Received a patch? How was it shipped?

I've been to the post office to ask "the officials" which way I can ship out patches, but all 3 people at the counter seemed pretty clueless and told me to just try a standard envelope with 2 regular stamps and "see if they go thru". Rather than waste my time and have one come back without sufficient postage, I figure I'd ask the community here.

I'm thinking regular envelope with 1-2 sheets of paper folded to add some thickness with a patch inside, and 2 regular 1st class stamps. I figure that should do the trick.

But have you received a patch recently from somewhere/someone? How was it mailed? Can you check what sort of postage it had on it if you still have it, or if you remember?

I want to offer the patches at cost plus shipping, so the cheaper the shipping, the cheaper they will go for, which is why I'm trying to sort this out. Others have told me to use a yellow padded envelope, but then those are near $1ea plus $1-2 shipping, and I don't think it should be that high.

 

They can be mailed in an envelope with a stamp (often referred to as Kamikaze shipping since there is no tracking). That's the cheapest option- it will "go through" but you and the customer run the risk of it getting lost/damaged in transit. If you wanted to be more careful about your product, you could put them in a bubble mailer of the appropriate size and pay for tracking (which can be added to the cost to the consumer). Here's a thread that you may find helpful and you could post your patches for sale:

https://www.tacomaworld.com/threads/official-patch-and-sticker-bst-thread.474579/

 

Haha, I like that terminology. Thanks, I'll check out that thread.

 

I get a pack of padded envelopes from Sams. Then print my own label off in PayPal.

 

In my small town there isn't much variety but I get small stuff from Great Britain and Sweden that come in really small padded envelopes. Brands I've never seen, but I live in a small county. Post Office machine may get jammed by a object in too thin a regular envelope so a slightly thicker one would get diverted.
Duane

 

pretty much what @GHOST SHIP said. If I ship patches kamikaze, I usually wrap the patch in thin cardboard so hopefully it doesn't get damaged and just pay the weighted postage at the post office. If the buyer is paying over $20 I usually go the bubble mailer and pay the $3.50 to ship it with tracking. I just buy a package of bubble mailers from WallyWorld for a few bucks and I think there's usually 10 in a pack. I will sometimes add the thin cardboard in the bubble mailer depending on the patch since I've had the post office tell me the bubble mailer wasn't heavy enough.

 

If you ship Kamikaze, make sure you actually drop it with the Post Office and have them mark it as 'non-machinable'.
Otherwise, bubble mailer with First Class shipping is the most common option.