the extra 17¢ was paid for hand cancelling. The package was handed to my friendly Postal Clerk after being rubber stamped both "Fragile" and "Do Not Bend". I'm the eBay seller that sold Fred the chip. He did get a full refund, apology, and a deal on some other chips for his trouble.

I've used the cardboard mailers for about 150 outgoing chips. I've only had this one shipping problem. I have received several hundred chips in these mailers, without a single problem. Most of my shipping problems have been with bubble mailers, on the receiving end, that is. I've received a least half a dozen bubble mailers all torn up by the Post Office, usually arriving in a sealed plastic bag (done by the Post Office). Keep in mind that I've dealt with a very large number of small packages, with combined shipping and receiving of well over 10,000 packages. Overall, I think the Post Office does a pretty good job.