if you pack several orders at once.

Cheap letter or tracked parcel?

Many sellers send low-value cards as a plain letter, often called a PWE (plain white envelope), to keep shipping cheap. It works for cards where a loss is not a disaster, but there is no tracking and the envelope goes through sorting machines.

A rigid or lumpy letter can also cost more, or be refused as a standard letter, depending on your postal service. Check its size and thickness rules before you send top loaders by letter.

For anything valuable, use a tracked service, and consider insurance or signature on delivery for the best cards. Tracking is also what protects you if a buyer says a parcel never arrived.

Keep cards dry

A team bag or a plain plastic bag around the cards keeps out rain and damp. It costs almost nothing and saves a card from a wet letterbox.

Habits that prevent disputes

• Photograph valuable cards before packing them.
• Keep tracking numbers until the buyer confirms delivery.
• Ship on a fixed day and tell buyers which day that is.
• Message buyers when their parcel goes out.

For streamers: sort as you open

The easiest way to ship a stream's worth of orders correctly is to sort during the stream. Bag each buyer's cards with their name as soon as their opening ends. A visible order queue makes sure nobody is skipped, and the bags make shipping day a matter of packing, not sorting.