At what point to put insurance on shipping

I've sold coins on eBay for a while now, but never for more than the $50 that they get covered with usps.

I sold one for about $130 tonight and I'm guessing I should pay for insurance, right?

Just wanted some opinions from people that sell on eBay and whatnot.

 

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I would. Depends on volume and loss/profit ratio but it probably works in your favor to insure.

 

It all depends on you and how much you are willing to risk if the item doesn't show up. If you use ebay to print your labels and chose to buy the insurance, make sure you chose the USPS insurance. The default ebay shipinsure or whatever they call it now does not cover coins.

 

Thank you! I had already printed the label with ShipCover and was able to void that label and print a new one with usps insurance.

 

I sell fairly expensive coins (hardly under $250), and usually don't insure until I get up over $500. If I RARELY sold coins, I might insure more, but I sell enough that I have gotten a good feel for how often they are lost, etc. I would need to lose one every 2 months or so to make buying insurance on every package worth it. If I do a coin that is over $500, it would be a pretty decent loss, so I usually at least get partial insurance on that.

 

At the point where you're unwilling to pay for the loss out of your own pocket. Personally, I don't think I've ever shipped a coin without insurance.

 

I'm with SuperDave when you feel the risk is took much to risk out of your own pocket. In my case that's in the $150 to $200 range.

 

Smart sellers do not buy insurance.

 

I believe a lot of members here self-insure.

Besides that, USPS Priority mail covers $100 in insurance for free IIRC.

I think that amount increased from the prior $50 insurance.

If you're using a free priority mail box/envelope, I wouldn't pay extra to insure.

Net risk is $30 minus the extra cost to use Priority mail over another service.

 

OK, I've been a dummy for the last 17 years, then. I'm OK with that.

 

I don't insure USPS packages anymore. The USPS always find ways to deny my claims so I just don't do it. I once insured a package to Brazil having sent it International Registered. Their response to the claim: We don't insure coins. So hell with them. The USPS wants to be treated as a business but they don't treat their customers as business customers but as bureaucrat subjects. (Exceptions are my local post office which is great and does everything they can to help--and other small town post offices. I think the problem is with the beehive offices). Anyway, that is my experience.

 

What about the argument some make about coins & pm's not being covered under usps insurance? What's the true skinny on that, has anyone filed a claim and been reimbursed from lost coins or pm's?

 

Maybe it was becauseit was an international shipment? Did they say specifically it was because they don't insure coins? I mean, if you have proof of an items value by the purchase price then why would they exclude coins? I just don't get that if true.

Anybody have recommendations on reasonably priced private insurance for a bonded company that mails coins via usps?

 

If you do not sell much, it might make sense to insure, as a one time loss could hurt pretty bad. If you sell a lot, it makes sense to NOT insure, as the money you save not paying for insurance covers any losses. Think about it like this. USPS is selling you a product (insurance), and they make sure they make money on it. Meaning they receive more money than they pay out. Meaning if you ship often enough, you would save money not paying for the insurance.

 

I've sold coins by mail order and on eBay for many years. Basically, it depends on the value of the item as to whether or not I insure a package. For inexpensive items, up to maybe $35 (for me), I wouldn't bother insuring them. Actually, I've almost never had a package go astray with USPS and have collected on insurance maybe twice in many years (late '70s till now). For me, postal insurance on an expensive item is a peace-of-mind thing. If you're going to worry about something getting lost in the mail, then insure it. If you're not going to care all that much, then don't insure it.

 

Underwriting your own risk makes sense for anything where catastrophic loss is not a possibility. For motor and home insurance losses could be 100,000 or more, not pocket money for most.

For your routine trading, the money not spent on insurance will amost certainly exceed any losses, and you can spread this cost among all your customers with a dollar or so per item on the handling charge, folded into the S/H figure. Aim for about $1 per $100 sales value. No need for a per item calculation, if you sell 100 items with an average value of $50, 50c. per item is fine, even if some are $10 and some are $100. Insurance is all about spreading out cost and risk.

The problem with coins is one of definition. Coins as simple money are one thing and commonly excluded along with other spendable or cashable things like banknotes and bearer bonds.

Numismatic coins are often covered, you do need to check the terms and conditions to see if numismatic material is covered, even if 'coins' are excluded, where they mean legal tender current coins.

One major advantage of self insurance is no claims hassles or cover restrictions. You can ship however you find effective to wherever you want to send. You also get to spend the surplus, if you keep that insurance money in a cookie jar all year.

The principle is the same if you sell a few items or loads of stuff, as if you sell only rarely the risk per item is very small. If you sell loads of stuff the chance of a loss becaomes almost a certainty, but the insurance fund is larger in proportion.

If you are talking about 'peace of mind', you are getting out of business and rationality into realms of irrational behavior, 'gut feelings' instead of actuarial mathematics.

 

Excellent answer, and as someone who wrote a couple of intro statistics books, I feel sure your reasoning is sound. And you're right that the peace of mind thing is more in the area of gut feelings and irrational behavior. That said, I am willing to pay the extra amount for the peace of mind, rational or otherwise.

 

I just want to confess that I'm an idiot. I dodged a bullet today, however. I just sent 6 coins to NGC for grading uninsured. Value was $2100. Yesterday they were mislabeled by the USPS as "Delivered" then marked "Delivery Status Not Updated." I called and the postal worker said it was not meant to be scanned as delivered, so they changed the status. She was confused, I was too. But (deep breath) it was delivered today and the coins are in the system at NGC.

Again. I'm an idiot. Feel free to call me an idiot. Did I mention that I am an idiot?

 

You are not an idiot, statistics show almost all mail is correctly delivered. It's only the exceptions you ever hear about and self selected data is not good data.

 

My last lost package was similar (just a few months ago). Was sent to the wrong TOWN, and scanned as delivered. I called the post office there, they said it was a mistake, and that they were sending it on.... but it was never scanned again. Say bye bye to $350. Ugh.