BEFORE I BEGIN: I am currently working on my "What I Collect" post for Night Owl's Blog Bat Around. It's taking me a bit longer than I anticipated (because my dissertation is ruining my life, as I have mentioned previously). I promise it will be published this week! Now, on to today's regularly-scheduled post...
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I'm really growing to love the Trading Card Database. It is a fountain of cardboard information and even facilitates trading with new people. This is great...until it isn't.
I recently completed a trade with a user that would net me the Adrian Beltre Players Weekend manufactured patch. I know, just last week I complained about these cards. Still, this is a card featuring a Ranger and I collect cards featuring Rangers, so you do the math. Full disclosure: I sent only four insert cards to the other person (who proposed the trade), so this "problem" wasn't a big deal.
Fast forward to the day that I received the card. The other person sent the card in a PWE. Not a problem, but it is a relative thick card. So long as he put it in a toploader, the card should have made its way to me safe.
But it didn't.
Turns out that the other trader doesn't really care about packaging, as he just threw the card in a team bag and then an envelope. No penny sleeve, no toploader. When it arrived, it had a vertical crease down the middle.
The crease isn't visible in the scan, but it's there.
This really bothered me. It still does. However, I decided not to say anything about it to the other trader. I felt that the card was essentially free so I shouldn't complain. Now I'm kicking myself because it is definitely outside of the acceptable timeframe to complain.
Still, it's a violation of basic common sense that anything sent in a PWE will go through an automated sorter, meaning that extra thick cards are at serious risk for damage. I wonder if he even felt the slightest built guilty when he received the bubble mailer from me that had each card in a penny sleeve and top loader. Doubtful.
Am I making too much of this?
Still, it's a violation of basic common sense that anything sent in a PWE will go through an automated sorter, meaning that extra thick cards are at serious risk for damage. I wonder if he even felt the slightest built guilty when he received the bubble mailer from me that had each card in a penny sleeve and top loader. Doubtful.
Am I making too much of this?
No, you're not. I've contemplated another one of my "Cardboard OCD" posts about packaging, but I figured with pull tab awareness, and so many other trade posts etc. that everyone would already know how to pack correctly, but maybe not...
ReplyDeleteTouch break on the card. That sounds just plain stupid and lazy.
ReplyDeleteI have never sent a PWE. I always use a padded envelope. Costs a little more, but that added protection is worth it.
Oof. A card that think in a PWE definitely spells disaster.
ReplyDeleteThat sucks. You would think a collector who takes the time to set up a TCDB account would know better.
ReplyDeleteThat's a bummer to hear. Usually most traders on TCDB have more sense than that. Even though the card was free, you still had to give up something in return. If it's only been a week, it's totally within the acceptable time frame to complain. Also, leaving reviews on traders is a helpful way to alert other members who might suffer your same fate.
ReplyDeleteMan, the most laborious part about sending out trade packages is the packaging of the cards... I don't like it, but I know I wouldn't want to receive dinged or creased cards so I do my best.
ReplyDeleteIt's a shame we're not all on the same page by now.
This is one of the reasons why I won't sign up with the TCDB, no matter how many of the other bloggers do. I've heard of this kind of careless shipping being used by that sites members quite a few times now. It was, and is, unacceptable for that person to have shipped a card like this, from what I've heard though, you don't really have any sort of recourse... meanwhile, this person will continue to ship things like this, and nobody will do anything about it.
ReplyDeleteBummer. That totally sucks. The idea of sending a card without any real protection in a PWE is just stupid. I dealt with a PWE issue myself last week, so I'm even more annoyed than usual.
ReplyDeleteLike Base Card Hero, I've never sent a PWE either. Even though sending a padded envelope does cost more, I just feel better knowing I've maximized the chances of cards arriving safely.
ReplyDeleteI send PWEs for some trades and have never had complaints. However, anything that's thicker like that, it's unacceptable to send that way. Can you send me a PM on there and let me know who it was? I really don't want to make a trade with someone so reckless.
ReplyDelete