Adding additional package insurance to a USPS Ground Advantage shipping label (from a Newbie)

[compcirrus]

Hi.  I have just started selling on Ebay.   My undertanding is that a package with an Ebay generated shipping label is automatically covered up to $100.   I am using USPS Ground Advantage.   Based on the final sale price of one of my recent sales I wanted to raise the amount of insurance.  I started to search the Ebay site and this forum for my options.   From what I could see there are potentially two avenues (and maybe more?).  

#1.  Use Shipcover.  When setting up the label I was offered this option.   I tried to research what Ebay'ers think about Shipcover and there are both positive and negative opinions.  

#2.  Use USPS Insurance.  It was suggested I purchase the additional insurance at the Post Office.

I chose #2 first.   The clerk at the USPS told me that purchasing additional insurance at the USPS counter would generate a new tracking number and it could get confusing.  They recommended that I get a new label with additional insurance coverage.  I asked if I could get USPS additional insurance on Ebay and was told yes.

Went home and voided the initial shipping label and generated a new one.    In setting this label up I didn't see any option for USPS insurance and the only Insurance offered was Shipcover.   The only other option I saw was the ability for USPS signature tracking.

Based on this experience some questions:

1) Should I be able to purchase additional USPS insurance when I am purchasing the shipping label and if yes how do I find this option?

2) What are your thoughts related to using Shipcover insurance vs USPS insurance?

3) Anything other options I can consider?

Thank you for your help!

[nobody*s_perfect]

Yes, you could have purchased the additional USPS insurance as part of the process of purchasing your eBay shipping label, if the item's selling price was over $100. It's on the purchase page where you could adjust other label factors such as package weight and dimensions.

FYI, it is almost impossible to collect on a USPS insurance claim for damage, but usually possible to collect on a claim for a lost package. IMHO you'd be better off investing in fantastically protective packaging rather than on additional insurance.

[12345jamesstamps]

I would read up about insurance on eBay.

Insurance works for lost in transit...damaged in transit(hard to collect).

Now collecting the insurance is tricky from what I read all the time on posts here when you use an eBay shipping label.

eBay can say collect through USPS or whatever shipper...and USPS or whatever shipper can say collect though eBay...it usually takes a lot of 'footwork' to collect or even get an answer.

I haven't lost anything in years with the USPS...but then I prefer to use a clerk at the post office to put my postage on it for tracking.

[slippinjimmy]

Shipping insurance, no matter who you buy if from is very iffy for damage claims if for no other reason than you are dependent on the buyer being co-operative.

The problem is that you will be forced to refund the buyer long before you can file a claim, once the buyer has been refunded they have no incentive to co-operate.

Most damage claim are denied due to "improper packaging".

The only insurance that will usually pay off is for shipments that are lost in transit. For that type of claim Shipcover is probably better than USPS insurance.

[compcirrus]

Thank you for your response to my question on shipping and insurance!

[bashort]

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@compcirrus wrote:

Hi.  I have just started selling on Ebay.   My undertanding is that a package with an Ebay generated shipping label is automatically covered up to $100.   I am using USPS Ground Advantage.   Based on the final sale price of one of my recent sales I wanted to raise the amount of insurance.  I started to search the Ebay site and this forum for my options.   From what I could see there are potentially two avenues (and maybe more?).  

#1.  Use Shipcover.  When setting up the label I was offered this option.   I tried to research what Ebay'ers think about Shipcover and there are both positive and negative opinions.  

#2.  Use USPS Insurance.  It was suggested I purchase the additional insurance at the Post Office.

I chose #2 first.   The clerk at the USPS told me that purchasing additional insurance at the USPS counter would generate a new tracking number and it could get confusing.  They recommended that I get a new label with additional insurance coverage.  I asked if I could get USPS additional insurance on Ebay and was told yes.

Went home and voided the initial shipping label and generated a new one.    In setting this label up I didn't see any option for USPS insurance and the only Insurance offered was Shipcover.   The only other option I saw was the ability for USPS signature tracking.

Based on this experience some questions:

1) Should I be able to purchase additional USPS insurance when I am purchasing the shipping label and if yes how do I find this option?

2) What are your thoughts related to using Shipcover insurance vs USPS insurance?

3) Anything other options I can consider?

Thank you for your help!

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do not waste any money on USPS insurance, it is worthless. If it is a valuable enough item to need insurance DO NOT SHIP WITH USPS, ship it UPS or Fedex. 

[stephenmorgan]

There is other insurance available for much less than USPS or Shipcover  that is integrated with eBay, meaning their Tracking Numbers will automatically upload to eBay.  For insurance I pay $1 per $100. 

A damage claim is hard to get approved.  A lost package is much easier but takes a long time.