UPS and baseball cards

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Posted By: Ken McMillan

Hello to all,

Went to ship some cards today and found out something interesting. UPS will ship but not insure paper collectibles including baseball cards. If you go to ship cards UPS, you should send them as "Documents". They will insure this way, but not if they are called what they are. Has anyone ever heard of this problem? With this information, it is probably better to send cards via registered mail/ signed receipt. Comments?

Kmac

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Posted By: Matt R

I have heard the same thing that they will not insure them. I haven't heard about listing them as documents though. That sounds risky. If you ever had to file a claim I'm not sure how well that would come out. I'd go with registered mail or Fedex.

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Posted By: JK

I shipped cards through UPS that were insured and lost enroute to SGC. UPS reimbursed me for the full amount of the insured value (approx. $900).

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Posted By: Ken McMillan

JK,

How long ago did that happen? I have always used UPS to ship my cards in the past and insured them with no questions asked. It was different today and the UPS store owner acted like this was a recent change. I did ship using UPS but for future shipments, I will use Fedex or US postal with insurance and signed receipt. Found it to be a poor business decision for UPS in general.

Ken

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Posted By: JK

Ken,

It was a couple of years ago - so its possible that there has been a change. However, I will note that Ive always filled out all of my paperwork online (including insurance) and have had to disclose the contents of any package.

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Posted By: ken McMillan

My wife and I were filling out the paper work at the counter and wrote down that the package contained baseball cards. That is when the store owner told us that UPS would not insure "paper collectables" or paper in general. She suggested to put "documents" on the claim for as they would insure them. Seemed rather strange to me as we use this UPS store when we ship anything. The owner knows my wife fairly well through doing business in the past so I am sure that the owner was acting our best interests. The package was only valued at $200.00 so it wasn't like we were claiming a huge dollar amount. ODD?

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Posted By: davidcycleback

Literally, a baseball card is a document: a print containing information.

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Posted By: howard

If they won't insure paper in general why would they insure documents which are presumably paper?

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Posted By: David

Don't some of the auction houses use UPS or are they all FedEx shippers?

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Posted By: Eric Brehm

My understanding is that UPS and Fedex go back and forth on whether they will insure collectibles such as baseball cards or not. They want the business of people who are shipping these things, but they have to balance that against the number of fraudulent claims they get where the value of an item claimed to be lost or stolen is overstated. One shipping professional told me UPS may be willing to insure a baseball card if there is a formal appraisal submitted in writing, plus a viewing of the card in the open box by the driver, etc. A big hassle to be sure. For my part, I use USPS Priority Mail with insurance, or USPS Registered Mail if the value is over a certain amount (usually around $1000), which is slower but more secure and more cost effective for such items.

Dealers and auction houses who ship via UPS and Fedex typically have independent insurance policies on their inventory, which covers items while they are in transit to or from them, as well as ones in their possession. So they don't need to worry about purchasing insurance through the carrier.