I know the whole message of this thread ended up being not blaming specific individuals or actions… but I just received this package with 1 psa card and thought of this thread
I think the size also made it an easier target for customs. $14.86 in tax plus a $9.95 “handling fee” 
In contrast I usually ship like this
1 indestructo mailer offers just as much protection if not more. I find it’s often new sellers that go overkill. It’s understandable though, they are still learning.
Small question out of curiosity, can this also be attributed because eBay sides with the buyers (mostly) in terms of not receiving a package well, the sellers tend to extra protect and go overboard to make sure the cards are received unharmed? I have seen some YT videos who err on the side of caution and over protect packages just because they don’t want a return hit.
Cheers!
Correct, which is why new sellers will go overkill. Even when the card is <$100 (like the one above). This seller used the equalivent of like 15+ layers of bubble wrap. At a certain point that will cost you more in time, material and package size than you save in risk mitigation.
Most experienced sellers will just use a single bubble mailer. Personally I like the indestructo boxes a lot even though they cost more. Plus they can actually be recycled or even reused if you wanted to.
Not enough.
If you’ve seen how they throw your parcels at post office, airport and delivery van, you will not wrap it with just 1 bubblewrap.
Not the appropriate time to go green.
I have shipped more graded cards than you’ve ever touched with a 0% failure rate but thanks for your concern.
Scientists have been predicting many things in regards to climate change and human waste and garbage, none of which that I have seen being the end of civilization by now or any time earlier. What has been predicted has largely been coming true with untold damage to ecosystems, species going extinct at a far greater rate than before the industrial revolution and other mass die offs of animals that have been in the news.
I agree with your last sentence but not with the “everything’s actually fine despite what’s been predicted” sentiment. Things are most definitely not going fine in the world despite the little affect us humans have experienced living in our cities.
I don’t live in a city but I can tell you I haven’t noticed any effects out in the sticks either. Scientists are wrong and they also lie, especially when it comes to climate change and anything else that is political.
We’re not here to litigate climate change, please. This has to do with waste. If you don’t care about waste management then please don’t participate in this thread
They sometimes report half-truths and hide partial facts to paint a gloomier picture than what it actually is.
Anyway, the last I read is the ozone is healing, as at Jan 2023. The healing is due to “every nation in the world agreed to stop producing chemicals that chomp on the layer of ozone in Earth’s atmosphere”.
Not due to consumers using paper/metal straws, canvas grocery bags, reusable containers, saving bubblewrap when shipping Pokemon card or more people grading their common cards in slabs. 
Thanks for creating the thread.
It’s been nice to see and read the discussion going on that is mostly free of denialism. Unfortunately/depressingly, that’s hard to come by these days.
I do agree with you and others in the thread that the main people creating the problem are corporations & the 1% and that plastic recycling itself is also mostly a scam by the same corporations. But, at the same time, it’s difficult for me to justify to myself that it’s OK for me to use it. Although as you also said, it doesn’t mean that just because we aren’t the main contributors doesn’t mean we don’t do anything.
It doesn’t feel right that a plastic bag used for seconds will outlive me. I have too many takes on the topic of waste as a whole, but will try to keep it to Pokemon.
At least their non-holo bulk cards are just ink and paper so they should theoretically be recyclable.
For me the starting point in every industry to play their part is to reduce/eliminate the non-essential plastic/products that they make. As I mentioned earlier, I’m not naive enough to say all plastic should be eliminated etc.
Which is why the initial unpopular opinion that began the thread was that bulk cards worth nothing should either not be graded or taxed. They hold little or practically non-existent monetary value and the cards encased are not even the slightest bit rare. It should be an easy thing to stop - probably the easiest.
I know it’s probably futile but I’ve written to TPCi customer service to ask them to rethink their ETB because they should know (can’t feign ignorance) that the ancillary items are mostly trashed immediately. How many dice, damage counters, promo booklets and energy bricks are actually needed?
I suggested that those be opt-in upon ordering from the TPCi website or distributed through LGS since that’s where the game should be played. Perhaps the main resistance is them being unable to charge a higher price for their ETB without all the crap included - but if we can’t have collective responsibility, we should at least start. Reality speaking, we are overconsuming and even doing this is unsustainable, but in this day and age, it seems indefensible to not even start/try.
We either begin voluntarily or we are forced to extremes eventually.
The only industry I think can be deemed an exception is health/medical. Everything else is not important enough to get away with it.
They wouldn’t lie about this. The packs and cards are definitely recyclable. That doesn’t mean that their usage is good though as its still plastic…but w/e.
1999 there was very little waste in Pokémon. Booster packs, booster boxes, and theme decks were basically the only products available. Promos came in bricks and were handed out to kids individually. The ratio of card to materials thrown away after opening was so much higher compared to today’s collection boxes and ETBs for example.
There is so much low hanging fruit that can make a difference. One example is eliminating junk mail. It fills the landfill, require more postal employees and vehicles driving around, and the printing facilities that are running just to print the junk mail.
I guess for me the main problem is that we know that most plastic recycling is a scam, so corporations are just using that for cover.
edit: I’m not sure how recyclable the dice are though.
I have a 4 year STEM degree from a major American public university 
My condolences then
