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Best Way to Ship & Insure Small, High Value items?

This is not a post about how best to pack & ship big, heavy amps & speakers & such (lot of great posts on A'gon on that subject). Rather, my question is which shipper is most reliable, & likely to pay an insurance claim, on a high value item, say.......$2,000 to $5,000 (or more). i.e.; how best to ship a relatively small but valuable item that can easily be shipped by air, & the weight & shipping cost is not an issue, & you're not as much worried about shipping damage as it possibly getting lost? I'm guessing, insured USPS priority or express mail? Thanks in advance for any feedback!
steveaudio

Showing 2 responses by trelja

trelja
3,223 posts
 
ANOTHER vote for USPS Registered Mail!!! In the strongest manner I can recommend it.

As someone who worked for the USPS part time when I was in college, believe me, Registered Mail is akin to the king sending a personal note to someone. It gets a level of urgency and care that must be seen to be believed. At the ridiculously low cost they charge, it is astonishing. And, this from a person who REALLY thinks the Post Office isn't exactly run like clockwork.

The item is isolated in it's own sack, sealed with metal ID tags, gets truly royal treatment, and on, and on, and on. It's tracked on several levels, people handle it like it was their own item. With the regard that if anything happened to it, there would truly be hell to pay.
trelja
3,223 posts
 
Thank you, Fatparrot! Though, in the grand scheme of things, testimonials, such as yours (the customer), from people like you who we have gotten to know and trust, are the most important statements in these matters.

I think your statement about the only way the package can disappear is probably right on.

As slow and painful as the USPS is, I had a good experience with them last year in trying to buy an item here on Audiogon. The seller wanted a USPS Money Order, which I mailed, and he claimed to never receive. They investigated it, found that someone else tried to do something with it, but in the end (less than 60 days), I was issued a full refund. I was more than happy and impressed, as well as kind of shocked.
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