[Rathji]

I ship and receive trading cards out quite often, almost 4000 cards in the last 14 months. Most of them are shipped PWE with a top loader, but for larger orders I use a #000 Bubble mailer with a top loader.

Here are a couple sites with some tips on the shipping/packaging portion:

https://pucatrade.com/shipping

From http://www.magictraders.com/trading-tips

Relevant parts:

Be patient.

Sometimes the mail is fast, sometimes it’s slow. If the person you’re trading with is in another country, even Canada, expect the trade to take considerably longer. Don’t go crying “ripper!” if their cards didn’t arrive in a week, no one will listen to you. Also consider that some people also can’t afford to drop everything and go to the post office when your cards arrive. If you haven’t heard anything from the person you’re trading with a week after sending your cards, send them a polite e-mail messages asking if they got your cards, whether you received theirs or not. Remember, the cards you send are your responsibility until they reach the hands of the person you’re trading with, so make sure that they got to their destination.

Take steps to safely ship your cards.

Using a hard sleeve and a bubble mailer can go a long way to insuring that your cards get to their destination safely. The post office typically pays more attention to these type of packages, and they’ll actually honor the “Do Not Bend” markings. It only costs a dollar, on average, to send your cards like this. Look at it this way, the stamp you’d normally use + the price of a candy bar = great happiness for the person you’re trading with.

Things don’t get lost in the mail (at least in the U.S.).

Face it, it just doesn’t happen anymore. You could label a package with just a name and a zip code and it would still probably get to it’s destination. If someone tries to give you the excuse that the cards got lost in the mail, they’re probably full of it, plus, they are still responsible for making sure you get your cards. If you think something may have been lost, go to your local post office and have them do a trace on your package. If you want to be absolutely sure that your cards get to their destination, send them by certified mail and the person you’re trading with will have to sign for them when they arrive.

Ripping someone off is mail fraud.

This is another reason to save your e-mail messages. Any documented deal in which you agreed to send a certain item in exchange for another by mail, is under the jurisdiction of laws pertaining to mail fraud. If you don’t believe me, read Title 18, Section 1341 of the US Code. Those found guilty of mail fraud can be fined and sent to jail for up to 5 years. Contact your local postmaster if you seriously believe you’ve been ripped off, and he or she will tell you what you can do.

Finally, most people are honest.

Although there are some rippers out there, online trading wouldn’t exist if most people weren’t honest. If you just use some common sense and try to follow these guidelines, you should have many successful trades.