In this world of high shipping costs, overzealous customs officials, selfrighteous crusaders for morality and the very occasional lightfingered postal worker, most of us on this forum are aware of the benefits of having just the cover and disc mailed. The only drawback is, of course, the heightened risk of damage.

I've recently had such an experience, with the disc being rendered unusable by a Phoenix AZ mail franking machine. Fortunately a happy denouement to the tale is currently in the works, but I'm wondering if this has been an extremely rare piece of misfortune. I've had packets from all over the world, and few have been damaged badly (except for the odd Jiffy bag slashed with a knife by our lovely UK customs officials).

I've only recently started opting for Global Priority without cases, and in spite of the one damaged packet, I'm wondering whether the chances of damage are heightened by not having the cases shipped. I've had loads of scuffed discs (fortunately none unplayable) as rattlers in the case, where handling has popped the disc off its hub and allowed it to float around loose within the sealed case. At least shipped in an envelope (ideally thickish card or a Jiffy bag) the discs can't float or get scuffed.

What's the general concensus?

And who else thinks there's a game similar to popping bubblewrap goes on in the international mail, where they squeeze anything in a Jiffy bag that's about DVD sized until it rattles when they shake it?