For the first time in a long time, I had a bit of a casualty when it comes to receiving cards by PWE. Happily did a trade with TCDB member Dmbramer, and through no fault of their own, a few of the cards came with obvious mail bending damage.
Now, being Jays cards, I will still keep them - I tried bending them back a bit, but not perfect - but will leave them still on my "wants" list so I can get better copies.
If interested, as you can't necessarily tell from the scans, it's the top row of cards...
Other than that sad outcome, really happy with the cards otherwise as I am always good to get a few more 1982 Topps additions for the slow set build, and the bottom row of Jays cards is great too - especially the Cavan - really like the design.
Anyway, I think I have had maybe 2 mail casualties over the course of 7 years of trading - what's your mail damage score like, and do you avoid PWEs, or just figure it's a potential cost on saving a lot of money doing PWEs for trading?
Bending is usually done at the last mile post office when the carrier prepares his/her route. Mail items are received in plastic bins and they needed to be sorted in the proper order (the second part of the postal code) the carrier will walk his/her route. Some carriers will try to bend larger items to fit their tiny sort slots. The other time is they bend mail to carry it more easily in their hands instead of using their bags 'til destination or if your mailbox is too small.
ReplyDeleteMakes sense - not great, but can see how it can happen on occasion.
DeleteIn all my years trading through the mail I can probably count on my available fingers the number of times I've received damaged card mail, which is very good, and it's even better because the actual cards have been damaged maybe only once or twice.
ReplyDeleteI know there is the odd horror story of mangled and destroyed cards, but experience does seem to show it is very rare for anything to happen to actually get damaged cards, which is why I'll keep up with PWEs - it's just not worth the extra cost to protect 100% of the cards, versus 99%, when the values are what they are. I'm not one to be trading hundred dollar cards to begin with...
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