Please Tape Your Boxes
messydesk
Posts: 20,091 ✭✭✭✭✭
Take 8 seconds and watch me open, empty, and reclose a small flat rate box in 6. Fortunately, all of the contents of the box were accounted for when I received it. Tape your boxes!
https://youtu.be/IN0ieRltHE4John
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
13
Comments
You don’t need insurance you need lots of TAPE
Snoops and sneaks notwithstanding, without tape the box may open just from handling
My post office always adds tape without asking. I appreciate the effort. Peace Roy
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Great advise!
And some people think I over do it with tape......
Never knew it would be that easy to open then close the FR box. Thanks for the video.
Collector
75 Positive BST transactions buying and selling with 45 members and counting!
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On coins of value, stuff carefully into small box....insert small box into medium box and apply lots of tape.....problem solved.
I always securely tape mine. Always.
For extra protection I've been putting the small boxes inside priority padded envelopes for a few years now.
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isn't this the opportunity to take the time to hyperbolize the importance of this issue by showing us your attribution of a ms61 78p v14.20 for a coin in the package?
This is one of my biggest pet peeves. Misusing USPS boxes is illegal and drives up the cost for those who follow the rules.
https://faq.usps.com/s/article/How-do-I-Use-or-Reuse-Boxes-Properly
I'll make a video later showing you how I can defeat your tape in 2 seconds.
Take is more useful to prevent accidental opening than actual theft, in my opinion.
I use tape... but also use a thin bead of Gorilla glue around the seams....Have to cut the box to get it open.
Actually, I only did that on one package that I mailed to myself... just to see how it worked. It did work well, but I now use larger boxes to ship valuable items...does not seem to be so tempting and they travel well with good internal fill. Cheers, RickO
I bought one of these bad boys a while ago, works great, professional look, and will leave witness marks if opened.
https://www.uline.com/BL_7254/Uline-Manual-Kraft-Tape-Dispenser?keywords=Tape+Machine
I figured if fiber Kraft tape is good enough for USPS Registered mail AND to secure Classified documents while outside of a SCIF, it's good enough for my coins.
This happened to me. That box was taped with one piece of "Magic" tape.
I always tape all around the box with Glass Reinforced Tape.
The only kind of tape to use on a small box with coin in it that is going in the mail is the reinforced kind used for registered mail. Coin worth more than 50 bucks? Get signature confirmation on your Priority box and insure it for full value. ebay seller? Pass the cost of mailing with insurance and sig confirmation to the buyer.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.-Albert Einstein
if i'm shipping a box it's well sealed with clear shipping tape
Check out my coins for sale at the link below mid-priced (read carefully)
** https://photos.app.goo.gl/VLi1NBeJuE7UTkCE7**
Clear shipping tape is not secure. Your just kidding yourself if you think it is. My box was ripped open on an end sealed with clear tape...that's clear shipping tape on the end of my violated box.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.-Albert Einstein
I always tape over the side flaps. Was worried they could pop open during handling. Now I might consider taping the inner flaps of the side panels to the inside of the box (takes a little extra time but might make it more secure).
I received a couple of weeks ago an empty envelope that was supposed to have a raw Capped Bust 50c in it. I dont know if there was anything around the coin or if it was just placed in the padded envelope. It was sent First Class mail so that it had a tracking number. We had come home from being gone 2-1/2 weeks and there were about 70 packages waiting for us at the PO.
The PO regularly holds our mail and they typically will scan them all in and bring them to me out the back door where they usually have me one slip to sign rather than a bunch of slips. I am 99% confident that this happened at the senders PO as it came from just north of NY city. We live in a small town and the PO employees know us and we know all of them.
Here's what "happened" to the inner envelope within the box and which contained the coin....The blued out area is where the sender put his address so that if the box somehow lost it's contents during handling by USPS the item could be returned to him.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.-Albert Einstein
Was the contents still enclosed or missing ? I also tape the contents to the side of the box inside. If my box gets caught in a postal sorter contents still doesn’t come out. Nothing is 100% but I do everything possible to get that coin to where it’s going. I think of all the years and 100’s of boxes shipped I can remember receiving one box similar to this one. No one has ever mentioned to me my package arrived damaged.
I always use plenty of tape.
I just received two nice graded coins in a USPS small flat rate box. The seller has third party insurance so that solves the problem of having the cost of mailing postage on the outside of the box. Banded together inside a ziplock baggy securely fiber taped to the inside of the box. No rattle noise. Then the box was fiber taped well. You have to use clear tape on the outside of USPS flat rate priority mail. But fibered clear tape works even though the tape is opaque.
The seller switched from FedEx because 6 out of his last 12 packages were tampered with at the Memphis hub.
Isn't there an option to not show the postage on the mailing label?
Not on a purchase at the retail counter. The box above I show was sent that way, and had a significantly higher than normal amount of postage. I removed the label before making the video.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
i've always figured certain types of postage/packing were to give us a more secure/backed method for our items YET simultaneously making them stand out because of.
i personally can't stand postage that has the value in big bold font.
so what do you recommend. the brown tape used for registered and/or the clear tape with the wire-strong threads?
The postage was click and ship from his business. Postage just like ordinary priority plus over 21 with ID signature. I get nervous on anything mailed. Lol
I purchase all my mailing labels except for Registered mail online and it has that option is there. The PO should make that option available at the counter, too.
That doesn’t say you can’t use more than one packaging item, it just says you have to pay for the class of mail associated with the packaging item(s) you use.
If that is one of his biggest pet peeves then that fella leads a charmed life.
Was the contents still enclosed or missing ? I also tape the contents to the side of the box inside. If my box gets caught in a postal sorter contents still doesn’t come out. Nothing is 100% but I do everything possible to get that coin to where it’s going. I think of all the years and 100’s of boxes shipped I can remember receiving one box similar to this one. No one has ever mentioned to me my package arrived damaged.
An inner envelope containing the coin was cut with a scissors and the coin removed. Felony theft.
Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds.-Albert Einstein
You're not reading it correctly. It says "Boxes ordered from the Postal Store can be used only for the class of mail specified on the box". Only is the operative word, this means the boxes (envelopes, mailers) cannot be used as packing material, scrapbook supply, lining for your pet cages, wrapping Christmas gifts, or otherwise. Each USPS free packing material is also marked with a disclaimer. Any use of an individual item for something other than direct mailing through USPS for the stated service is a misuse of the material.
Let's read exactly what you just quoted. "Boxes ordered from the Postal Store can be used only for the class of mail specified on the box." Okay, I have a small Priority box. I put it in a bigger Priority box. I have use both boxes ONLY for the class of mail specified on the box. The quote doesn't say that the box can only be used as the outer packaging for the class of mail specified on the box, only that it must be used for the class of mail specified on the box. You are correct that ONLY is the operative word, but you are adding additional words that aren't there and then noting unrelated tangents which obviously have nothing to do with the point I'm making.
That's the way it reads to me, too.
That envelope might well have gone through the machines as a letter if there was no packing material inside.
If it went through the regular letter machine it needs to be able to be bend, and when it hit the coin, the envelope might have ripped open.
The coin should have been in a flip, 2x2, or wrapped up in folded paper, and that should have been sandwiched between 2 pieces of cardboard.
In theory it could have been marked "nonmachinable first class" and a surcharge paid (if it went as a first class letter), but even that does not guarantee that it won't go through the machines if it is thin enough.
It needs to be thick and rigid enough to make sure it goes as a package.
This is old, but seems like the USPS allows "misuse" of the 'free' supplies
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Should the Postal Service Monitor Packaging Supplies?
The question is balancing the desire to control costs with maintaining the convenience that customers desire.
The Postal Service must ensure the supplies it provides are used appropriately, but what’s the best way to do this? Are the savings worth the logistics and costs of monitoring and the inconvenience for customers? How do competitors monitor the use of packaging supplies?
This topic is hosted by the Office of Audit Field Financial – West team.
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https://www.uspsoig.gov/blog/should-postal-service-monitor-packaging-supplies
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Bad transactions with : nobody to date
Absolutely! If the coin was just dropped into an envelope with inadequate or no protection then it's not surprising you didn't get it. I've received fairly heavy medals where it was missing because it was just dropped into a regular envelope with no protection at all. It shouldn't take a genius to figure out that it won't make it like that.
I have shipped many thousands of coins in 2x2s or flips, taped to an invoice and inserted into a bubble envelope. No cardboard sandwich or nonmachinable markings. Several have been lost but I have not received even one report of damage.
Just sayin'.
That's a good thing? Perhaps you need to read about survivorship bias, too.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
No, it's not a good thing. Nothing I can do about it, though- that's up to the post office and in my experience, they seem to lose about one in a thousand shipments.
Taped to an invoice is certainly better than loose in an envelope.
And all the prior successes can't undo the one (or more) failures that can happen.
BTW, it is possible that some of your lost packages were swalliwed up or shredded in the machines.
Expanding on that logic, sellers should deliver everything by hand.
Or maybe they were abducted by aliens. Sadly, we'll probably never know the real truth.
I suspect you all know, but when using third party insurance, box-in-box is required.
It's also nice to not have the insured value/postage on the label.
If it makes you feel better, use a Fed-Ex box in a USPS box.
Well…..based solely on his own substantial experience….where there have been “many thousands” of shipments using his method and no damage reported…..I’d say he’s being quite realistic.
Statistically, the losses and damages shown in this thread, and many other such USPS threads over the years….equal but a tiny, tiny fraction of total outcomes. So, I could say you’re being wildly overly pessimistic about what might happen if I don’t tape a box….and statistically, I’d be right 99% of the time or somewhere in that high 90’s% range.
Still…..I do agree with you….TAPE YOUR BOXES! 🤓⭐️📦