Shipping Problems

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Posted By: Lee Behrens

This is kind of a follow up to my Self Insure post.

I would like to hear from people if they have had problems with shipping with insurance and how it was handled. This includes any carrier service.

The only problems I have included is the rare case of really slow shipping from USPS.

Lee

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Posted By: Bryan

I have shipped tons of item and have had no problems with any carrier with exception of USPS which, like you said, can be slow at times.

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Posted By: Mark

Lee, I been through the USPS insurance claim process for a lost package. It took over 6 months and a lot of my bugging USPS employees to do their jobs for the claim to be processed: First the seller filed a claim and we waited a couple off months. I called the USPS's insurance division in St. Louis who said they never received the claim from the seller's post office. Of course St. Louis cannot call the seller's post ofice and have a conversation because the USPS employees are not allowed to have long distance phone service. So I had to call the seller's post office. The insurance person was out sick. When she returned, she swore no claim had been filed. She did not keep a computer record mind you, just a memory like an elephant. So I got the claim receipt from the seller and faxed it to her. She refused to take my calls after that, so I had no idea if anything was happeneing. Finally, the post office went through its routine of checking its lost and found in Florida, etc. and the claim was processed and paid.

I don't buy insurance on cards I win now unless worth more than $500 because for anything less it's not worth my time to follow up with their employees.

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Posted By: Judge Dred

Mark,

I'll make an assumption here: The item maile and insured was a baseball card. If not then this is not the answer to the hypothetical situation I was hoping to read about.

Did the postal service mention anything about the fact that the item was a baseball card? If so, did they ask for some type of documentation stating that the card was worth a certain amount of money in a certain condition? Is there anything regarding the content insured and how the claim was processed that would be of any interest to this board (other than the fact that it took a long time)?

Thanks!!!

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Posted By: Mark

Yes, it was a baseball card. Despite the thread on here from a few months back in which certain USPS employees advised that baseball cards were non-insurable paper products, baseball cards are 100% insurable. Publication 122 (on the USPS's website) lists certain items that are not insurable and baseball cards/papaer products are not among them. The Insurance Division promptly paid the claim once it reached them.

Yes, you have to show evidence of value. My case was easy as I had just purchased the card of ebay. According to Pub 122, other evidence of value (besides sales receipt/ionvoice) includes i) a statement of value from a reputable dealer, ii) a "picture from a catalog showing the value of a similar article," and "your own statement describing the lost or damaged article." Based on these statements, the number of dealers and price guides out there, I think value would be easier to prove with baseball cards than most other items. Otherwise, there was nothing unique to baseball cards that would impact am insurance claim.


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I will share something else unique to basball cards - if you're a collector/investor (i.e., not a dealer), the fed income tax rate on gain from selling a card held more than 12 months is not 15% (as is the case with just about any other investment). There is a special 28% tax rate on "collectibles." I'm a baseball card collector and a tax attorney and I only recently just discovred this. Dealers of course are taxed at ordinary rates.

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Posted By: Judge Dred

Thank You. That was great and informative!!!

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Posted By: Elliot

Finally, a tax advantage for Canada. On collectibles, we only pay the capital gains tax rate on any sale of any individual item over $1000, with $1000 being the cost base.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

ah, but if you are a dealer you can deduct all of your dealing-related expenses, like your trip to the National and reduce your profit to...