Insurance for Expensive item ($3600)

[brooklyncabin]

Hey all,

I never sold such an expensive item before. It seems I can only add up to $1000 in insurance... Unless I buy on my own. Any way to add more insurance through ebay? 

[toysaver]

EBay is not the best venue for selling expensive goods.  Ship in person at the PO.  Insurance is the least of your worries.

[farmalljr]

I am betting the next post from the OP will be "I got scammed out of $3600. What can I do?"

[dbfolks166mt]

     I am not sure what you sold or where you are shipping it to but you have been a seller long enough to be aware of the risks associated with high dollar items so I won't lecture you on that. Depending on the size and weight of the item you may be well served by not buying or insuring the shipment through eBay. While it may cost a bit more to ship taking the item to a UPS or FedEx shipping store/center and purchasing the shipping and insurance directly through them may be your best option. Both offer insurance options large enough to cover the total value of the item you are shipping provided they will ship it. 

     If you go this route make sure you upload the tracking information into the eBay order. For something with this value signature receipt is also required by eBay. 

[downunder-61]

You would have to ask the shipping company how much you can insure for

[dentalrprtek2012]

I would not sell that item. In my case I sold a 3800.00 item dishonest eBay provided buyer claimed NAD to their financial institution and eBay allowed them a full refund and they kept my merchandise. eBay provides NO seller protection and customer service is a complete joke they will mislead and lie and just hang you out and do whatever the buyer wants. Good luck and I hope it works out for you

[caldreamer]

In addition to insurance EBAY requires that you have "signature confirmation" for high value items.   They require this as proof of delivery.

[maxine*j]

I would take the crimping tool to either UPS or FedEx for shipment and insurance.  Be sure to require a signature.  You're in NYC, so you can find a store for either one fairly easily.  You can phone first to get an idea of procedure and cost. 

Nice sale, and I hope all goes well with it.

=

[duffy4444]

   Since you say you've never before sold an expensive item and are ready to ship it, I think you should be more concerned about the success of the entire transaction, not just the amount of insurance. If you read a few hundred posts here and on the shipping forum, you will see the heartache and anger, and why I say the following:

   Regardless of how long a seller has been here, or how many feedbacks he/she has, NEVER, EVER  sell, and especially ship, any high-value item here on eBay, that one's business model is not prepared to lose -- very often along with the double insult of losing their money even months down the road on the quickly-rising phenomenon of cc chargeback and shipping scams.

   Instead, for high-value items use a venue like Craigslist, where you can sell with local pickup and cash, until eBay institutes some real and helpful seller protections with teeth in them to counter all the online scams.

   Good luck on the risk you are taking. I sincerely hope it does work out for you.

Cheers, Duffy

[jayjaspersgarage]

Being a Dewalt maniac I admire your tool listings.  If Milwaukee had a decent range of tools back in 2012 I most likely would have gone that way.  Dewalt had more of what I needed at the time and I haven't looked back.  Bosch is the choice for larger outdoor tools such as chipper hammers etc...

As for insurance you're in a precarious situation.  I include a delivery charge on expensive items and list them with local pickup only.  The best insurance is to hand deliver it or have a meet up where the customer comes to a mutual location such as a police station.  

I have no idea how to obtain extra insurance beyond what the standard "included" insurance.

So why am I responding?  See #1, I am a Dewalt maniac.  🙂

[ynotmore]

Similar to what others have suggested - buy the label outside of ebay.  It may take some research, as I'm not sure which carrier offers $3600 to insure a single shipment.  Another option, to cover the full amount, is buying additional insurance from another source.

Some basics:

* Ship with signature required. No insurance of that amount will be supported without signature required.

* Whomever you choose to ship that item - take the package to their office get the receipt right there that they have the package. If the label is not scanned or that info is lost in the system - effectively, your package is not insured.

If that purchase is multiple items - do the above, but "break up the value" - send the pieces in separate packages. And ship those packages together - companies such as Fedex and UPS can discount the cost of multiple packages going to the same address.

[1tuna]

I think that 1000 shoud be enough in the USA

it unlikely to get lost..............pack it well and hope for the best

if you are going to lose money it will be with a return scam so having lots of extra insurance will not really be of any value

nice tool you sold

[dbfolks166mt]

     The following link will take you to the UPS site where it explains their insurance process and carrier. You can insure a shipment through UPS "declared value" for up to $50,000.00. The rates are somewhere around $1.10 for every $100.00 of additional value beyond the initial $100 UPS provides on a basic shipment. 

https://www.ups.com/us/en/shipping/services/value-added/declared-value.page

[femmefan1946]

You may prefer to have third party insurance that is not from the shipper.

I use a specialist insurer, Hugh Wood International, but they require annual contracts not one-offs and insure collectibles for dealers and collectors.

I have heard good things about shipinsure /shipinsurance - not sure of the name since I have not personally used it, but it is popular with Canadian sellers shipping into the USA. It is an American company.

[na_833338]

I shipping a package valued at $25k using USPS Registered mail.  Full insurance with signature required.  Registered mail requires you to conform to a very specific method of packaging the item, so learn those ahead of time if you think you would use it. 

I've heard that not every post office can offer Registered mail because of all the hoops those packages have to jump through.  I think it's kinda like having a personal courier take it from city to city until it gets to the destination.  Mine took about 10 days to go 1200 miles.  Good luck!