Holy Rate Increases, Batman

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Posted By: Lee Behrens

I just went to UPS to ship off $2200 worth of cards (44cards), it cost me over $38 to ship and insure, to SGC. I shipped a package to SGC 124 cards ($10.000 worth of insurance) and it cost $41. There insurance rate has been increased to $1.50 per $100.

Insurance has got so expensive that I don't believe it is worth it any more. If I have an expensive lot it will go thru the post office with either delivery confirmation or registered mail.

this sucks

Lee

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Posted By: runscott

I did the same thing recently - found out it was a franchise that used to be "mail boxes etcetera". They let these UPS "stores" practice highway robbery. I then went to an office supply store that had a UPS desk inside, and paid 1/3 of the price.

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Posted By: Anonymous

If you didn't, I'd try either USPS Registered or FedEx. You would have to prove the value of the package either way, but FedEx "declared value" is $0.50 per $100.

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Posted By: Rob M (ramram)

If I recall, I believe I heard that Fedex won't cover collectibles with their insurance. Does anybody on the board know if that is correct?? Also, as Scott mentioned, shipping directly with UPS and not The UPS Store, Mail Boxes Etc., etc. is much, much cheaper on the insurance. I would guess it is because UPS self insures.

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Posted By: mrc32

If you have ever had your cards lost in the mail, you would understand how that money spent on insurance is the best "insurance money can buy."

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Posted By: petecld

Fedex: From what I understand Fedex liability is limited. Going from memory here but the amount $500 comes to mind but I could be wrong.

I think the best way to send high dollar packages is USPS via registered mail/fully insured. I've sent more then a few big dollar items and (knock on wood) have had no problems. It is a little slower than regular mail but is safe.

Seriously, you HAVE to bite the fee and buy insurance on large shipments. If a $5-10K shipment gets lost what is that delivery confirmation going to get you?

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Posted By: Rob M (ramram)

Also, if you ship quite often I believe you can pick up an insurance rider from a business (and maybe even a home)insurance carrier that will cover you. Typically they have requirements such as requiring you to ship only via USPS Registered Mail. Then you don't have to insure through the carrier.

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Posted By: runscott

I ship 2-day Fedex fairly often, and I always tell them that it's a baseball card, and give them a value to insure it for. I've never had a compaint or been questioned, and I've insured cards for up to $5,000.

Am I setting myself up for disaster? Thanks!

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

continues to be 35 cents per $100 over the first $100 which is included with the transportation cost (unlike the $1.20 you pay through the USPS for $100 insurance). The UPS stores (formerly Mailboxes etc.) charge more for insurance as they are franchise operations and that's one way that they make money. They (UPS Stores), in some cases, also have shipping through Fedex or DHL (although Fedex has pulled out of most UPS Stores) and they charge the same rates on insurance for those services as well.

When the UPS Stores were 'Mailboxes Etc', they charged the $1.50 per $100 insurance PLUS about 150-175% of what the published transportation rates were for UPS services. Now that they are UPS stores, they are charging about 100-115% of published UPS rates as they get better discounts to get more UPS business into the stores. So for uninsured packages or low value packages, they are a much better deal than they used to be.

A good alternative is to go to UPS.com, sign up for an account and do your own shipping there. You can print out a label and affix it to your package and then drop it off at a UPS store where you don't have to pay anything. You set up your credit card online and pay the same prices you would if you went into a UPS-owned facility. The UPS store gets a small fee (about a buck) for accepting the package and really having to do nothing with it. Or you can drop the package (if smaller) in any one of about 35-40,000 UPS drop boxes all around the U.S. If your package is above $500, you will likely be prompted to print out an insurance form that will need to be signed by a UPS representative.

While I'm a long-time employee of UPS, Fedex does offer the same services online and works very similarly and has just about as good of service quality as UPS does. You can currently find their drop boxes in front of almost any U.S. post office as they currently have a contract with the USPS to carry some of the priority and express mail and deliver some of the express mail. Look for that to change in the next couple years.

Delivery confirmation gets you absolutely nothing from the post office other than just that--confirmation of delivery online. That service is included with every package that UPS and Fedex ships at no additional charge. If USPS loses your package and all you have is confirmation on the package--you get squat. If you send it registered, insured USPS for $2200--I can without looking guarantee that UPS or Fedex will beat the rate on that service in a timeframe about 1/2 or less of the USPS. Not to disparage the USPS because they've made HUGE gains over last few years, but insurance through the post office is 2x-3x higher than the private express carriers.

Both UPS and Fedex DO place some limits on antiques and un-replaceable items (which is pretty much up for debate).

The other benefit you get with UPS and Fedex that the post office CANNOT match is intermediary scanning of your packages. Delivery confirmation only says it did or did not get delivered. UPS and Fedex offer real-time tracking with planning for scanning into and out of every facility along the way. At least if something happens, it does give each company some direction on WHERE it happened and allow for quicker service recovery measures.

Okay, enough self-serving advertising. I'm open for flaming from at least one person who has a grudge, but I think UPS and Fedex offer better solutions at lower cost in quicker modes than the postal service.

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

but just be careful if what you're sending is not replaceable. A PSA5 T206 Cobb is pretty replaceable. You might call their general customer service number to check it out. I don't know Fedex's. I'm sure it's on their website. UPS's is 1-800-pick-UPS.

I think Mastronet insures most all their stuff outside of the carriers they use. They get riders on all the large items and the lower value stuff is covered under a blanket policy probably.

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Posted By: runscott

They charged similar rates as UPS, but charged a massive premium for insurance. For example, a package that "the real UPS" charged me $24 to ship was going to cost $70 at the former Mailboxes,etc store. If this has changed in the last 4 weeks, UPS needs to do a better job of communicating it to us, as I now avoid their stores like the plague.

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

I can't confirm what all 4000+ UPS Store/Mailboxes Etc stores are doing. About 400-500 of the 4000+ stores elected NOT to change their name to UPS Store as, by doing so, Fedex pulled most of their services from their stores. Stores that had heavy Fedex business probably elected to retain the Mailboxes Etc name. Don't know for sure but something's running right because UPS small package traffic to/through the stores is up about 150% since the name change which more than offsets the loss of Fedex/DHL business. Some of that is for customers who, as I stated earlier, use UPS.com for their shipments and drop them at the stores.

What they do on the insurance is solely within their own discretion and your point makes sense since UPS insurance is .35/100 and they are charging more than 3X that. That's why competition is good and that's why there are more than one delivery company. Both Fedex and UPS are doing QUITE well if the stock prices are any indication..........

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

is at www.iship.com

You can get prices there based on the parameters you enter. For example, I used the following parameters for a package.........

Express/Overnight service
ORIGIN 40299 (Louisville, KY)
DEST 07054 (Parsippany, NJ-SGC)
3 pounds, 0 ounces
$5000 insured value (maximum USPS will allow for express mail)
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USPS Express Mail came in at $70.05 total ($21.05 transportation, $49.00 insurance costs)
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Fedex Priority Overnight came in at $55.13 ($30.13 transportation, $25.00 insurance costs)
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UPS Next Day Air came in at $48.03 ($30.88 transportation, $17.15 insurance costs)
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Only difference is that UPS and Fedex will both guarantee delivery by 10:30 or your money back (think that would only be for transportation portion of that quote) and USPS will only guarantee delivery by end of day (believe it's money back as well).

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Posted By: Lee Behrens

When this UPS Store opened a block away from my house. I went in and asked the cost of shipping a package thru the store if there was any extra charge. I was told it was the same as going to the UPS where the trucks are. I called the UPS 800 number and foound oout that yes the shipping charges are the same but everything else is going to cost you more including insurance, it is .35 per $100 at the "truck garage" and $1.50 per $100 at the UPS Store. i am going to talk to them tomorrow and hopefully get this resolved.

A question for the attorneys out there, is this misrepresentation? Saying that they charge the same for shipping at the UPS store and charge a different insurance rate?

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Posted By: Eric Pugh

DHL is the best value in express shipping - for the transportation costs - if you do an ounce of legwork in getting your account set up. Insurance is the same as the others - 50 cents per $100 - but be very careful, baseball cards and the like are not insurable per the service guide (from Airborne Express - now owned by DHL).

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Posted By: leon

If they advertise it like your last sentence then you answered your own question. Shipping and insurance are two different things. They certainly could ( and probably should) advertise they ship for the same rate if they do. I would. It's business and a little sneaky but hey....they gotta stay in business. My guess is a few things....1. overhead at a small store is higher per square foot than a "garage" 2. If there is a perceived "service" value to handing a package off when you go grocery shopping then people will do it, relative to the expense/value. 3. Folks who aren't lazy (counts most Americans out) will still go elsewhere (the garages) 4. well, sort of goes back to staying in business....later

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Posted By: Julie

charged me $50 insurance for a $500 ($555) card. The card was rare and the hockey player famous, so I paid it--I was afraid he'd just sell the thing to the next highest bidder.

Then I chewed him out in an e-mail when the card arrived (left him very good feedback, however--it's a great card: "Cyclone" Taylor from the C57 set, about ex.). Told him $50 was what, in the U.S. you paid for $20,000 worth of cards, not $500. he said he was "very offended."
n.e.s.m. they're called. He may simply have been disappointed in the price his card brought, or, maybe it REALLY costs that much to ship a $555 card from Canada to the U.S.--I only mentioned the second possibility in tghe "chewing-out" letter.

Oh--one more thing. he waited 20 days to ship me the card, though I paid him with Pay Pal from my bank account. The card arrived in 3 days from shipping date. THAT must have cost him a lot--but he didn't have to wait 20 days to ship the thing, and I didn't demand it in 3 days from shipping date!

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Posted By: runscott

Some people are just whacky

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Posted By: Tom Boblitt

as someone stated earlier, UPS is self-insured in the damage/loss department. The excess value insurance is collected and any damages or claims for loss are paid from the amount collected. It is typically into the high 10's of millions of dollars (claims that is). I would suspect that Fedex and DHL/Airborne run roughly the same type of operation (at a higher cost--50 cents versus 35 cents per $100 valuation).

As for the UPS stores, again, they are independently owned and operated and I believe that their insurance is bought in some type of system OUTSIDE of the normal 35 cents per $100 valuation--although I'm sure that their cost is somewhere near that amount. I don't believe UPS pays claims on Mailboxes Etc/UPS Store shipments. I think it's paid from some other system.

For the person who ships low value shipments ($100 or below), which constitutes probably 75-80% or more of the UPS Store's volume, the $100 insurance included in the transportation charges is probably more than sufficient, so they are only paying a small premium (5-15%) to ship at that store--which is likely more convenient than dropping off at an actual UPS facility.

If you have to have have higher value shipments, use UPS.com or Fedex.com to generate your shipment--you'll save more on insurance that way. But be sure to check out service guides.

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Posted By: Lee Behrens

I talked to the owner of the UPS Store today. She basically told me tough luck and that was corporate policy. This falls under lesson learned and I will not do business with them again.

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Posted By: warshawlaw

The best thing you can do is to purchase a private policy of insurance on an "all risk" basis from a decent carrier. These policies insure the items against all risks except those listed in the exclusions provisions of the policies. Unless I am seriously misreading the policy form (always a possibility with insurance) my State Farm policy will cover me if the cards being sent to SGC are lost in transit. The only caveat is that you must be sure to schedule the cards with your agent in order to have coverage.

There are some other collectible-related policies that will cover you up to a certain degree of value for newly-acquired cards. I'd suggest looking into this if your collection turns over a lot (i.e., if you are an active trader).

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Posted By: leon

Hate to sort of pose another question so quick but this is just normal stuff....You mentioned to "schedule" your cards. Have you ever priced scheduling of valuables on your homeowners? I haven't on cards but have on jewelery and art. It ain't cheap. I dropped the jewelery rider this year (knock on wood) because of it's expense but went ahead and kept the art insurance, as it wasn't too bad. I can only imagine that sports cards would be more if they can be done at all....otherwise, good points.....best regards