and don't let them overcharge you for shipping and handling

Cash in the Mail

I'd always heard "don't send cash in the mail". In retrospect, I figure it's one of those "old wive's tales" or an Urban Legend. My friend Jeff (ebay user name BagTwo), an ebay seller of rock 'n' roll trivia, receives cash all the time, sometimes stacks ($80-100 worth). Especially from Asia, he says.

Think about it... unless you make the cash obvious, why would a mail employee risk his career and future, opening your envelope out of all the others on his busy workaday world? It's paranoid thinking to fear "someone" might somehow know that there's cash in there. Your only risk is a dishonest seller, which in over seventy cash transactions I've been involved in so far, hasn't happened yet.

  • Use as few bills as possible (e.g. if I was sending $14 I'd send a ten and two two-dollar bills).

  • Conceal the cash well, inside at least two sheets of folded 20lb bond (just standard printer paper).

  • Fix a corner of the bills with Scotch tape so they won't rattle around inside the envelope.

  • Be very careful when copying the address on the envelope, both the recipient's and your own. If they say they didn't get it, but you didn't get it returned, then they probably lied.

  • Seal the envelope up well. Don't use Scotch tape, that's overkill, and draws attention.

    • No one will ever know. How could they?

    Love ya baby.