Posted By:
CatIf I sell something, I feel that I am accountable for the package. The means by which I protect myself varies. I use a lot of instinct when I ship something.
For all relatively small dollar items ($100 or less) I sell on EBay I charge $3 for shipping and OPTIONAL insurance. But just because insurance is optional, does not mean that I won't elect to put insurance on it anyway and eat the difference, especially with those buyers with relatively poor or limited feedback. EVERYTHING I send (unless it is highly insured or registered goes with delivery confirmation) has delivery confirmation.
If it is a mid-range dollar item ($100-500), I normally charge $4 and OPTIONAL insurance. But, for the $4 I put SOME insurance on the package and delivery confirmation. The amount of insurance is based on my comfort with the buyer (could be $100 worth of insurance or full purchase price). If they buy insurance, of course, it is fully insured. My instinct has always been that insured packages are treated a little differently by the postal service than the non-insured.
If it is a multi-thousand dollar item, I ship it registered and let people know that it may take awhile to get to their location.
On Wednesday, I shipped $1,200 worth of cards to a friend/board member. We didn't talk about insurance. What did I do this time? I put $500 worth of insurance on the item. That magic number is based on: I can use a kiosk at my post office, which provides mostly all the same services as going to the counter, but will only accept insurance coverage up to $500. Since, I didn't feel like waiting in line, I used the kiosk and put $500 on it. BTW, those postal kiosks are great. Usually, no waiting. I can go to the post office at midnight and mail my items. If it wasn't for having that kiosk available, my EBay sells would change drastically. They also print out big labels with bar-coded ZIP codes and I believe this expedites shipping. I get a lot of e-mails regarding how quickly my packages arrive.
Yesterday, I priority mailed $6,000 worth of cards to SGC. How much insurance? $1,200 Why? I didn't want to ship it registered (which is cheaper at that dollar amount) because I wanted it to get there quickly. I didn't feel the need to spend the full dollar for insurance since SGC is entirely trustworthy. Anything over $500 requires signature and that comforts me. Theft of that dollar amount, involving the postal service, is a Federal Felony and I have always thought that one would have to think long and hard before going that route.
Most of this is simply instinct, but it has worked so far. No Problems!