[Archive]

Posted By: runscott

Obviously, if you wanted to get the most for your money, for various shipping/insurance alternatives, you would use some combination of services and providers, but this is too time-consuming for most people. I ship USPS 1st class (insurance optional), priority mail if over a certain weight, and registered if over a certain weight and dollar amount (registered vs priority is tricky because of the weird insurance tables).

Personally, I hate it when someone ships to me with "delivery confirmation" - if I'm not home, I have to then drive 30 minutes to pick up the package. Sounds weird, but I have a post office 5 minutes away; however, if I'm not home mail gets taken to a post office 30 minutes away!

Tom's points about UPS made me do some thinking about shipping high-dollar items, also - I like the fact that UPS tracks every stopping point along the route, whereas I only get "delivered" when I ship registered.