by zkirill on 7/12/24, 12:50 PM with 132 comments
by gravitystorm on 7/16/24, 10:58 AM
I used to ship micro-sd cards in plastic cases through the mail, here in the UK. At first I used standard DL (letter) envelopes, since they are cheap and the case inside the envelope didn't push it over any depth size limits.
However, when I got two angry support emails for having sent them "empty envelopes", I had to ask them for photos, which both showed a small sd-card-case sized hole along one short edge, with some tell-tale marks. What was happening was the leading edge of the envelope was going through some kind of thinly-spaced rollers, pushing the case to the rear end of the envelope, and then the rollers had such a grip on the envelope that they squeezed the sd card out through the corner of the envelope like a squeezing a pip out of a lemon.
So I had to move to padded envelopes, which were then a more consistent depth over the whole length of the envelope, and so they worked fine in the mail machines. But that upgrade ate into my margins since I was only working on a small scale.
It's little details like these cause vague statements like "It is normally recommended to use bubble wrap to protect SD cards in transit" - lessons learned the hard way!
by nalzok on 7/15/24, 7:44 PM
What about putting the microSD into an adapter [1] first? I imagine you can find a much better deal when ordering in bulk.
[1]: https://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-microSD-Memory-Adapter-MICROS...
by justusthane on 7/15/24, 10:05 PM
Even the initial “Q&A” post seems to assume some basic existing knowledge of the project.
by rafram on 7/15/24, 10:01 PM
by ramses0 on 7/15/24, 7:50 PM
by crispyambulance on 7/16/24, 12:15 PM
index card + scotch tape
The easiest way to distribute these was to scotch tape the micro-SD to an index card and then write something about the content on the index card.
Of course, that's not an option for customers-facing stuff, but then you really don't want to be in the business of distributing micro-SD cards to customers!
by metadat on 7/15/24, 9:36 PM
Mailing SD cards in their final form in a regular envelope is not secure. An adversary can intercept and reformat, and folks will be none the wiser unless you provide some kind of tedious 3rd party integrity-check tool. I realize this is probably unlikely, but still, like.. why?
Flashing from a reliable source is the gold standard.
by ThrowawayTestr on 7/15/24, 8:02 PM
by Animats on 7/15/24, 10:30 PM
Since all this guy is actually selling is an SD card, he probably should get custom SD cards printed with his own logo on the SD card itself, packed in his own custom packaging. His marketing claim is that this is a premium product, so it needs premium-looking packaging. This is cheap from China. The setup fees are low.
(I once sold a boxed software product. $4000 for the first custom box, $0.25 thereafter, made in Silicon Valley. Visited the printing plant and went over the files with their prepress person, who had a Mac connected to an offset platemaking machine the size of a small car. She said "You want to see the press"? So I put in earplugs and went to look at the press, which was about a hundred feet long. It was turning out "museum quality" art prints at about three prints per second at the time. That shop did those as a sideline between box jobs.)
[1] https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Camera-Sd-Card-Micro-...
[2] https://www.alibaba.com/product-detail/Custom-5G-Paper-SIM-C...
by NikkiA on 7/14/24, 8:07 AM
4, and NanoSD is the smallest, although the size difference isn't as big as between the other 3
by nashashmi on 7/16/24, 3:20 AM
by kazinator on 7/16/24, 10:20 PM
Never write an article promoting some solution, without discussing some alternative!
There are possible issues with gummy glue; it can be stubborn in adhering to cards. Getting stubborn piece of gummy glue off the back of a tiny Micro SD card could be not fun. You don't want to require the user to excessively handle the card or put mechanical any stress on it. They are thinner and more delicate than credit cards (and the bulk of those is just plastic. Only the chip and the magnetic stripe are sensitive). Some users could end up trying to use a MicroSD with a piece of the gummy glue on it.
I wouldn't want to put anything across the contacts of the SD card, which would mean that the adhesive would be on its back. But in that case, the contacts stick out of the page, inviting damage.
Imagine the user clumsily shaking the letter out of the envelope, such that it it fall out, opens, lands with the SD card down, and is immediately stepped on by their five-year-old.
If you put it on the paper contacts-down, you can tape over the back.
by whycome on 7/16/24, 3:06 AM
Wtf. I had no idea there was a 'mini' size between standard and micro. Never seen them in the wild.
by hbossy on 7/16/24, 10:55 AM
There are envelopes with bubble wrap lining. All the Chinese stores use them and I see them more often than cardboard boxes.
by jdietrich on 7/15/24, 10:13 PM
by amelius on 7/16/24, 10:42 AM
by birdman3131 on 7/16/24, 11:32 AM
by trm64qog on 7/16/24, 8:59 AM
by jiehong on 7/13/24, 9:38 PM
by nubinetwork on 7/16/24, 4:45 AM
by giantg2 on 7/15/24, 10:13 PM
by was_a_dev on 7/16/24, 7:56 AM
Plenty of scope to add your own branding
by delichon on 7/16/24, 12:19 PM
by masukomi on 7/16/24, 4:29 PM
by somat on 7/15/24, 9:38 PM
I mean, I understand why they don't like to do this, dealing with the end user is a huge pain, it is much easier to deal with the distributors and have them deal with the end user. So barring direct sales I wish supply chain auditing was easier for for us end users. the best you tend to get is a "distributers" link on the manufacturers website, most of whom are b2b only distribution that are not happy selling low volume directly to you ether.
by stevage on 7/16/24, 1:10 AM
by Sporktacular on 7/16/24, 3:48 PM
by dankwizard on 7/16/24, 1:56 AM