Strangest/worst packaging you've ever seen?

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cygnusx1

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I'm curious to hear everyone's stories regarding fellow traders/sellers "unique" ways of packaging cards that you've experienced over the years.

The reason I ask is because I just recently got a very nice lot of cards that I paid a decent amount for (10 cards for about $250), and an individual card was wrapped in Saran wrap. It didn't have a soft sleeve, but was wrapped up and placed in a top loader. A few others were in Saran wrap as well but at least had the sleeve to keep the card somewhat protected. Needless to say, there were a few tense moments as I tried to be as gentle as possible, and fortunately all cards made it out unscathed.

I also found it funny that the most poorly packaged card was a Jagr, but in the same package I got a Heatley card in a magnetic case lol
 
Not quite the same story but i had a guy ship me $22 in pennies and nickel for an eBay shipment back in the day.
 
I had a card that came from the Czech Republic about 15 years ago. It was wrapped in very thick wax paper and bound with twine. When i received it i was able to slip off the twine while it was still tied (with a bow mind you). The card was still in the "envelope" i couldnt believe it. It was about 100USD

Pacman
 
In a plastic ziploc bag. No soft sleeve, no top loader, just the card loose in the ziploc bag. No, the bag wasn't wrapped around itself to ensure the card didn't bounce around either.

I can't remember the cost of the card as it was a while ago but I do remember that the seller charged $4.50 for shipping.

A ziploc bag!!!
 
i Also forgot this one, plain white envelope sleeve and toploaders (2 cards)no tape, cards facing each other. Dryden rookie and dryden future trends auto card. that was from the US to Canada, fun times

Pacman
 
I feel like I've seen it all at this point, especially this calendar year (likely more newbies in the hobby), but there's been some absolute doozies. Three in particular stand out to me.

1) A stack of cards literally wrapped in a sheet of paper and then put into the bubble mailer, that's it. You can likely guess that the cards all had some sort of damage to them, even if minor. When I complained, he told me I should have paid more for a better packaging job.
2) Instead of using a bubble mailer or any other kind of envelope, the guy took a sheet of bubble wrap, folded it in half to hold the card, and then glued it closed, almost creating a vacuum seal in the process very tight to the edge of the top loader. I had to use scissors to get into it and cut into the top loader in the process. Luckily, it was the very top edge of the top loader, so the card was not damaged, but geez...could have been a disaster.
3) A guy was adamant that using penny sleeves damages cards, so he refused to use them. He also told me (and later showed me) that he keeps his cards in his kitchen cabinets. To top it off, he used rubber bands to "seal" the top loaders. Luckily, all cards were fine.

I have also received quite a few packages with beyond excessive taping jobs...like half a roll of tape. Not only does it annoy me to spend 5-10 minutes opening a package, it costs the sender so much more than it should if you're using 10x the amount of tape you need to (and I generally use more tape than most people do).
 
99goals said:
Not quite the same story but i had a guy ship me $22 in pennies and nickel for an eBay shipment back in the day.
Click to expand...

Mailed payments were the worst. I had a dude ship me $100 in inserts to pay for an ebay sale. No clue why it came to me and then he follows up with a message saying "I paid with insert cards, can you send me the tracking for my item?". He got a "return to sender" with his cards, left a neg for me, I had ebay remove it and cancelled the sale.

Answering the OPs question, I had someone send me a card in wrapped in foil and in a freezer bag stuffed with paper towel. Card came with no damage and now that's how I ship my cards to people.
 
Triple B said:
Mailed payments were the worst. I had a dude ship me $100 in inserts to pay for an ebay sale. No clue why it came to me and then he follows up with a message saying "I paid with insert cards, can you send me the tracking for my item?". He got a "return to sender" with his cards, left a neg for me, I had ebay remove it and cancelled the sale.

Answering the OPs question, I had someone send me a card in wrapped in foil and in a freezer bag stuffed with paper towel. Card came with no damage and now that's how I ship my cards to people.
Click to expand...

I have seen the standard PWE cards, cards shipped with no top loader between two pieces of card board, thin point cards placed in extra thick top loaders with no sleeve, etc.

Not exactly a bad packaging error per se, but I recently purchased a $200 plus PC card plus $20 expedited shipping from a newer seller in Canada. All was good, well packaged, etc until I opened it and out came a Panini Basketball card. Went on his sales page and saw he sold that one the same day to another person. Come to find out that not only did he ship the wrong card to me, he shipped all three cards he sent out that day to the wrong buyers....now we are playing a game of musical chairs to get the cards to their rightful owners.
 
I had a new one the past week or so. Won a Lemieux/Malkin SPX patch /15 from a somewhat local guy (same state). Paid $4.50 shipping and I get a note in my box that I owe them $2.75 for the package! Well I went back and forth on whether or not to pay or not, but finally gave in. My thinking was the guy wanted me to refuse it so he could cancel the sale and hope for a better price. Well it turns out he sent the card in a thick magnetic holder via a PWE. Needless to say that was no bueno. He did refund me the extra but wow, not even sure how you think that will work.
 
I pack my stuff in sandwich bags, but always with top loaders, decoys, tape or elastic bands to keep everything together. amazing how ignorant some people still are. my worst packaging story was having someone send one card in a big bubble mailer. it was one of those over sized ones used for maybe a magazine or something. well, stupid me cut the card by accident when opening the package. long story short. the guy got so scared of getting an negative feedback on ebay that he refunded me the $10 for the card...
 
I don't have any crazy stories like these, but I'll often get a card in a bubble mailer that is completely wrapped with packing tape. Scotch tape is a pain, but this stuff is the worst for cards. I often have to break out my pocket knife and pretend like I'm performing a delicate surgery to extract the card with no damage. The toploader it comes in is completely useless. And yes, this post was motivated by having this very experience just 5 minutes ago, on a Gordie Howe auto, no less.
 
A small business envelope (no bubbles), with the card in a penny sleeve, with no toploader
in one layer of bubble wrap loosely wrapped and taped around it. The card did arrive surprisingly well. The seller claimed they had been out of the hobby for a while, and thanked me for my feedback.
 
I never did understand why people overdo it with tape. If the card is properly packaged in a team bag or something similar chances are even if the card comes out of the toploader, it will be fine. If not, one piece of tape on top of the toploader is more than enough. I only use it to seal decoys and the sandwich bags I use.
 
I had a guy ship a 180pt patch card from Canada in just a penny sleeve and in plain white legal sized envelope. How it got to me unscathed was a miracle. I was angry, but also relieved that the card was OK.

I did email him and say "WTF, man? Don't ever do that again for a card...any card."

He said he wanted to send it cheapest way. Ahhhh, not when I pay you $15 for shipping! I want protection of the card as well! :mad:

--Curt
 
Always chuckle at how ridiculous some people are!

I’ve been lucky so far (knock on wood), nothing too crazy. Have had a couple instances where the sender didn’t tape the top loader, and the card fell completely out. Again, lucky there hasn’t been a damaged one.
 
2006...Plain white envelope with card in a penny sleeve. Envelope was taped with a ton of packing tape to almost make the envelope itself a kind of top loader. So odd, but card survived fortunately.. It came from a southern state. I believe Texas. The card was the Getzlaf/Staal rookie update dual auto.
 

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