How To Ship Ball Cards

How To Ship Ball Cards. I have been buying and selling baseball cards pretty heavily over the past couple of years. When I was a kid, I was a big collector well into my high school days, but after almost 25 years, I found an interest in it again. This post is about the proper way how to ship ball cards via the postal service. 

There are two main methods on how to ship ball cards, 1) in a bubble mailer and 2) in an envelope. In this post, I will detail how I ship in both scenarios. 

Bubble Mailer method: What Do You Need?

1. A Scale – to weigh your shipment which will help determine the cost when you print your shipping label.
2. Scotch or 3M clear packaging tape – to tape your printed shipping label. I buy in bulk and use these.
3. I use Paypal –  Paypal is probably the most widely used peer to peer online payment companies. I also create my shipping labels through PayPal, at paypal.com/shipnow. PayPal is great if you sell something via Facebook, or another means outside of eBay. Now that eBay manages all the payment processing, having PayPal isn’t necessarily a necessity for eBay sales.
4. Bubble Mailers – I recommend 4”x8” or “6×10” bubble mailers from Amazon.  
5. Blue Painters tape – Yes! DO NOT USE SCOTCH TAPE! The painter’s tape is easy to peel off of the toploader. Scotch Tape is a pain in the butt! Seal the top loader shut with a small piece of painters tape. Don’t go with the wide painters tape… go with painters tape that are under an inch wide.
6. Two Pieces of Cardboard –  Cut them into 3”x4” pieces, or whatever size you need. Graded cards need to be larger than those cut for toploaders.
7. Toploaders and Sleeves – for protecting the card, pretty simple actually. Put the Card in the sleeve and then put the sleeve in the toploader. Don’t forget to seal the toploader shut with painter tape… You dont want to the card to fall out during transit!

Bubble Mailer: What to do?

1. Put the card in the sleeve and toploader and tape close with the blue painter’s tape.
2. Take your two cardboard pieces and put the card in the middle of the two pieces then tape the pieces together so the card is securely in the middle. The cardboard serves as an extra layer of protection for the card. 
3. Take the cardboard with the card securely protected and place it in the bubble mailer.
4. Weigh the bubble mailer with the card in it.
5. Log onto Paypal.com/shipnow and print your shipping label. Or use Pirate Ship! Pirate??? Ship??? YES. An awesome service that gives deep discounts on shipping!
6. Use the clear packaging tape to the shipping label, but be careful not to cover the barcode! 
7. I typically take it and hand-deliver it to my local post office, see them scan it, and then I get a receipt showing that it’s in their possession. 
8. Email the tracking number to your customer.
9. If you notice that your volume is increasing… consider getting a thermal printer! Such a life changer! I didn’t splurge and get an expensive thermal printer. There are brands like Rollo, and Zebra. All work well, make sure you read the tech specs on the printers, you want to make sure you can find one compatible with your computer.

How To Ship Ball Cards – The PWE method. Plain White Envelope Method.

Some people will disagree with me on how to ship ball cards. I don’t like shipping in plain white envelopes. Some people put the card in a toploader, tape it closed, and put it in a plain white envelope, address it and put it in the mailbox and be done with it and wish for the best. While shipping this way, may work, I personally do not like doing this, there is no tracking and if it doesn’t get delivered there is nothing you can do. However, some cards are sold fairly cheap and it’s not feasible to charge for the bubble mailer shipping method. So there are times when it’s necessary to ship in an envelope, but you just need to realize there are some risks with doing it this way. 

When shipping by using an envelope, I make sure I only use plain cardstock cards. I typically get them from Michaels, but you can get them from eBay as well. The heavy cardstock card can still protect the card. Put the card in a sleeve put in a toploader, taped closed, inside the cardstock card, is still under an ounce therefore you can still use only one stamp. 

This is how I ship my cards. How do you ship your ball cards? I welcome your feedback! 

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