Welcome to a "tips of the trade" page!

  How should I pack stuff?

Um ... carefully!?!? That's really it, in a nutshell - but here are some tips.

If you can afford to send things Priority Mail it can really save you on packing material.  Yes, you spend a buck more when you send, but you get the box and the packing material free.  Just ask at your local U.S. Postal Service and they'll give you boxes!  Now, I've been told ... and don't say that you read it here ... that if you assemble the small and large Priority Mail videotape sized boxes inside out they can be used to send packages via regular or even 4th Class mail.  OK, its a bit unethical, but hey, if you send every other package out priority I'm sure the USPS is still making a profit from you.

There are now a number of companies making CD mailer bubble envelopes, and these are probably available at your local business supply store (Staples, Office Max, etc.). They fit about a dozen or so in sleeves, which is great.

In a CD trade, try not to stack discs without jewel cases one on top of the other with nothing in between.  CD envelope/mailing sleeves, available at a number of online vendors (check my " ... Links" page), can solve the problem of not sending them naked and not having to pay to ship jewels.  By the way; always ask the person you are trading with whether or not you are to mail jewel cases.  A trader can get very frustrated when they've sent you all of the jewel cases they need to hold the bare discs that you've sent them!

Cassette mailing is much easier.  Just rubber-band them together in groups of 2-4, pop them into one of those aforementioned USPS boxes, and you're all set.  I usually use a few sheets of crumpled up newsprint for padding.  Once again, though, you should always ask about whether the boxes are to go, too.

Content information is also very helpful, and contributes to a trader's good reputation. When you can e-mail song lists, JPGs, etc., it really makes for a pleasant swap. If you must hand write lists on J-cards, plain paper or CD covers, try to be as neat as possible.  When I'm familiar with a band it's very easy for me to decipher someones quick handwriting to ID songs on a tape.  If it's new ground for me, though, it can be quite annoying to have to guess what a title translates into.  Of course, there are now many good online resources for band information that answers can usually found ... but it is time consuming, nonetheless.