Issue with eBay Standard Envelope being returned

[3rdand10th]

been shipping sport cards with eBay Standard Envelope for a few years and never had a problem. In the last week I have had 6 returned saying postage due .49 cents and stamped non-machinable. Been doing the same as always, card inside a top loader and plain 6" x 4" white envelope well under the 1/4" thick eBay list in there policy. 

Thanks Tony

[12345jamesstamps]

Any off size lump in the middle of envelope might do it...thus 'non-machinable'.

ESE are sent out as metered mail'....like all the junk mail we get these days.

Or maybe something got shifted in the envelope during shipping.

It has to sent like a greeting card in an envelope.

All 4 corners have to be in same proportion as in the middle of the envelope.

[simba6]

If it won't bend 180 degrees around a one inch cylinder, it can't go through postal machines. That triggers an extra cost and in some cases damage to it's contents.

[1786davycrockett]

@3rdand10th 

Top loaders are too rigid for the high-speed USPS rollers in the sorting machines -- the ESEs must be able to bend nearly in half, in order to travel successfully through all the series of rollers at the USPS Distribution Centers.

That's why your ESEs came back marked "non-machinable" -- it has nothing to do with the thickness of the ESE, but only the rigidity.

[bdmh-enterprises]

Top loaders may have been okay in the past and some thinner ones may get through still, but they are generally too stiff for modern high speed sorters.

While "bent nearly in half" is a slight exaggeration, they must be able to "bend easily when subjected to a transport belt tension of 40 pounds around an 11-inch diameter turn". Most top loaders need more than 40lbs to make that flex.

I would recommend semi rigid sleeves for ESE or send top loaders as GA packages. You can also just send them with non-machinable stamps from the PO, but they won't be tracked and move much slower than regular mail.