I Was Lucky and Unlucky

Most of us have experienced some delays in our mail service the last month or two.  I have been very fortunate to receive all of my trades pretty much on time.  What I have noticed in my packages though is cheap trend.  I am perfectly fine with a pwe as long as the shipper protects the card with a sleeve, some type of loader, and some cardboard.  What I don't like is another trader trying to overstuff the envelope with little to no protection for the cards.  

I had a pwe arrive last week from a TCDB member who I have traded with a number of times before.  All have been pwe trades that were perfect.  No issues with packaging, although most of these involved 10 or less cards that were of low value.  This latest one was different.  I received 8 cards stuffed into 3 different top loaders/card savers with no tape on the top.  Lets see how they came out.

Neither of these look bad from the scan, but the Pagnozzi has a huge dent by his chin.  It is a shame a beautiful card like that was ruined.  I am going to assume the card was damaged in transit.  I would hope someone would not send a damaged card without telling me first.  The Drew has a slight corner ding from coming out the top of the card saver.

These 3 inserts were fine other than the fact I had to cut them out of the regular sized top loader.  Not sure how you can cram all 3 into one without damage.

These 2 team cards were also in an untaped card saver.  The Carp has a soft corner, but the Bader was ok.

This card is where I got lucky.  How often do you receive a nice autograph in a pwe that is half out of the top loader, but arrives without a scratch?  When I saw the back of the card hanging out I was really pissed.  Take some time and at least use a piece of tape to make sure the card stays in the loader.  Even cheap scotch tape would be better than nothing.  

Overall things could have been a lot worse.  I received 1 card with major damage and 2 others with minor damage.  At least the Reyes autograph was ok.  Needless to say this trader is on my blocked list now.  It is a shame because he is a fellow Cardinals fan who I have exchanged cards with before.  At least there are plenty of good traders like Kerry who still needs my extra Cardinals.