DVDs as large letters in bubble mailers

[whimsycool]

Hi all

I've been selling DVDs / games on eBay for several months now. I've sent most of my items as large letters by packing the DVD or game case into an Australia Post' Padded Mailer #1 (PM1); they're lined with bubble wrap on the inside and have a kind of plastic on the exterior. In probably over a hundred sales I've never had an issue with receiving some kind of notice telling me that I need to pay additional because it was above the 20mm width limit.

Well now I want to move over to cheaper packaging, when I realised how much more expensive AP charges for their packaging than tons of third party sellers on eBay do. Most of these cheap option have similar dimensions to the AP's padded mailers but they all have paper on the outside rather than plastic (eg https://www.ebay.com.au/itm/373012994456 ) and this makes them slightly thicker.

I've found some old posts that seem to suggest that many sellers use this style of packaging to send DVDs/games as large letters, and they've never had an issue with Australia Post saying they are greater than 20mm (even though, to my eye, they appear to be thicker!). To quell my anxiety, I wanted to ask on here afresh, and see if anyone has had any problems with doing so, or if people can confirm they also have never had any issues sending large letters in this way? Thanks!

[chameleon54]

All of the card / box style DVD mailers are 36 mm. thick so almost double Australia Posts legal limit for large letter. I'm not going to tell you what you should or shouldn't be doing, but I suspect the lack of responses to your post indicates most people aren't going to touch this one with a barge pole. ie. you are asking people to provide you with advice on how to act illegally and immorally.

[digital*ghost]

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@chameleon54 wrote:

All of the card / box style DVD mailers are 36 mm. thick so almost double Australia Posts legal limit for large letter. I'm not going to tell you what you should or shouldn't be doing, but I suspect the lack of responses to your post indicates most people aren't going to touch this one with a barge pole. ie. you are asking people to provide you with advice on how to act illegally and immorally.

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I didn't respond last night cos I was feeling lazy.

A single DVD is 15mm thick. This easily goes into a flat mailer to be posted at letter size - nothing illegal or immoral about it.

To the OP - It's been a while since I posted DVDs, my personal preference became tough bags and thin foam wrap. I'd put bubble wrap on the inside of cases, to prevent damage from outside pressure pushing in on the case, and then wrap the case in foam wrap, which is thinner than bubble wrap but just as effective. The tough bags are a thicker paper than a regular envelope, but thinner than a bubble mailer. Never had one arrive broken, and they all went as letters. 

If you want to test one in bubble mailer, though, you should be able to get a letter gauge from Aus Post (if not, you can make one with some thick card). Not sure if you have bought any bubble mailers yet, but the ones I use are noticably thinner and lighter than the ones from Aus Post. AP does produce good quality and sturdy packaging (at least when it comes to their bubble mailers and boxes), but the trade off is your packages tend to be bigger and heavier. 

[whimsycool]

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@chameleon54 wrote:

All of the card / box style DVD mailers are 36 mm. thick so almost double Australia Posts legal limit for large letter. I'm not going to tell you what you should or shouldn't be doing, but I suspect the lack of responses to your post indicates most people aren't going to touch this one with a barge pole. ie. you are asking people to provide you with advice on how to act illegally and immorally.

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I'm not talking about card / box style DVD mailers, I even linked an example in the description to describe the ones I'm talking about. To link another, here are the Australia Post mailers I've been using up until now: https://auspost.com.au/shop/product/padded-mailer-pm1-151-x-229mm-100-pack-54521

A standard DVD case is 14mm, I'm trying to post them as large letters under 20mm. I've read threads of a similar nature on the boards from a few years ago that confirmed this is possible, but I wanted to check in with the community currently to see if this was still the norm.

Please be more considerate online before throwing around words to describe someone's behaviour as illegal and immoral.

[love_of_cars]

I sold off a heap of DVDs a few years ago and sent them all in an A5 envelope (about $3 for a pack at Kmart from memory).  I wrapped each case in two sheets of A4 paper, pushed it into the envelope and then folded the empty part of the envelope over it to make everything nice and tight with no movement inside and provide some extra protection.  Stuck on two $1 stamps (maybe put 3 stamps for 2 or 3-disc ones), never had any problems.  Very cheap way to send them!

[hoodiejs]

I've sent over 10,000 DVDs in the last few years. I have never had a problem mailing them in padded envelopes with 2 stamps.

You do however have to post them in a red post box. Australia Post workers will typically not accept them over the counter due to the thickness.

[south.coffee]

We use C5 cardboard mailers with 2 stamps and a barcode label in top left hand corner which gives the buyer the impression it is a tracked letter.  Compare $2.20 postage against retail parcel post $8.95 x 100 sales.

So far we have never had a ND case and if we did, we are still a long way ahead.

The other advantage is letters are being delivered faster than parcels by 1-2 days !

(The 20mm thickness limit is a mechanical limit for the electronic sorting machines).

[lupercal]

I mostly sell CDs, using padded bags I buy in bulk from an ebay seller. There are numerous vendors who are probably just as good.  The ones I use are 160 x 230mm. Just tested it and a regular single DVD case fits, although very snugly. If I mainly sent DVDs I' might go for something slightly wider - closer to 170mm. I'm pretty sure you'll find something close to that if you search ebay.

Before I settled on these I noticed that the same vendor had several padded bags of slightly different dimensions.
I asked them if they'd send me a sample of the ones I wanted to compare before I made a bulk purchase, and they were happy to oblige. I recall some were slightly wider, some slightly longer.

BTW I've never had any problems with an OzPost worker refusing to take a CD or DVD in a padded bag over the counter. I must have taken gazillions of the thing into my local PO.  The one exception would be if it actually  were too thick for large letter, in which case they'd point this out, not refuse to take it. 

As someone elsesaid, you can just ask them for a Parcel Streaming Gauge. This is a stiff thick cardboard sheet with a couple of slots in it, one of which is the gauge for large letters.  I have a couple of these at home, and use them anytime I'm unsure of the thickness of an item.

The actual rule is that the item should pass 'easily' through the slot. What this means in practise can vary a bit depending on who serves you, but generally it can touch the sides, so long as it goes through without being forced. If it's a close thing, my method is to try to drop the item through the slot vertically. If it falls through just via gravity, even if it touches the sides, it's ok.

Reason for them getting fussy about this is aparently that over-thick large letters can get jammed in the sorting machinery.

[digital*ghost]

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@lupercal wrote:

Reason for them getting fussy about this is aparently that over-thick large letters can get jammed in the sorting machinery.

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They say that, but they don't really mean it .

Flat card mailers that are large letter size (like their CD mailers, as well as the third-party ones you can buy from packaging supply sellers) do not go through the sorting machines. A DVD / CD in a bubble mailer shouldn't, either - articles need to be flexible to safely pass through the machines because it has curves / bends, so many large letters are hand-sorted.

This is super old and aimed at kids, but it shows how the sorting machines work and things haven't changed that much to how the letters are processed. The 2cm thickness requirement applied to large letters is kinda-sorta arbitrary.