How to ship sports cards

Raw or graded decides how it ships

USPS treats a mailpiece as a letter only while it stays within 11 1/2 by 6 1/8 inches, weighs 3.5 ounces or less and is no more than 1/4 inch thick. A raw card in a sleeve and a toploader fits inside those limits with room to spare, so it can go in a plain envelope with a Forever stamp. A graded card can't, because the holder alone is thicker than a letter is allowed to be.

PSA's thinnest holder, which it introduced in 2023, measures 0.27 inch thick, and PSA says cards thicker than 40 points still go in its original, thicker holders. Magnetic one touch holders are thicker again: BCW lists its 35 point magnetic holder at 5/16 inch. So a slab or a one touch always ships as a package, while a raw card has a choice between an envelope and a package, and the value of the card is what usually decides it.

Packing a raw card for an envelope

1. Slide the card into a soft penny sleeve, bottom edge first, so the corners don't catch on the opening.
2. Put the sleeved card into a toploader with the sleeve's opening facing down, so the card can't slide out the top.
3. Seal the toploader in a team bag, or put a small piece of painter's tape across its top, and keep the tape off the card and the sleeve.
4. Fold a sheet of paper or the packing slip around the toploader, so it doesn't slide around inside the envelope and nobody can see a card through the paper.
5. Put it in a #10 envelope, address it along the long side and put the stamp in the top right corner.

Thick cards need a toploader rated for their thickness. Patch and relic cards are measured in points, and one point is a thousandth of an inch, so a 100 point card is a tenth of an inch thick before anything goes around it. Ultra PRO's standard 3 by 4 inch toploader holds cards up to 35 points, and it sells the same size for thicker cards, up to 360 points. A thick card in a thick toploader can pass 1/4 inch together even when the card alone doesn't, so measure the finished mailer before you call it a letter.

eBay's own advice is the same: "Pack your raw card in a penny sleeve before sliding it into a card saver, top loader, or a cardboard sandwich."

How many stamps a card mailer needs

A letter's price depends on its weight. These are USPS's prices for a letter with stamps on it, in effect since October 4, 2026:

One card in a sleeve, a toploader and a team bag in a #10 envelope usually stays under an ounce, which means one Forever stamp covers it. If the envelope is too stiff to bend, USPS counts it as nonmachinable and adds $0.49, because its machines can't sort it. A stack of toploaders taped together or a toploader taped to cardboard is the usual way that happens. The letter checker works out the postage for any size and weight, and the nonmachinable guide lists everything that triggers the surcharge.

Shipping a graded card

A slab goes in a bubble mailer or a small box with a package label. eBay suggests putting a graded card "in a cardboard sandwich before shipping out", which means two pieces of cardboard a little larger than the slab, taped around it so it can't flex or slide. A padded envelope doesn't make it a cheaper large envelope, because USPS charges large envelopes that are rigid or not the same thickness all over at parcel prices.

USPS Ground Advantage is the cheapest tracked service for a light package. For anything up to 4 ounces it costs $8.40 to $10.20 at the post office counter and $7.33 to $8.95 with a label bought online at commercial prices, depending on how far it goes. Tracking comes with it, and so does insurance up to $100. For a card worth more than that, add insurance or a signature when you buy the label.

Selling sports cards on eBay

eBay Standard Envelope is eBay's own tracked letter for trading cards, and on an order under $20 it is usually the best choice, because it costs about what a stamp does and it counts as tracking for eBay's seller protection. eBay's help page allows up to 24 raw cards in one envelope, of which no more than 2 can be in toploaders, and it doesn't allow graded cards. The order has to sell for under $20, and the envelope has to weigh 3 ounces or less and stay under 1/4 inch thick at every point. Our page on eBay Standard Envelope covers it in full.

A card that sells for $200 or more, raw or graded, goes through eBay's Authenticity Guarantee, which means an authenticator checks it before it reaches the buyer, and eBay requires a signature on cards of $1,500 and up.

Sending cards to PSA for grading

Cards you send in for grading travel differently from cards you sell. PSA's shipping guide asks for semi rigid card holders measuring 3 5/16 by 4 7/8 inches, says not to use toploaders, and asks for the stack to go inside a new shipping box. Follow the grading company's own instructions for that trip, since they decide how the cards are unpacked.

Adding tracking to a card in an envelope

A stamped letter has no tracking number, but it can carry a USPS Intelligent Mail barcode above the address, and USPS scans that barcode each time one of its machines sorts the letter. PigeonTrail prints the barcode with the address, so for the price of the stamp you and your buyer can watch the letter move from plant to plant and see the day USPS expects it. Your first 100 letters each month are free.

Those scans show where the letter is, but eBay and TCGplayer don't accept them as carrier tracking, so a barcoded letter suits the orders under each marketplace's tracking line, and orders above that line need eBay Standard Envelope or a package label.