Please tape your Small Flat Rate boxes!
messydesk
Posts: 20,309 ✭✭✭✭✭
Just a public service announcement. If I can open, empty, and close a small flat-rate box in under 10 seconds, so can a USPS thief on the inside. That's all.
John
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
20
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I always pay the extra pennies to ship flat rate bubble envelope with the item in a small flat rate box inside the bubble envelope.
No Way Out: Stimulus and Money Printing Are the Only Path Left
Rule 1 - you covered.
Another Rule 1 - NO LOOSE ITEMS inside the box. Takes NOTHING to wrap everything in newspaper at the minimum.
I have always taped my Priority boxes since I had a sticky flap pop open on my way to the PO.
I've received plenty of packages with various packing rule violations, but the untaped small flat rate seems to be the most pervasive, and was the most recent.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Amen!
The mail ladies always get mad when I ask to tape their schitty boxes.
Why not do it before going to the post office?
Food for thought !!!
I think the bigger risk is accidental opening. Tape is a must for that reason.
The glue on the opening is one of the weakest I have ever seen. Thief or just accidentally popping open waiting to happen, I always take a strip of registered mailing tape and use that horizontally across, to secure the flap. 1 strip, about 4-5 inches, and maybe an extra 30=60 seconds (less per item if I am doing more at 1 time)
I've been told I tolerate fools poorly...that may explain things if I have a problem with you. Current ebay items - Nothing at the moment
Serious coin packaging is an art involving many layers.
Always do. With glass reinforced packing tape.
I always tape the box. If packing at home (and I usually do), I tape everything, even the bubble envelopes. Cheers, RickO
Can't a thief cut tape and then re-tape it? Maybe it improves the situation a bit, but it really seems like it is mostly preventing the box opening from damage during transit.
Small flat rate box, double-taped on all edges and seams, labeled with USPS preprinted address, stamp and tracking for a medium box; stuffed inside of a medium box which is also fully and double-taped with packing tape and cushioned inside by recycled used USPS bubble envelopes. The inside box with the coin is cushioned with recycled bubble wrap and is itself labeled for delivery just in case the outside box mysteriously falls apart or is pealed away. Tracking number entered into my USPS app and checked frequently until signed for. OCD?? Maybe.
Mine get tape over every square millimeter of the box.
I tape them but that makes it very difficult to get the coins in the box. Maybe...I'm doing something wrong....?
Yes, but not as quickly as if it weren't taped at all. And they can just take the box if they want. Accidental opening is another risk mitigated by taping, but the only box I've ever received missing its contents was closed and not taped. I have received reused Kraft envelopes containing almost as many loose coins as the shipper sent due to the envelope tearing, but that's a different issue (a lot of issues, actually).
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
I always tape my small flat rate boxes
I mean I well tape them!
Same here but use a small NOT flat rate box. It's a little bigger still fits in the flat rate bubble wrap mailer and gives you a little more room if needed more important makes the whole package bigger. Bigger the better from ending up under someone's coat.
because the boxes are at the PO
Also bubble wrap the cointents inside of the package.
Bubble wrap and tape to inside of box
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/publishedset/209923
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/quarters/washington-quarters-major-sets/washington-quarters-date-set-circulation-strikes-1932-present/album/209923
Regarding the inside of the box, I have all sorts of guidance for that, which generalize to three rules.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
There is nothing to stop you from taking some home.
Wow, tape with glass reinforcement? Handle with care, tape fragile.
I had to look it up...okay, fiber glass reinforcement tape, yep, I've see this....good stuff, very hard to break into.
I tape all around the Flat Rate box. If you ever got a submission back from NGC I do it like that. If they get into my box they're gonna have to work for it. Any slabs I use those cardboard sticky flips.
Or he could come by my place and I'll give him some. We have a room packed full of them floor to ceiling. We burn them all winter to stay nice and warm.🥴
"Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working" Pablo Picasso
Well... at least it was delivered.
The hard core shippers use brown,registered mail, have to wet it tape.
It's good stuff! One wrap around the perimeter of a small flat rate with the 3" wide tape covers all the seams.
Collector, occasional seller
Are they locked to the counter?
Line up the reinforcement threads correctly and the clerk gets really confused looking for where to stamp the seam.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Russian mail slot installation.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
Do you also bring future straws and napkins home from restaurants and store them yourself? Where does one draw the self storage line? I ship 5 items or less per year. Why would I want to have boxes in my house every day.
Buy a roll of tape. Stick it in a drawer. Then, on the rare occasion you have to ship something, bring it with you to the post office.
Problem solved.
Wait did you mean the ladies? Maybe, never checked. Maybe that's why they are so miserable.
I ship the small flat rate priority boxes inside the flat rate priority bubble mailers which is well worth the extra .10 cents in shipping cost.
"It takes a thief". That was a series, too; like coins.
``https://ebay.us/m/KxolR5
You can actually fit two of them in one of those, BTW.
Keeper of the VAM Catalog • Professional Coin Imaging • Prime Number Set • World Coins in Early America • British Trade Dollars • Variety Attribution
maybe miserable because they have to tape your boxes instead of you doing it.
i buy my tape by the case. have been for 20 years now. never lost a package yet
I've seen them with tape on the flap and not side, which is almost just as bad. With a little squeeze it will pop open and the contents can fall out the sides.
I didnt say I ask THEM to tape it. I ask them for strips of their tape. I do the hard manual labor myself.
Small Flat Rates don't need anyone malicious to find themselves opened... the glue is usually good for about 20 seconds if the package has anything more than a feather based on my experience.
That said, for just a touch more money, you can use a flat rate padded envelope, in which the larger cousin of the small flat rate box fits quite nicely. More volume (for stuff or padding) and another layer of protection for just a little bit more. I haven't used a small flat rate box in years.
I thought it was common sense that a flimsy glue on a box flap doesn't get it done. But what the heck do I know.