A lot of half-truths in this thread so I'll do my best to provide clarity. First off, Lettermail is a domestic service, meaning it ships within Canada only. If you intend for your envelope to go outside of Canada then you are purchasing Letter-Post service and you can only send printed matter using this service (i.e. no chips). There are two different sized categories of Lettermail:
Stay away from making your shipment fit within the
Regular size (a.k.a. Standard or Short & Long) dimensions at all costs even when shipping singles. The reason is because chips do not bend and if they are inducted into the high speed mechanized sorters then they will be damaged when they go through the conveyors that turn more than 90°; they will damage the sorting equipment; or both. This is why there are restrictions on what you can put inside this size of envelope (see below
UNACCEPTABLE ITEMS).
You should instead make your shipment of a single chip or 20 chips fit within the
Large size (a.k.a. non-standard or Oversize) dimensions as these mail pieces will be inducted on different mechanized sorters that do not bend the envelopes or they will be processed by hand.
I definitely recommend affixing the chips between card stock as this will make your envelope less lumpy and thus less likely to get caught up in mechanized processing equipment. For cheap chips you can tape them directly to the card stock although I'd still probably wrap them in paper first so as not to leave any residue on the chips. For more expensive chips I use
these and tape the openings so the chips don't escape. I also recommend using a padded envelope... this should be self explanatory.
As to what can you put inside the envelope...
The above is not an extensive list but you get the idea.
The last hurdle is weight... your shipment cannot exceed 500 grams otherwise it will be considered a parcel and then it will be subject to destination charges as well. No matter where you send Lettermail, the prices are as follows (excluding taxes):
It's been a while since I've mailed a single chip or small lots of 1 to 5.
What's that costing you in 2019?
Assuming these aren't slugged chips, you can probably send up to 5 chips anywhere in Canada for $1.90 + tax.
For those of you who were told you couldn't send chips as Lettermail (not true), maybe it was because you were trying to send them outside of Canada? About 15 years ago, Canada Post introduced the Light Packet service which allowed a certain dollar value of goods to be processed via the Letter-Post stream as long as it met the same size and weight specifications as Oversize Lettermail. The screening of Letter-Post is sporadic but over time it was determined that this service was abused as some senders went over the dollar value limit. So yes, the Light Packet service was discontinued and instead you must use one of the Small Packet or Parcel services for non-printed matter destined outside of Canada.
I hope the above helps.
