TOPIC: Has this happened to you?

I recently traded some tokens with someone. They arrived today in a small cardboard envelope, but the end had been completely sliced open. The tokens could have just slid out at any time (there were four), but they didn't - they were in a baggie taped to another piece of cardboard.

do you figure someone thought they were coins and cut open the envelope to steal them?

i would say so.

Yes. The package thieves steal the whole thing, the mailman will check for value before risking their job further.

I’m glad the tokens made it to you. It stinks that people still try to steal stuff from the mail.

bpsymington wrote: I recently traded some tokens with someone. They arrived today in a small cardboard envelope, but the end had been completely sliced open. The tokens could have just slid out at any time (there were four), but they didn't - they were in a baggie taped to another piece of cardboard.

do you figure someone thought they were coins and cut open the envelope to steal them?

Yep.

I am going a different route. I imagine anyone going to steal them would not have just let them continue on their journey they would have just pitched them.

I was told if you are using a padded envelope to put something in it to make it stick out more, or otherwise it can go through as a letter and that is why there would be a big slash in the envelope. It could have been slashed by a machine in sorting because it was in the wrong spot

I so far have been pretty lucky. Getting tracking with packages reduces a lot of error and on those high $ ones, adding insurances has paid off. I have had 2 that were really bad. One was in a small cardboard mailer, it was taped 360 and had been cut open but like you said, it had been taped and they couldn't get it without distorting the package, The other came in a USPS small box. the tokens were in a small bag but had padding around it. it looked as if it had been stomped on by every USPS worker from Tennessee to California. when it was put in my mail box it contained some of the packaging and the tokens in the baggies outside the box. I was quite furious as how it had arrived. My wife and I have had many boxes in all sizes get to us broken, damaged, things leaking out etc... idk how it is acceptable consider the price we have to pay to ship keeps going up, yet the care for the packages we ship, keep going lower and lower.

For less than 5 tokens I use a small padded mailer with cardboard around the tokens. So far so good! Knock on wood.

David Autzen wrote: For less than 5 tokens I use a small padded mailer with cardboard around the tokens. So far so good! Knock on wood.

That's generally what I do.

lazlo_hollyfeld1985 wrote: I was told if you are using a padded envelope to put something in it to make it stick out more, or otherwise it can go through as a letter and that is why there would be a big slash in the envelope. It could have been slashed by a machine in sorting because it was in the wrong spot

Came here to say this. Sounds more like a sorting machine incident than active malice. Theft by USPS employees isn’t unheard of, but the incidents I found seemed more focused around checks (social security, tax refunds, Covid relief payments) than collectibles.

I've gotten to a point where I always use small flat rate boxes. If the tokens aren't worth enough to use a flat rate box, then they aren't worth my time trading/selling by mail.