I was prepared to open an empty envelope.

However, I (and the sender) were very lucky!

The issue here was that two chips were sent. They were inserted into a cut-out piece of 20 x 20 pocket page that had 2 pockets, top-to-bottom. A piece of scotch tape was placed over the inserting slot of the bottom pocket (horizontally, covering the entire slot) and vertically over the open top slot.

The force of the USPS sorting equipment made the top chip break through the tape, however, the chip did not fully escape the pocket. However, the broken ends of the tape then became stuck to the surface of the chip. It should be noted that a thin strip of foam (similar to what is wrapped around a glass used for hot coffee from the bars at casinos) and then taped. The strip of tape at the broken end was also broken.

I believe what could have kept the envelope from being broken, would have been to tape the packed chips to one side of the envelope (on the inside) as it seems that a lose package within an envelope is not much different than a lose chip inside an envelope.

I an glad it all arrived, unless the sender contacts me to advise that something else was in the envelope and it was that object that escape through the slit.

I am providing this information not to chastize the sender, but to help educate anyone sending chips that if you must use a regular size, paper-thin (pun intended) envelope, try to secure the chip into the center of the envelope, but use caution with tape.

Jim