Yeah, I don’t insure media mail myself. It’s just cheap shipping for cheaper books. Anything I’m not willing to lose, either lost or damaged, I use flat rate with insurance. Now anything over $100 I spend the $2 for a signature as well.
Nothing is guaranteed if it’s being shipped by USPS and everything is subject to inspection if you really think about it.
I’ve always assumed that they had so many bigger fish to fry (i.e. fentanyl being mailed around the country) that they wouldn’t dedicate the manhours to opening media mail. I guess I was wrong about that. Can’t have people saving a couple dollars on shiping.
The post office is never about saving anybody anything…time, money, efficiency, dignity…
Not quite a headache as I’m still waiting to hear back from the seller at this point but upsetting nonetheless. I spent $200 on 21 Bronze Age Incredible Hulk comics including 2 35 cent variants. The seller thought that cramming 21 bagged and boarded books in between very thin Priority boxes. Not even two but just a bigger piece folded over the books and crammed in padded flat rate mailer was sufficient for mailing. Needless to say the books are all jacked up and of course the 2 damaged the worse were the 35 cent variants.
That padded Priority Mailer must have really been bursting at the seams … 
That’s an understatement. As you can see Priority Flat Rate Box was used and it had absolutely no corrugation left. Just Flat.
You’d think when a Customer dropped $200 clams, the seller would spring for a bit of extra packing care and boxing … sad … 
Priority mail boxes aren’t really corrugated to begin with. Thats why they should never be used for reinforcement or protection. They’re a flimsy container.
Bubble wrap is the worst. I cringe any time I see bubble wrap used to protect a raw comic…
I’ve sold those $100 books or so and the person opts to ship via media mail so I just auto upgrade them to priority to get insurance. It’s also 70lbs so I throw as much more cardboard protection that I can before the flat rate envelope is bursting at the glued seems… which I double down on packing tape. 
The large flat rate boxes have some corrugation in them. I use them all the time but I also add like 3-4 pieces on each side in a huge cardboard sandwich.
So what’s an appropriate amount of time to let pass before initiating a return? I sent the seller two messages and haven’t heard back from them yet. Granted it’s only been 1 day. I figured 3 days would be sufficient though. Mailing time and response to my message requesting an invoice were right away.
Also to be completely honest the damage I found appeared to be caused by hastily putting the books back in the bags and boards after they took pics for the listing. As they don’t appear in their pics and arrived to me as pictured. I’m certain there’s damage caused by the packaging but it’s hard to distinguish from the listings pics.
Another thing is people please if your using poly bags and cheap backing boards please replace them occasionally. 3-5 years I believe is what the manufacturers recommend. These bags and boards were horribly yellow and actively contributed to the books becoming extra brittle. Some of the bags were even slimy to the touch which I’ve come across twice before. You’re also supposed to have the coated/shiny/slippery side of those cheap boards against the comic not the other side.
As well don’t ever use brown boards. Idk where people even find these but I hate seeing them.
I can tell you from my own experience that the board at the bottom was in place for at least 20 years in order to get that ink bleed …
Also, conventional wisdom used to be, the dull side of the board should face the comic … not so anymore … ??
I don’t know if the old brown back boards are still available, but years ago when they were, they cost about a third of all white boards …
I’m pretty confident that the coated side of those backing boards are the side that contains the calcium carbonate which absorbs/offsets the acids released from the comics. The other side and entire middle aren’t.
Here’s a link to a test done by a member of the cgc boards. If you go down to the results the uncoated sides are acidic while the other isn’t. Seems that’s the side you want against the comic if your using these boards. This thread gets really interesting when someone from BCW chimes in saying there products just as good as the archival supplies from E. Gerber or Bill Cole.
Yeah, those are some old bags and boards. Did you buy from a dealer or collector…or someone who found these in a basement or something and has no knowledge about comics? Also those all brown boards, do they even make them anymore. I know when I first started collecting some dealers here or there used them but I haven’t seen then in ages. Very old school!
Got them through eBay and according to the descriptions the books are his brothers and his collection is valued at close to 400k. Take from that what you will. I was just after the price variants and Incredible Hulk is also a title I’m trying to get a full run of. Has over 1000 100% feedback and when I asked for the invoice I also asked to package safely. He assured me they would be.
Huh, 1000/100…I wonder if this sale was bigger with more issues than they are used to sending out. Either way, as disappointing as it may be at least you are covered under Ebay’s return policy if you decide not to keep the books.
I actually checked through their feedback thinking the same thing. That they hadn’t packaged bigger orders but there were quite a few buyers who bought at least a dozen or more a go. Given the damage and especially the brittleness of the books there going back. Just waiting for a response. I have rebagged and boarded them in polybags and the cheap bcw boards but I’m not worried about those. I feel bad that they were so poorly kept and couldn’t bring myself to leave them in those nasty conditions.
Honestly, if it were me and facing a return on books that I still wanted / needed, I’d see about working out a partial refund from the seller … something like that generally can benefit the buyer and seller and is fair to both …
