The Yak Shack Forum

Talk about creative-I just received an OotP prop card in the post. Rather than being put in a top loader, it is sandwiched between more than 20 phoenix base cards, and the bundle taped  ::) fingers crossed there is no damage!

Edit: fortunately the card is in a soft sleeve. There are also lost cards packed in around it  :P

That wasn't very smart. ::)  Besides, all of those cards cost more to mail than the one card in a sleeve and toploader.

Last week, I received an OOTP prop card that was placed, without a sleeve, inside a comic book bag with cardboard backing, then the "packet" was folded over several times and put in a regular business envelope.  One of the corners got bent by a fold. >:(

Certainly does; a dollar more than a similar package that arrived today. Ive had another card arrive before that was taped so well up that I had to use small scissors to free it, and ended up with a nick in the back of the card; was not happy.

Think I might be able to top that today! - Ages ago I won an  :ebay: auction for the set of autographs from Chamber of Secrets - 10 cards if I am right! - Came back from holiday to a customs demand for £41 - somewhat bemused I paid and the parcel arrived today. Bearing in mind it was for 10 cards - the box would have fitted an album full of cards - overkill - still confused ??? I opened the box The cards were inside a plastic bag and then the protective packaging was...... extra plastic bags! - Reason for the customs charge was that the price placed on the info for customs (I know lets pluck a figure from the air!!!! - Thanks!)  >:() was twice the amount that I actually paid AND postage I was charged was $30! (may have been more! - did express shock at the time) For 10 cards!!!  ::) - Don't think I will be doing business with them again!!! So a deal that started as a really good one when you throw in the charges etc was not so great.
The one major plus is that the cards were fine.....

Some of the shipping descriptions (like the base cards on the outside and taped down) I can understand. because of the UK ban on the importation of toploaders (which is just stupid) some of us are having to become more creative in the way we ship. At the moment I am having to place the card in a soft sleeve, then into a ziplock bag which is wrapped around the card for padding and then taped onto an over sized bit of cardboard before a second section is taped onto the other side. Then it is placed into a padded envelope. Not only is this time consuming it's also just a real pain in the ass. As such my shipping charges have gone up because it takes longer to sort out an order. I live for the day when I can just toss the cards back into toploaders and ship them out, However I am not willing to pay like $10.00 for 25 toploaders so I can give them away, not when they used to be less than a quarter of that price.

In the UK at least it may not be a case of not wishing to ship these things safely it could because of not being able to. If you buy a card in the UK you will most likely not receive it in a toploader.

They ban top loaders? Thats a bit crazy. I can honestly admit to shipping without a top loader occasionally; instead i put the card in a sleeve and tape it to a larger piece of thick cardboard, then put it in a bubble envelope.

The card I got wrapped in base cards was from the US so im not sure of their excuse...

That's the first I've heard of toploaders being banned from being imported into the UK! :o
Do you have any more details on this please Jason?

It's news to me as well. Every card that I have sent was in a top loader.

Maybe it's just a thing about importing wholesale lots of Top Loaders to prevent competion against the UK Top Loader import license holders. ???? Aren't governments wonderful?

No I kid you not at the moment Toploaders are in fact not legally importable into the UK. Every supply we and several other company's we are in communication with ave come back with the same story, TheInThing, Cards Ink (who have not suppled them for a while) Hobby Games and Safe UK all imported Ultra Pro and Max Pro products and them wholesaled them on which was great, but it seems that there is some sort of technical problem about what chemicals are used in the manufacture of the plastics and as such all official importations have been halted.   Trying to find out any solid information on the issue is difficult but our account manger at Hobby Games said they have been told there is no chance if importing any of them for some time. Ultra pro refuse to comment and there other products (9 pages and comic bags ect) are still widely available. This was talked about on the cardtalk board a while ago as well. I am trying to get a nice person in the US to ship me some at a reasonable price under the radar.  Its a daft situation. Unbelievable but sadly true!

Blimey!!  :o :o :o
I get my toploaders fom Forbidden Planet (when they have them in stock) and it IS irksome to see how cheap they are on the US sites when you get charged a lot more than that here in the UK.  >:(
I'm assuming that the technical problems they're having are to do with the archival quality of the component plastics being used to make them, so I can quite imagine why Ultra Pro would be keeping very tight-lipped about it can't you - they'd lose very valuable sales in one go if it emerged that their toploaders weren't all they were claimed to be ...
Whenever I've asked about toploaders and screwdown cases being sent to the UK from US sellers, the quoted shipping costs have always been horrific - it will be even worse now that the USPS rates have changed ... :(
Guess I'd better start cleaning off the sticky residues from the outsides of toploaders I've received and re-use them rather than reach for the new ones.  ::) :P

*Checks watch... not April 1st... OK*

That's pretty insane. It's a good job I purchased myself what I deemed to be a lifetime supply of Toploaders not so long ago. I am worried about what's in the plastics though...

John (WM) - reminds me of the banning of dihydrogen monoxide :P

No they banned DHMO for good reasons, I mean the drowning threat and it's contribution to acid rain was obvious so it had to go... No one has ever been killed by a toploader as far as I know however.. 

Strange I have all my loose Baseball & Hockey cards sent sandwiched between toploaders not to mention my Potter & other non sports cards LOL  A few packages have been checked by customs but they have never said a thing about the toploaders  ;D  I did get a trade offer though for some hockey cards LOL

See this is just nuts, http://www.thecollectorzone.com/product.asp?pid=4887 Thats like $15.00 for 25.

 :rofl: :rofl: Yes, Jason, it sure is an integral part of acid rain.  :rofl: :rofl:

OK, if anyone in the UK is looking for a few packs of toploaders in this intervening period whilst Britain goes through a toploader drought, you can always get in touch with me. I can't remember what I paid for my toploaders, but it was very reasonable, like £1.50 or something like that, I'll look it up, a few Yak Shackers bought some from me back when I got them. I have a sealed case and probably about two thirds of an open case - so probably about 1600 toploaders :rofl:

I got a pack of cards in an UNSEALED regular envelope...  emailed the seller about it mentioning the 41c stamp, the UNSEALED envelope, & the no packaging & was told that the $3 I paid was flat rate and as long as it was received with no damage they didn't see why I was complaining...

I left appropriate feedback...

Who is the idiot seller?  I want to make sure I avoid that person. >:(

Any news on the toploader crisis? Are the queues outside Northern Rock all people looking for Toploaders?? :P

I've been able to help out a few patient Shackers who needed some toploaders, so hopefully this should reduce the number of crazily unprotected cards out there :P