I came back from my afternoon run today and anxiously looked in my mailbox for a coin I have been expecting. I was disappointed to find only a few thin envelopes of junk mail. Then, when I walked inside the door there was this huge box. I’ve received coins in large envelopes before and occasionally a small cardboard box, but never anything like this. Needless to say it came in one piece. The coin turned out to be worth protecting. I didn’t know what to expect with a PF61 but was pleasantly surprised. The hairlines are obvious in the photo but aren’t very visible in hand. It looks pretty shiny and new after over 150 years.
Nice coin! I'm not sure why some sellers do this, but I also had a small coin arrive in a box of about that size (a few years ago). What was even more odd, my coin was an auction win for around $30 (and the seller must have spent over $10 just on shipping). I'm not complaining; I was glad to get it (I was more thinking of why the seller wanted to spend so much on shipping).
Private insurance. Some want boxes in boxes etc and the big box like that covers you better than a small package
It can make sense for expensive coins. But what's the point of spending $10-$12 on shipping a coin that sold for $30? At that point the only way they make money is if the package was actually lost and they were refunded for shipping and the cost of the coin.