I have not posted before but have been reading some of the posts tonight.  

I send and receive a lot of audio books.  I sure receive a lot of them in a padded envelope and nothing else for protection.  Therefore, the boxes (both plastic and paper) are getting bent and smished and broken.  When I send them on to someone else I do the best job of repair that I can and then pad it in the envelope or whatever I put it into for mailing.  Fortunately the CDs are okay but have replaced some of the plastic cases to send them on.   I can't find PBS rules or suggestions of how to better mail the audio books.  Does anyone know if there are any?  If not then I think we need some.  I think this is a really great site, idea and experience and way to share books.  We all must take care of them to make them last longer, both audio, paperback and hard cover books.  I don't mind putting forth a little extra effort to mail books to help them arrive in as good a condition as possible (Lord knows the post office can do enough damage without us adding to it).  

Comments?  :)

I noticed on Swap a DVD that TPTB advise a square of bubble wrap (or padding) inside the case for protection.  Made me wonder why they are then so casual about the CD's on this site.

Here's what PBS says about audio books:

Audiobooks

• Audiobooks must be originals--not copies!
  • Copies are illegal.  Swapping illegal materials here will get you expelled from the club.
  • burned audio downloads are not permitted on the site--these could be legal (being the only copies you made), but since there is no way to verify this, they are not permitted.

• Audiobooks do NOT have to include the box that enclosed the individual cassettes/CDs
  • The audiobooks should be packaged well if the box is missing, to prevent damage by USPS en route
  • Audio CDs must be shipped in CD cases/DVD cases, to protect them from scratching, if the original box is missing
• Audiobooks must be playable to be swapped here, without more than three (minor) skips.
• "Playaway" audio books must include the headphones (batteries do NOT have to be included).

I have received two recently that the person put a square of styrofoam in the box.  Helped it maintain its shape and protect the CDs.  I have had boxes get bent up just by being in my car while I am listening to the book.  I wish the mfr would package them in the cases like the library uses but the cost is probably too much.

Since audiobooks do not even have to include the box to be postable, a box in poor form doesn't make it RWAP.

I recevied one that looked like it had been run over by a few trains.  (IMHO, the sender should PM the receiver when they are going to receive something like this)

 In this case, the CDs were not too much better.......they played but only after I spent an hour cleaning off them off.  They looked positively gooey.

I relisted them, but under UNPOSTABLES, because despite my cleaning, there was also a skip on one of them.  I at least wanted to be honest when I re-swapped the item, and also noted the extremely poor condition of the outer box so the receiver would be prepared.

You can be sure that the sender I received them from thru the Bazaar will never receive another order from me... I know too many great swappers here to bother with the less consicencious ones. 

Here are 2 suggestion that seem to work.

1. Cut strips of cardboard the thickness of the audio cd box(usually 1 to 1.5 inches wide). Wrap about the box  (depending on how long your peice of card board is, you might have to tape 2 or three strips togather to make long enogh). Wrap in plastic then in mailing paper or bubble mailer. This keeps the box from being smushed as well as protects the cd's.

2. I had someone take the CD's out of the box. THen neatly flatten the box along the folded lines. Put the CD on top of the box. Added a square of cardboard the same size as the cds for extra protection. Then mail in a bubble mailer. When I got it, it was easy to redo the box and load the cd's in. No smushed box and cd's were well protected.

Debbie, #2 idea looks great!!!!

Instead of mailing audio books (CDs or cassettes) in envelopes, I save any and all food boxes (cereal, frozen food - like a Lean Cuise meal, any box where the food was packaged within another bag, etc, so the food never touched the box) and ship in them.  I make sure the book can't move around inside the box - stuffing it with bubble wrap, scrap paper, etc.  Then I wrap the box in brown paper (or wall paper that I pick up cheap at the thrift store) to cover the picture.  These boxes are light weight compared to a regular cardboard box, so they don't add much to the postage, but they still provide more protection during shipping than an envelope.  At least, I haven't gotten any comments back that the audios I've shipped have arrived damaged when packaged this way.  I send hard covered books, or multiples books that are of different sizes this way, too.