Insurance for shipping comics?

Elveen · Post by **Elveen** » Mon May 11, 2009 9:42 am

Not sure if this is the right forum (please move it if it is not).

But, do you guys do insurance when you ship books?

And if so, how? I have asked before and I was told that I need a receipt or some kind of proof of value. How do you do that?

Maybe if you are shipping 1 book, maybe you can use a ebay sale? But what about shipping a stack of books? How can you do ebay receipts for like 30 books?

Also if you are shipping media (I know some let you do comics, some do not, TPBs are ok, but some don't know the difference. The reason that some do not let you do media mail for comics is the advertisements, but for Valiant books the advertisements are like 15 or so years old), how do you do insurance? Do you think that by stating it is a comic book, someone in the chain is going to cause problems?

iggy101us · Post by **iggy101us** » Mon May 11, 2009 9:55 am

I have never been told by the PO that I need a receipt that states the value of the item being shipped. I have insured comics and sports cards before and never had a problem.

Below is from the PO in the "What is Evidence of Value?" section. There are alternatives to receipts. Even though the website says the sender is supposed to provide evidence when mailing the item, I have never been asked for it. As far as product description for comics, I usually just put "books".

Insurance FAQ

ckb · Post by **ckb** » Mon May 11, 2009 10:37 am

A printout of a paypal payment email attached to a printout of a completed eBay listing has worked for me in the past.

IanAlexavier · Post by **IanAlexavier** » Mon May 11, 2009 11:07 am

I say 'books' as well. Ive never had a problem.

Elveen · Post by **Elveen** » Mon May 11, 2009 12:11 pm

ckb wrote:A printout of a paypal payment email attached to a printout of a completed eBay listing has worked for me in the past.

But what if they sale is not form ebay and it is a stack of books?

Elveen · Post by **Elveen** » Mon May 11, 2009 12:12 pm

iggy101us wrote:I have never been told by the PO that I need a receipt that states the value of the item being shipped. I have insured comics and sports cards before and never had a problem.

Below is from the PO in the "What is Evidence of Value?" section. There are alternatives to receipts. Even though the website says the sender is supposed to provide evidence when mailing the item, I have never been asked for it. As far as product description for comics, I usually just put "books".

Insurance FAQ

The 2 times I asked about ins. they asked for some proof of value.

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Mon May 11, 2009 12:22 pm

Elveen wrote:
ckb wrote:A printout of a paypal payment email attached to a printout of a completed eBay listing has worked for me in the past.

But what if they sale is not form ebay and it is a stack of books?

CC, do you use the online option for printing shipping labels? It's very easy to do, and it's just a button click to add insurance to any package. I don't automatically add insurance in most cases, but it's recommended. $1.70 for the first $50, then it's sliding scale upwards from there.

If you need proof and it's not an eBay sale, either a printed PayPal screen or even a screen-capture (say, from a website like this one) showing what was for sale, the price, and who it sold to, will also work. Also, copies of checks or MO's can help.

I hope this answers your questions...

-slym

Elveen · Post by **Elveen** » Mon May 11, 2009 12:32 pm

slym2none wrote:
Elveen wrote:
ckb wrote:A printout of a paypal payment email attached to a printout of a completed eBay listing has worked for me in the past.

But what if they sale is not form ebay and it is a stack of books?
CC, do you use the online option for printing shipping labels? It's very easy to do, and it's just a button click to add insurance to any package. I don't automatically add insurance in most cases, but it's recommended. $1.70 for the first $50, then it's sliding scale upwards from there.

If you need proof and it's not an eBay sale, either a printed PayPal screen or even a screen-capture (say, from a website like this one) showing what was for sale, the price, and who it sold to, will also work. Also, copies of checks or MO's can help.

I hope this answers your questions...

-slym

thanks.

You know I have been skeptical about printing out media mail shipping from home. I just seems that they might be more likely open boxes and check if media mail is done form home.

Maybe I am just paranoid.

slym2none · Post by **slym2none** » Mon May 11, 2009 12:34 pm

Elveen wrote:You know I have been skeptical about printing out media mail shipping from home. I just seems that they might be more likely open boxes and check if media mail is done form home.

Maybe I am just paranoid.

Well, I have been using Media for comics for a long time on eBay, and even though my local PO wants to open packages IF you bring them to the counter, I have yet to have any trouble on either my end OR the buyer's PO when sending out packages with pre-printed labels using Media Mail.

Of course, I have to add the disclaimer "Your experience may vary" - but I doubt it.

-slym

Elveen · Post by **Elveen** » Mon May 11, 2009 12:37 pm

slym2none wrote:
Elveen wrote:You know I have been skeptical about printing out media mail shipping from home. I just seems that they might be more likely open boxes and check if media mail is done form home.

Maybe I am just paranoid.

Well, I have been using Media for comics for a long time on eBay, and even though my local PO wants to open packages IF you bring them to the counter, I have yet to have any trouble on either my end OR the buyer's PO when sending out packages with pre-printed labels using Media Mail.

Of course, I have to add the disclaimer "Your experience may vary" - but I doubt it.

-slym

Noted. It would sure save some time to do it at home.

C

kryptonitecomics · Post by **kryptonitecomics** » Mon May 11, 2009 12:45 pm

As others have stated...never had a problem with purchasing insurance and when I have filed claims I have used the Ebay end of auction info to show the value the item sold for...

Elveen · Post by **Elveen** » Mon May 11, 2009 1:13 pm

kryptonitecomics wrote:As others have stated...never had a problem with purchasing insurance and when I have filed claims I have used the Ebay end of auction info to show the value the item sold for...

But what if it is not an ebay sale?

kryptonitecomics · Post by **kryptonitecomics** » Mon May 11, 2009 1:23 pm

I pull up similar items that have completed on Ebay and print those out so they can see how much the itesm would sell for......

ckb · Post by **ckb** » Mon May 11, 2009 2:00 pm

Elveen wrote:You know I have been skeptical about printing out media mail shipping from home. I just seems that they might be more likely open boxes and check if media mail is done form home.

In my experience, weight is the biggest factor in getting something inspected. The heavier the better the chance.

My opinion is that the printed labels help, not hurt. These bar-coded packages are much less likely to need human attention.

Elveen · Post by **Elveen** » Mon May 11, 2009 2:10 pm

ckb wrote:
Elveen wrote:You know I have been skeptical about printing out media mail shipping from home. I just seems that they might be more likely open boxes and check if media mail is done form home.
In my experience, weight is the biggest factor in getting something inspected. The heavier the better the chance.

My opinion is that the printed labels help, not hurt. These bar-coded packages are much less likely to need human attention.

. Thanks.

superman-prime · Post by **superman-prime** » Mon May 11, 2009 2:25 pm

I do the same as ckb