Question on shipping your high end knives.

Mako109

Mako109

Joined
Dec 17, 2008
Messages
729
How many of you pay for additional postal insurance when shipping your high end knives for service, sale, or other reasons?

Or do you just pay for postage (whatever rate) and take your chances?
 
UPS includes $100 in insurance. I'm not sure what USPS' default coverage is though. A cheaper knife I probably wouldn't bother to insure extra and would send USPS since they cost less for small items. But once you start having to tack on hundreds of dollars of insurance UPS becomes cheaper. A little over a dollar per $100 in extra coverage.
 
I have a Condition 1 18" waterproof hardcase, with two padlocks.
I mail the key separately and insure the case with signature required.
Coop has $15k insurance through his photography business, so I don't pay for extra coverage if it's going there.
 
I typically use USPS and I will pay for insurance to protect myself for anything with value over about $125 or 150.

There are discussions about insurance for people who sell knives. I'm a buyer and a seller, my opinion is that the seller is responsible for delivering a knife to the buyer. The buyer said they would buy the knife, they fulfilled their obligation by sending payment, now it is the seller's responsibility to send the product. If a buyer sends the payment and doesn't receive the goods, they won't be happy. So if I'm a seller I'm prepared to reimburse payment if for some reason the product doesn't make it, that's the risk of doing business, so I pay for the insurance to protect myself.
 
I insure anything over $200 and have been adding signature request. I have my doubts if I would ever be able to collect, since I rarely have receipts(buy mostly on the exchanges). If I were starting anew I think I would just skip it(self insure) and just use the signature request. I have given USPS a load of money for something they may never pay on.
So far no losses in multiple hundreds of transaction(knock on wood)
 
I have always insured my knives through Collectibles Insurance. They only require individual knives to be scheduled if over $5,000. Over time, I've shipped lots of knives in that "over 5k" amount. The beauty of their policy is that they cover any loss one would experience in shipping, up to $10k or $20k, depending on what shipper one uses. . Consequently, enough money has been saved (not having to pay post office insurance costs) this way that it more than pays for my insurance premium........
 
Thank you all for your thoughtful responses. I'll continue to purchase the requisite amount of insurance, and it's good to know I'm not the only one who does so. Though I've never lost anything in the mail, it's better to be safe than sorry.
 
I haven't sold many knives, but I've sold a ton of watches in the past. If you're shipping with USPS, good luck collecting ANY amount of insurance money on goods you've sent. Even if you have the original receipt, they'll argue that's not the true value since it's used, and they won't want to pay you a dime.
 
There is currently a long thread in GBU talking about this. I sensed from that discussion that USPS insurance is largely a waste of your money because if your package is lost in shipping, you'll have to provide all kinds of evidence and USPS may still find a way of not paying you. The time, effort, and lengthy process of claiming the insurance sounds just too tiresome. I'll just refund the buyer and swallow the loss of $$. Plus, if there is a bad middle man, an insured sign on the shipping box/bag is like an invitation to theft.
 
Insure and follow tracking number like a dog on a trail.
I'm waiting for two SAKs from New Hampshire and have USPS alerts sent to my phone. And that's for 50$ Value.
 
High end? Insured for full value and only accept PayPal G&S. That way buyer and seller are both protected and can recoup if things go south.

Under $100 I usually just go with the included $50 priority mail insurance. I figure I’ll eat the other $50 if it gets lost.
 
I'll add-packaging well is very important, and use a lot of tape. Of special attention is the side flaps on the small flat rate priority boxes. They will pop open if the box is squashed. Proper packing may help prevent the loss or theft and thus making a claim.
Not from my experience, but reading-The other shippers seem to pay off better on losses than USPS.
 
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ruddyduck said:
I haven't sold many knives, but I've sold a ton of watches in the past. If you're shipping with USPS, good luck collecting ANY amount of insurance money on goods you've sent. Even if you have the original receipt, they'll argue that's not the true value since it's used, and they won't want to pay you a dime.
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They paid me insured value on a lost knife I shipped. All I had to do is request paperwork from post office, send everything in and I got a check.
 
I used to forgo additional insurance, but in the last few years I have had 4-5 knives "lost" by the USPS. I suspect they were actually stolen, as the empty boxes were returned to me, and they had been cut/torn open and the contents removed. Now I fully insure everything I send and take no chances.
 
jstn said:
I used to forgo additional insurance, but in the last few years I have had 4-5 knives "lost" by the USPS. I suspect they were actually stolen, as the empty boxes were returned to me, and they had been cut/torn open and the contents removed. Now I fully insure everything I send and take no chances.
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Have you made any claims and collected. I would like to hear more of the positive. Those with negative experiences are the most vocal.
 
So, I just shipped a Sebenza Large back to CRK. I literally used the box my GT Recon 40 came in, then the original box that my Sebenza came in inside that, then went to UPS and paid for the most base shipping without insurance. It cost me $12.

The likely hood of having my package stolen or lost in transit by UPS is low based on the thousands of packages I have received/sent via UPS. Sure enough, my package arrived at CRK this morning.

Am I playing with fire, probably... I just hate the idea that I have to give these people more money for something they should just cover given the amount of money their executives get.
 
Peter Hartwig said:
Have you made any claims and collected. I would like to hear more of the positive. Those with negative experiences are the most vocal.
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I did make claims and collect, but initially I was only going with $50 included insirance so I took significant losses on the first few. Now I fully insure my knives and in the last two instances collected the full amount. Regardless, it is a hassle and it’s frustrated to have belonging stolen whether I am duly reimbursed or not.
 
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