What is the best way to ship a very expensive item

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

for a long time.........and own a UPS Store........
But didn't sleep at a Holiday Inn last night.......

If you go with UPS or FedEx, Corey has the best idea....ship using overnight. FedEx or UPS, shipping ground, will go through multiple hubs before delivery. Keep it out of the system as much as possible. Plus, air shipments get more premium handling. UPS does offer better insurance options than FedEx BUT.....you have to double-check with them about insuring items which cannot be replaced. Sometimes that's iffy.....

You can also secure a one-time rider for the package before shipment from an insurance company providing them the tracking number prior to shipment. That's what I've done with Rob Lifson a couple times and my two shipments to him have been right around or slightly above the $50K range. He had me ship FedEx--what his insurance company had him have me do (and difficult for me!) and call with the tracking number before it was shipped.

On a $50K package, UPS will have it in lock and key as well. High Value shipments are locked down pretty good. I won't say that they're (or we're) as tight as Registered mail but they do have high value cages in all 1000+ buildings out there. Every carrier has conveyor belts and slides......have been to all three major hubs in the US....DHL in Wilmington, OH, FedEx in Memphis and worked at UPS in Louisville.....

While registered mail does have everyone sign for it, you have no REAL visibility of where the package is in the process cause no real scanning. At least with FedEx and UPS you can see the intermediate scanning although sometimes that's enough to drive you crazy if something gets lost or delayed. I've tracked packages for a few people from the board before....

Unfortunately, there's no completely failsafe way. Anything can happen with any service. I've heard of registered mail being lost before but probably less than the other services. I've contemplated hopping an airplane in the past but never did.