Does anyone know the risks of this? It seems like a no brainer for expensive boxes
Itâs definitely the preferred method for a lot of folks here when shipping high value.
The downside is it takes longer in transit due to the high security.
In terms of risk, there isnât really much to worry about during transit. Every worker has to sign their name that theyâve handled it, so if it goes missing, USPS will know exactly who touched it last.
The main risk is after delivery, like any other package. I believe a member here had an issue arise where it showed delivered, but went missing after the delivery scan. I donât know the full details of what happened.
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The only thing to add to teraz is that you can do restricted signature delivery vs just the regular signature that the service comes with. With this, there is no potential for the package to go missing after delivery. Even with covid, they donât mess around with this.
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sorry to bring this up again but I spoke with my usps store workers, They said registered mail is guarenteed to arrive at location undamaged vai shipping, (great that solves that problem), but they cant do anything if the buyer decides to say open the box, open the sealed booster box inside and claim theyre fake, resealed or damaged.
From those who are experienced with ebays return policy and such what are the odds of winning a claim dispute if the following steps are taken: (trying to be very safe here lol)
booster box is packaged by usps employee at the usps store while being filmed by me (live if need be)
the registered mail service is used so as to not allow the box to be opened or repacked during shipmewnt
basically this proves that the box was intact when it was sent and if it is claimed to be open I dont see how the customer can say it wasnt them doing it. Also the wotc logos on the box itself shows it is indeed real and not fake stuff inside (yes Im aware some wotc wrappers have been faked recently, but expert analysis of wrapping can determine if theyre real)
Have you talked to them about this? Unless they are really dumb they just wonât do this as it is explicitly forbidden due to liability reasons on their end and even if they did it would be meaningless. Nobody is going to watch the tape and it wouldnât guarantee as you said that the box was genuine anyways.
faq.usps.com/s/article/How-do-I-Send-a-Mailpiece-Using-Registered-Mail-Service#:~:text=The%20package%20should%20be%20sealed,both%20the%20sender%20and%20recipient.
Whenever I see this level of paranoia or worry I think selling on eBay by yourself isnât recommended. Especially if it is an amount you cannot afford to you. You wonât sleep well especially knowing the window for claims and disputes through Paypal, eBay, and credit card chargebacks is something ridiculous like 90-180 days.
Best options in order IMO:
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Consign. PWCC, Heritage, etc. A trusted company who will likely command a higher price than you anyways and they deal with customer service. Ship registered to them and forget about it. Youâll have a check in a couple months.
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Sell to a very trusted Youtuber or collector. You may even be able to arrange getting them to crack the registered package as well as box on IG live/ YT live so that you can verify that there is no swapping going on, though using a trusted person this goes away.
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Sell local for cash/crypto. Irreversible transaction but always the slim possibility that youâll get robbed of your box.
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eBay doesn´t review footage. I´m not sure what kind of value you´re talking, but if anyone tries to scam you for a significant amount of money, this has to be escalated outside of ebay anyways. There´s no 100% way to prevent someone from scamming you on ebay.
From my personal experience, it´s 100x more important to properly vet a buyer - let them provide reputable references, see what they have dealt with before, talk to them etc.
Other than that you can also try to transact in person, that way no shenanigans can happen (make sure you are meeting with safety precautions in place)
@gottaketchumall beat me to it 
Id do pwcc but as Ive said before they list 4 of the same boxes ending at the same time resulting in very very low sales most times. And I cant really afford to lose 30k and I doubt too many people could. Youtubers are offering me 40% value on my box unfortunately. Id love to do locally but I dont know how to find someone local since it isnt allowed here and this is one of the only genuine forums for pokemon collecting Ive found. The paranoia is definitely warranted since ebay literally sides with the buyer always and scammers are rampant.
What box is this that there can be a variance of 30k in between sales? first ed base?
no its 30k value total, usps wont insure over 5k so if anything happens I guess Id be out 25k
@wisewailmer what box is it? Feel free to PM me if you donât want to post that here. Iâd be interested who you reached out to, perhaps I could suggest some that may offer more reasonable amounts.
This is a âhaving your cake/eating it tooâ scenario. I mean who wouldnât want to have cake and eat it too, why else would you want cakeâŚ
Anyways when it comes to selling you either get the full value with risk or you get less value with less risk. The lowest risk course of actions pay out the least typically. Walk into a LGS and theyâll give you ~50% of the value in cash likely. The most risky scenarios tend to pay less though like selling it yourself and risking a total loss due to a scammer. I think you are assuming this is more common than it really is though. But I personally would never recommend someone put themselves in a scenario where they canât afford a total loss. Services like PWCC and Heritage exist to bring enhanced value with minimal risk and IMO they do it exceptionally well often achieving higher prices net after fees than most individuals could command on their own. It seems you disagree on this and Iâm not entirely sure why.
Ah, yeah you´re out of luck then - I´d never send a high value parcel via usps, just use overnight fedex or something similar.
USPS priority mail caps at $5k and it costs like $150 in my experiences to insure for $5k.
USPS registered mail caps at $50k and it costs like $150 also in my experiences but this is insuring for the full $50k.
As previously mentioned though USPS registered fully removes the risk of loss during transit, but it does nothing to insure against a criminal buyer. At these dollar amounts the police would be involved, but youâd likely not be dealing with your local department but with that of the buyer. I canât imagine how stressful and arduous that process would be, and there is no certainty youâd ever be able to fully prove your side as it seems like itâd be a he said/she said scenario.
Is it worth getting the full $30k when you stand a perhaps 0.5% risk of total loss?
Or would you rather get ~$25k with 0.0001% of total loss? That is what PWCC, Heritage, and potentially the right arrangement with a trusted youtuber offer.
I can message you in a bit but people tend to think pwcc gives great end prices but just look at the neo gen 1st ed boxes. Plus Ive been winning steal after steal on pwcc auctions for months and it seems many other members are too. Its true many will end at good prices but this is largely due to luck of who else decides to send in the exact box that month and maybe I am less of a risk taker than some but If I paid more than every car Ive owned on a box, I want to sell it correctly. All of the genesis boxes got like 35k when we know they can sell for 60+ with the proper sale
@wisewailmer You could see if Scott will consign for you on his ebay? pwwc, auction house, send to the buyer with the best shipping and cover, record everything such as emails, messages, pictures, video of shipping etc and if an issue arises you can take it up with the Police. People seem to forget they can take it up with local authority for theft etc and allow themselves to accept being scammed.
thanks everyone for the tips and such. I am speaking to a few buyers locally. If all fails Ill probably just add it to one of my weekly auctions and hope a legit buyer is the one who wins
Instead of sending through PWCC auction block, open a PWCC vault account and send the box there.
Once theyâve added it to the vault, you have many options for selling:
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Schedule it for the next PWCC block (but sounds like you donât want to do this due to the worry of a low final price)
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List it as a 1,3,5, or 7 day auction. You set the start price, time, etc⌠basically all the things you can do yourself on eBay except PWCC is listing it instead of you.
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List it as a buy it now with best offer option turned on.
The unequivocal benefit is that if you do get a scamming buyer, itâs PWCCâs problem to rectify. Now, I donât know what the process looks like if someone does try to scam PWCC. For example, does PWCC pay you the full purchase price the buyer purchased it for or do they only reimburse you for the insured value of the box? If the latter, then youâll want to email PWCC customer service to get the details. Because the insured value they establish is usually conservative. However, you can change the insured value at will. So my thinking is before you list it, you would adjust the insured value to be sure youâre fully compensated in the event that a buyer pulls a scam on PWCC. Again, discuss this with customer service, PWCC has great communication.
Obviously this vault option comes with an intake fee and a monthly insurance fee for as long as they have the box until it sells. However, we are talking probably <$500 if you only have it in there for a month or two. Also, the selling fees are essentially the same as if you sold on eBay yourself.
The other benefit is the shipping. If you email PWCC, they will sell you a prepaid Fedex overnight label insured for the full value of the contents to send to the vault. The best part is, their third party insurer will pay out the full value of what you pay for on the label in the event of a loss. Most insurance, USPS included, require you to provide receipts or invoices or appraisals to prove value. With the PWCC provided Fedex label, if you pay for the insurance, thatâs what you will be reimbursed if lost.
I sent $100,000 worth of cards to my vault last month and the label was $270 or so.
After discovering all of this, I have decided that all my big ticket items will be sold through the vault moving forward. All anxiety about the safety of my items, concern of scams, etc. is totally eliminated every step of the way.
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My advice â i would Not do it as an auction â you have no control over the buyer. do it as a best-offer and then screen the buyer.
I have sold mostly in the 500-20,000 range. Since UPS goes up to 20k (or is it 25k?), i use them a lot. it costs more, but it gets there so much quicker that the stress is greatly reduced for both buyer and seller. obviously, with a much higher value box, the only option is registered mail (I havenât had the pleasure of needing that high insurance. drat.)
I also DO get video of the packing up of the box at UPS store with employee witnessâŚand i then hand the box over to UPS and have them package it themselves into an outer box of their own. if the store packages it, they take full responsibility for it â which means they would be pro-active in dealing with any issues. I donât trust Anyone else to pack the inner box, so i have them watch me pack that, and then they get to do the rest.
NOW, even tho i go through all that⌠it IS true ebay usually doesnât consider video evidence. that decision was amplified by Griff of seller services. He explained how a seller he trusted presented video evidence against a buyerâs claimâŚand Griff personally backed the seller. but it turned out the video was edited or not complete and Griff ended up being totally embarrassed, and that ended all hope for video evidence with ebay. HOWEVER⌠as others have said here, the local police can get involved and they DO look at video evidence and a witness at the store. So, that CAN help with certain kinds of fraudulent buyers.
Note - the biggest issue is the one everyoneâs been talking about â that a buyer can CLAIM your box was fake or whatever⌠and you have no way to prove otherwise. and, the worst part is that ebay TENDS to side with the buyer in those cases.
I donât know what others here have experienced, but with the crazy surge in pokemon sales, i have had more buyers flaking out on low-end âbest offersâ than everâŚplus i have seen so many items won in auctions go right back up due to non-payment. Itâs gotten so bad that i am now starting to submit my pokemon to auction houses. I figure, if itâs gotten bad for general stuff, it could be bad on many levels..so, some of my product is definitely going to auction houses.
There is one thing that doesnât prevent the hardcore scammer, but at least discourages the opportunistic types⌠I have noticed that if i am specific about requiring a signature at delivery, i donât need to screen out as many people as i do with the listings where i donât say i require signature. just fyi â thatâs been my experience.
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