Insurance for cards shipped from UK > US

Hi,

I’m looking for some advice on insuring some cards to be sent direct to PSA from the UK to the US. I know you can just buy insurance, but if I ever needed to make a claim on these every single policy i’ve looked at so far requires proof of value. Most of these cards are pulled from booster packs, so I have no proof whatsoever of their value which renders any insurance essentially useless.

To illustrate what I mean a little better, here is the policy for a third-party insurance company Secursus

#### 8.3.. Requirements regarding the insured value of the Items

The Customer must declare the value of the Merchandise(s) in the Package when subscribing to the Insurance. This value must be established by the following proofs only:

*** For Brand New Goods:**
** * an invoice for the Goods(s) dating less than 2 (two) months from the Collection Date;**
*** For Second-hand Goods:**
** * an invoice for the Goods(s) dating less than 2 (two) months from the Collection Date in case the Customer is an official Business, or a written and signed agreement between the buyer and the seller stipulating the value of the Merchandise(s) dating less than 2 (two) months from the Collection Date, in case the Customer is an Individual;**

Every insurance policy that I can find has some variation of this, so if it came to it I wouldn’t be able to claim anything because I didn’t buy the card directly. Does anyone have experience with this and can offer me some advice?

Welcome here! I think that most insurance companies would eventually accept things like eBay sold listings or an attestation of value from an official business, which would not be too hard to procure from someone here on E4 if needed. The idea that an item would be valuable enough to insure during shipping but not have a direct purchase price in the last two months is fairly standard. Think family heirlooms, jewelry, vintage books, art, etc. That probably won’t stop them from making your life a pain if you do make a claim though.

That being said, you should be aware that in addition to the invoice requirements, many shipping companies and third-party insurers have limits on what they will pay out for collectibles. Oftentimes these limits range from several hundred dollars up to $1000. So be sure to look at their declared value limits in the fine print of the insurance contract. If your shipment value is within that range then it will be fine, but if you’re sending a $20-50k package to PSA and expecting full insurance that will be very hard to obtain via traditional routes. There are some collectible-specific insurance policies which cover packages, but more often than not it is more financially viable to self-insure.

I will usually only insure my packages when a third-party, collectible-specific insurance policy is available. Outside of that, I “self insure” by doing things like splitting up packages to minimize liability if one is lost, paying for the fastest shipping service, double-box packing, using registered mail if available, etc.

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You’ve basically outlined all the problems. In addition, I always just expect insurance firms to fight as hard as they can (that’s maybe not always the case). As an example, when Graded Gem had a package go missing, it took them months to get a payout of a reasonable amount, and I think they had dedicated third-party insurance.

In that case, they had to use sold listings to provide proof of value, as fourthstar mentioned.

Personally, sending from the UK (with FedEx, purchased through parcelhero), I don’t buy insurance. It’s never going to be actuarially fair (the insurance will always have a premium), and the chance of the package getting lost is low. As well, there’s an argument that a package with a high declared value/insurance amount will attract more unwanted attention, thought whether or not this is true if the amount isn’t actually on the label, I don’t know. As well, the value of time required trying to get a payout feels like it would be high.

That said, packages do go missing and one should absolutely be aware that it’s a possibility. On this forum alone I can think of at least a couple of big losses. Ultimately it’s something I just try not to think about, which is easier when it’s only in transit for a day or two.

Off topic question, but how often do you end up paying VAT on the grading costs when returns come back? I’m at 50% of my submissions have required me to pay VAT and I’m wondering if I’m doing something wrong (shipping parcelhero, stating return on the customs label)

Only once from PSA, but I had already emailed them proof of export and an explanation of the package, so when they asked for payment I told them it was incorrect. Long story short, I didn’t have to pay in the end.

As long as you email them (I’ve started doing this as soon as the shipping label is generated by PSA) you should only have to pay a £21 clearance fee, though their invoicing system is so inconsistent anyway I’ve had this happen weeks after even getting the package.

I did have to pay VAT on a shipment coming back from Beckett, but I never sent or received an email to/from FedEx, so I don’t think it was filed as a return (they include a note explaining it is, but maybe not electronically).

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