How to ship a fairly large quantiy of cards?

[jazzykat]

I am constantly on the go but am in a place where I would like the bulk of my magic collection to follow me. Most of the cards are already put in boxes from 300 to 800 count. They are all in one spot and easy to get too. There aren't too many cards left that cost more than $20 but I have a ton of playable legacy cards $5-$15 and a few boxes of packs, along with a lot of cards that I just like.

The catch is that, I do not have access to them. My mother does and she is a little haphazard and forgetful when it comes to things. My questions are:

1. What are the best way to pack your cards? I assume in the playing card boxes and then into a larger box.
2. Is it wise to pack cards that have been sleeved into card storage boxes or should I remove them from the sleeve?
3. Do the cards get clinked or the edges scratched from slopping around in the boxes?
4. What major shipping company is best for insuring collectible cards?
5. What should I put in the large box....packing peanuts or something to cushion the individual storage boxes?

I am thinking to either have my mother pack them or my little brother (and I would pay him). I don't want to pay a professional packer and really don't think one is necessary.

What have you guys done in the past? Should I wait to pack them myself or are cards a bit more resilient in shipping then I give them credit for?

Thanks and lets hope I sit my butt down and play a little legacy in this new part of the world (No one plays T1 here except one guy and I am questioning his ability to actually play).

Cheers,
JK

[BigMac]

I have no idea about the actual shipping so i will not go into that.

When you desleeve your cards however they may get damaged in boxes. Corners and sides may suffer scratch damage and such. On the other side, when they are in a sturdy box and not free to move that should minimize the danger for damage.

To cushen the cards you need nothing. When they are in a sturdy box and the box is fully filled, and you put another box surrounding that i think that would be enough to give it enough sturdyness. Next to that put a stamp fragile on it so people will treat it with respect.

Hope it all works out for you.

[Limbo]

What kind of travel-distance is needed for the cards to reach you? Train, plane or automobile?

Not to scare you, but at my work they sometimes send relative fragile stuff by plane with all the "fragile" stamps possible on it and it still arrives broken, so be careful with your decision.

[jazzykat]

The distance is across the US from NY to NM via some parcel service (UPS, FedEx, USPS, etc.). I guess I can have cards that are sleeved be put into binders and shipped separately. Thanks for the info guys, my mother may fly out to visit me as well so that might be worth it.

[skirge5]

New Mexico is horrid for shipping anything to. Dunno why, but at least up in the north, it is like the mail has to travel through customs or a portion of purgatory.

[froz3nn]

can you put them it binders, put the binder in a bigger brown box, with perhaps some bubble wrap around the binder or packing peanuts(dont really thing either is necissary) and ship that?

[jazzykat]

Well I could put them in binders but that would be many, many, many binders. I think there is about 10,000 cards to ship. That is a lot to ask my brother to move. But I do want to get a better handle on things.

Thanks for the info guys. I am still debating. Right now I am just buying all the cards I need on Ebay for my legacy deck and maybe have a binder shipped out. Hopefully, I will go home and get the jank together and get it into boxes.

[jro]

When I have shipped large amounts of cards, here's what I do:  First, I get a standard long box, or whatever size best suits how many cards you're sending.  Then I cut a piece of bubble wrap to the long side of the box, and wide enough to cover the front, bottom, back, and top.  I open the box and run a piece of shipping tape along the front edge, sticking halfway above the box (with the sticky side facing toward the box interior).  I attach the long edge of the bubble wrap to the exposed tape such that the bubbles go along the outside of the box and the flat side faces inward.  I then tuck the bubble wrap in the box to line the front, bottom and back.  Then I pack the cards in.  They'll fit snugly due to the room taken up by the bubble wrap.  (You may want to pack the edges of the boxes with basic lands, since that's the most likely place for damage to occur.)  When the box is full, I fold the wrap over top and tape it down.  Then I close the long box and tape it shut.  I can then pack multiple long boxes inside of bigger boxes, using newspaper (or whatever) for filler.  I've sent lots of cards to dealers this way (both bulk commons and lots of ~500 cards worth ~$500), and have never had a problem with damage sending them via USPS.

As long as the cards are packed tight, they shouldn't get damaged in shipping.  Think of how boxes with electronics, etc., are packed: it's not that the item is "cushioned" so much as that the item is prevented from moving in the box.  I think sending them in binders is a bad idea, because the cards can come out of the binder slots, the binder pages can flop around, etc.

[jazzykat]

iro: Thank you! That is exactly the kind of detailed tips I was looking for. I will try to pass that method on to whoever packs it, because I can sleep knowing that cards will be sent like that!