Tips for shipping more expensive coins.

Reading between the lines.........that's a screaming "steal me" tip? If I am reading this right? I've had some HORRIBLE experiences with USPS in the past with coins. It was during 2024, at least 3 that never arrived. It's been better lately, I will say that.

 

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Whenever I ship coins to PCGS for grading, I take my chances and don't pay insurance on their way out but use Fed X. I've never had an issue and ship them to their physical address and not their PO box. Of course I have to pay insurance on there way back to me but that is required, but I have to sign for them on arrival. I trust USPS as far as I can toss an elephant.

 

Years ago I used to get coins from a dealer whose return address on the package was some business name "Auto parts" . He could ship rolls of coins anywhere and never have a problem.

 

I thought there was the option to hide the postage cost now.

 

Any employee can go to a postal computer and look it up. Where there’s a will, there’s a way. You should have seen some of the videos I’ve seen. It’s unbelievable to me that there are people who think the way they do but they exist.

 

It seems anymore it's a gamble with ANY carrier. I do like to add a little extra tape on the seams and especially the opening. If they're gonna steal it, I'm making them work for it at least.

 

The safest way to ship something is USPS Registered Mail. It’s more costly and it needs to be over $1200 to break even on insurance but it’s very safe.

 

Packing tape is a serious deterrent. It's like cracking a safe whenever I get coins in the mail, sometimes drilling and/or a chainsaw are required to open them.

 

Ever tried opening a package with strapping tape? That needs a chainsaw!

 

I gave myself a Christmas present in December, a commercial ice machine for my fishing needs. When I was unpacking it, it was secured with strapping tape. By the time I got it unboxed, I was exhausted.

 

I can understand why. At my age, that’s starting to mean it’s nap time. Lol

 

I have done hundreds of transactions on eBay, GC, HA etc. and had never had a package lost by USPS. When receiving items worth more than a couple hundred dollars I often have to sign for them. When sending packages over that amount I tend to get nervous and pay extra for insurance and signature verification.

I have noticed a gap in chain of custody when sending packages. When I put items in my mailbox for the carrier to pick up, they scan it immediately and that information goes into the tracking. But if I drop the package into a USPS mailbox, even the ones inside the post office, it is not scanned until it reaches the distribution hub which can be days later. Until that time the tracking doesn’t even show that I mailed the package. One time I even got messaged by a buyer asking when I was going to send their package. Therefore I would recommend having the carrier pick it up or handing it over to someone at the post office to scan it.

 

When I ship something (other than a letter) I always hand it off to a postal clerk and save the receipt which has a tracking number on it. In 2024, the USPS lost THREE of my purchases off eBay. I've posted on other threads the shipping history for some of those. It's infuriating.

 

The lesson is to give packages to be shipped to the correct carrier, not to depend on somebody else.

Second lesson: USPS handles USPS packages. They have no obligation to deal with anybody else's.

They could have returned it to you with insufficient postage, IF there was a clear return address. They could just as easily have dropped it in the trash.

 

I dropped it off at my school, which deals with all three. From now on, I will only trust them with USPS and take any other packages straight to the correct offices.