How to post a card so it actually arrives
Packing a card properly takes about ninety seconds and costs under twenty rand. Nearly every "it arrived damaged" argument in every group chat traces back to someone skipping it.
You sold the card. Good. Now the part nobody posts about. Getting it to someone else's postbox without it turning up bent, damp or in pieces.
It is not hard and it is not dear. It is just a thing nobody tells you until you get it wrong. Usually on a card you cared about.
The three layers
Every card that leaves your house needs three things around it. Not two. Not four and a roll of tape.
1. A penny sleeve
The soft clear sleeve. It goes on first, before anything hard. It stops the card rubbing on the stiff plastic, which is where most scratches come from.
Slide the card in from the side, not the top. Corners catch on the seam. A caught corner is the difference between the price you agreed and the price you end up taking.
2. A toploader
The hard bit that stops the card bending. A semi-rigid works too.
The card must not rattle inside it. If it moves, add a small folded piece of paper. A card sliding around for three days comes out with soft corners.
3. A rigid mailer
Not an envelope. Not a padded bag on its own. A stiff cardboard mailer or a small box.
Here is the test. Hold the finished parcel by one corner and try to bend it. If it bends, so will the sorting machine. If it does not, you are done.
It is almost never a big accident. It is a bare toploader in a bubble mailer, going through a machine that treats it like a letter.
Bubble wrap stops knocks. It does nothing about bending.
Four mistakes
- Taping the toploader shut across the top. Now the buyer has to cut the card out. Tape the side, or use a team bag.
- Writing the address on the mailer with a pen. You will press through. Use a label.
- Skipping the sleeve because it is already in a toploader. The toploader is the thing scratching it.
- Sending a R6,000 card like a R60 one. If losing it would ruin your week, pack it like it matters.
Damp catches people out
South African post is not waterproof. Neither is cardboard that sat in a depot overnight.
A sleeve inside a toploader is mostly fine. Add a team bag and it is fine full stop. They cost almost nothing. Use them on anything you would hate to lose.
How long you have
On Sleevr you set your own lead time and post inside it. Long enough to fit a normal week. Short enough that the buyer is not left guessing.
The parcel goes out tracked. The buyer gets the tracking number as soon as we do. So the "any update?" message never has to be sent.
Pack it properly and a damaged card is our problem to look at. Pack it badly and it is a dispute you will lose.
The short version
Sleeve. Toploader. Rigid mailer. Team bag if it is wet or the card is worth real money.
Do not let it rattle. Do not let it bend. Do not tape it shut.
Ninety seconds. Every time.