Occasionally I find myself in the position of needing to mail small easily damageable items across the country, for econmical purposes I find the best thing to do is purchase a tin of Altoids and mail the empty tin.
The other day I was at the store and the Altoids were like $3 each! Highway robbery! Instead I purchased a box of Tic-Tacs as it would work in this particular instance. The down side is that I don't really care for Altoids or Tic-Tacs... I mean they are alright, but a single box will last me a few months.
After the Tic-Tacs were rung up, I immediately opened them, said "This is for me." and I ate one. "These are for my dead hommies!" and poured the rest out on the floor. After a moment of silence the cashier gave me my total due, which I paid and then left. The store was quite surreal during my departure.