I’m looking to sell a couple of high value cards (~7k usd a piece) but have no idea how to protect both myself and the buyer. Seeking advice from those that ship expensive cards often.
Paypal
G&s sounds like the best option, but I’ve heard horror stories where people deny receiving the card / claimed they got another card, and get a refund
F&f is good for me but unfair for the buyer, so no go
Then there is the issue of insurance and customs
Who do you use to insure your cards during shipping? My shipper offered insurance at 10% of card value which is no go
How do you insure a card value and have customs at a different value?
How do people accept a high custom value and a big tax on their side?
Tracking and signature to prove where you sent, when, they received it. Well packaged, I would take a picture of the package aswell with the items in, then sealed at the post office. Do not use f and f because you wont be covered if they decide to screw you over. only use it for f and f or close and trusted members/people you know etc.
I dont have experience with this but my answer is based on many things.Hopefully high value sellers can help aswell
If you cannot prove they received the package, at the address and signed by the person…then you wont have a leg to stand on. Just like ebay cases where buyers claim didnt arrive, damaged, or not as described.Juts be very very cautious and try look into the person you are selling to.If they are dodgey af then Id walk away(if you can depending on how the items are sold…ebay etc) Better to overkill with pre cautions than be screwed cutting corners…especially for high value items imo
tagged a few people who sell Pokemans often and high value items.Hopefully they can help keep you safe when selling online
I don’t believe in insurance.
It’s a scam to Make money off the poor.
Yeah but With anything there will be risk…
Even if you sent 100 % true top value and registered you run the risk but will pay customs.
If it’s a trustworthy buyer I will send low customs, if it’s a dangerous feedback low feedback buyer, I may declare true top value and let the buyer incur the risk. It’s situational.
Be smart, use feedback, do your research on buyers and sellers… And move forward logically…
If it was me, I’ve sold 3600+ items and declared as $30 in the mail.
As
It avoids attention and theft from the mail service / scammers.
You can provide full tracking and registry stilll, so you are covered by PayPal in any instance.
There is a small chance of risk, but if someone can honestly put together a large sum of money to make a significant purchase. They generally are not a scammer.
Rats and scammers stay to low sums usually.
Be logical, be smart, use your judgement, do your research on the buyer and on The seller. And if a trustworthy relationship is established do you best to avoid custom and duty fees with low declarations.
If it’s dangerous, then declare full value and leverage risk to the buyer.
I actually just kind of went over this in another thread. Quoting part of that as I don’t know what OP means by “expensive” exactly as that term is relative. This is how I ship by dollar threshold.
Under $10 no tracking, $10-$249.99 first class tracked, $250-$749.99 priority, $750+ priority plus signature (needed for seller protection), $2.5k+ registered. These are all my domestic policies. International is GSP only on eBay but I do a few times a month do paypal invoice international. These are kind of a case by case basis. I do anything from global forever stamp in plain white envelope up to USPS global express guaranteed.
$750 is the threshold for both paypal invoices and eBay sales that require signature confirmation for seller protecion. Always make sure you use this or they can claim it was stolen off their porch or something. F&F if you can get them to pay that way gives you all the protection.
I’ve always said it and IMO videos/photos etc. are just a waste of time. Nobody is going to watch them and they prove absolutely nothing. What happens after the camera turns off is always a question that will be posed. Save yourself the time. Potentially upon return of an item that you suspect a buyer may have swapped a video of the opening after clearly showing addresses and the fact that the package is sealed may be warranted. A lot less scams happen than you think as anyone stupid enough to try and scam with thousands of dollar transactions can find themselves in big legal trouble and/or getting a visit from who they scammed in person.
These are my methods and what I have found works for me best:
Payment: I only accept friends and family now because I have had buyers abuse the G&S and swap cards on me in the past. PayPal workers know nothing about this niche hobby and the system is already heavily skewed to buyers.
Packing: For expensive cards I always use either toploader or cardsaver in between cardboard and inside of a bubblemailer
Shipping: Anything over $25 gets tracking, anything over $100 gets signature confirmation, and anything over $250 gets insurance.
International: I generally avoid international deals unless it is a $100+ transaction. For customs info I generally make it less than it is so the buyer can avoid a higher import tax
Personally I have used global express guaranteed insured and therefore declared for full value. That is an amount that I cannot stand to lose without losing a whole lotta sleep. If I were however paid via F&F or preferably bank wire/BTC or something like that then I would have no problem doing whatever the buyer wished as they would be assuming all the risk. FedEx/UPS may have cheaper/better options but just make sure you use something tracked all the way to the door. USPS first class and priority at times have tracked only to the destination country but have left off without every fully marking as delivered. That kills you when a claim is opened.
Destination country and your relationship/trust with the buyer are also huge considerations here which have been left out. Destination country matters a lot for that last point on whether or not delivery will be confirmed at the end. Best way to ensure delivery confirmation is to add signature tracking which at high values will require a high cost service like global express. Nice thing is it gets about anywhere in the world in 2-3 days. Less time to sweat.
Use a courier service, I suggest Fedex. In most countries there is no import duty/taxes if you mark the package as ‚gift‘. So then the buyer does not need to pay high taxes.
Also what was suggested here before to take a photo of your package with the card in is probably the funniest thing I‘ve ever heard. It proofs absolutely nothing and you can‘t use a photo or video as proof that you sent the correct item. It‘s just too easy to do that but still send the wrong card after all.
Make sure you know the buyers real full name and address. In case something goes wrong.
Simple.
Let buyer decide so they can pay for whatever method/system they’d like,
If they want you to reduce the customs amount then only accept fam&friends payment all at their risk.
I just sold four German Poke Boxes and the buyer wanted to save the money so I did what they wanted, 100% their risk.
As a buyer figure all this into your offer price.
I disagree strongly, I would have lost out on a 1200 dollar sale this year due to the post offices negligence and last year I had 2 400 dollar packages each with coins in them that I was refunded for after a postal employee helped themselves to them. It does look like insurance costs in other countries to the US is higher than our costs though.
I understand everyone has their own opinion, and some people are luckier than others when it comes to package delivery.
I don’t ship extremely expensive cards too often anymore, but I buy them a lot and I’m in a country (Australia) where import taxes are a thing so I have some knowledge in that regard.
Personally for international customers I’d only accept a G&S payment for something really high value if I knew them or they were well known and vouched for in the community. If they wanted the item value marked down for customs when paying via G&S I wouldn’t do it, that leaves you as the seller really unprotected if anything goes wrong. An international G&S payment would need to be declared full value for customs and fully insured, otherwise I’d only take F&F.
Insurance comes through the carrier so I don’t think you have much option there, for something high value I’d use a courier like FedEx and not insure the item if the buyer was fine with that, otherwise insurance costs are on them. I’ve received a lot of high value cards via FedEx with no insurance and a local here had a $38k black lotus arrive the same way. Most high end card collectors that I know send uninsured via FedEx, they’re just a really reliable company IMO.
You can’t insure a card for one value and a customs value at another. If the customs value is marked at $100 then that’s all you can insure up to. A carrier won’t let you value something at $100 and insure for $5000. You could look into third party insurance policy that includes postal services (pretty sure this is what pwcc has since they send out $10k+ cards uninsured with a customs declaration of $50) but that’s pretty overkill for a one off deal and probably not worth it.
I don’t accept high customs values and big taxes personally. If I’m buying something internationally I will make sure it’s marked under the $1000 AUD import tax threshold otherwise I’m not buying it. I only buy from well known and vouched for sellers because for this to happen I usually have to pay F&F which is fine. I’m not insured and wear all the risk but when something is getting sent via FedEx the chances of anything happening are so slim, I’ve never had an issue and if I paid for insurance and customs fees for all my purchases I’d have paid in excess of $20,000 extra so it’s totally worth it to me. Even if something didn’t show up I’d still be ahead by a mile through having things declared below customs value.
I insure for expensive things domestically because it’s cheap, international post is different though especially when value declarations and import taxes come into it. I never get my expensive purchases insured and accept that risk.
Well if he pays f&f and does not want insurance, that is different. But if you sell it g&s and do not get insurance, the only one that can lose is the seller. Especially when I sell on eBay and I insure, I don’t insure packages for the benefit of the buyer.
Haha another golden rule never declare coins or money… Immediate theft.
Also forgot to say before description is important. Dont say cards or pokemon cards. Display as a print or photo is better as its more generic and low value.
I agree you should do the full declaration always, but if the parties are trustworthy it’s good to declare low and help each other out.
Out of preparation for when I sell a card for a few thousand…
Is there anything I can do to ensure that a buyer can’t successfully claim they received the wrong item and send back a different card when returning?
If I sell a $10,000 card and someone claims I sent them an energy card, the returns an energy card, am I completely SOL?
With that amount of money, if eBay of paypal did nothing, couldn’t you press charges?
For those that have sold a card of that value through eBay or PayPal, have you ever had a scamming attempt? Or with that value is a consignment service the best plan?
@teraz when you get into that range you start talking about felony theft/mail fraud and a lot of other big boy charges. You would certainly be able to get the authorities involved if anything like that were to happen but I honestly have never heard of it. I think some firm messages and phone calls would get anyone to back down from such a ridiculous attempt. Having a solid feedback history and reputation will help things on your side.
Sales at this price happen thousands of times a day on eBay with no issue. Just be sure to send insured if you can’t afford the loss as the post office does occasionally have packages go missing.
If you pay f+f on paypal you can still claim the money back through your credit card company, assuming you used CC and not paypal balance to pay. I once paid f+f and the guy didnt send me the $1000 card. Paypal wasnt able to do anything but my CC company stepped in and eventually paypal returned my money
