This has been discussed before. When you drop a letter or parcel into a mail box, it may never be touched by human hands again until delivery to the recipient's door. The machines don't sort out padded envelopes, and they don't read the words "hand cancel."

As shippers, we all need to make sure this doesn't happen to our trade partners or customers. I'm glad Doug got his chips after all. We have had a lot of discussions about safe packaging and proper postage rates. It's good to have an example of what can go wrong, even with a padded envelope.

I have been selling a lot of $25 - $100 chips on eBay, and I ship all of those in carboard boxes. I still ship inexpensive chips in padded envelopes and other mailers, but those chips are replaceable if I find out the shipment was damaged beyond repair.