Shredder Wars

Nothing more exhilarating than inserting an unopened credit card offer into the shredder. That's why I paid extra for my heavy duty model. This must also be why credit card companies have taken countermeasures.

About 1/3 of the offers include a dummy credit card or other extra thick materials that make them tough to shred. Sometimes my juggernaut of a shredder is stopped cold. The extra step of pulling out the thick inserts is needed before the materials are chewed into little bits.

But it wasn't a credit offer that went to great lengths to prevent a one-pass annihilation. It was some cancer-related charity that not only packed the envelope with stickers and return address labels, but stuffed a real nickel into the mix. Nickels are not good for shredders. This is getting nasty.

My shredder is worth many nickels. Luckily I pulled out the money and the stickers before cross-cutting the rest of the materials. This matters not. I'm going to strike back. It's on.