What is the best USPS shipping for coins won in auctions? The question was posed to us by one of our top houses. We provide the answer below.
One of our favorite auctioneers asks:
“Recently we changed our shipping policies with signature required from $200 to $500.00. But here’s the rub, if someone says they did not receive their coins all we have to do to fight a charge back is show the tracking info showing it was delivered. However, just because I can show it was delivered doesn’t mean that it wasn’t stolen out of a mailbox, not actually delivered etc. We also don’t want to run off bidders because they don’t have time to run to the post office. But more importantly we want people to get their coins. Any advice?”
To which we replied:
“Use signature required for all packages of $200 or more and send priority mail, flat rate. You’ll be insured for $100 with flat rate, have the signature in addition to the tracking. We consign coins all the time and this is what we do. Remember, consignors don’t want their coins delivered and then taken, perhaps, by someone in the auction house or even an employee, claiming the coins never arrived. When dealing with coins it always makes sense to take that extra step. Be sure to include this in your service terms.”
We probably send on average 300 packages per year and receive as many. USPS has on occasion sent the package to the wrong address, but has never in our experience lost a package with signature authority.
Do you agree with our recommendation? What has been your experience?
Proxiblog is an independent entity with no connection to the auction portal Proxibid. Our intent is to uphold basic numismatic standards as established by the American Numismatic Association and the National Auctioneer Association and to ensure a pleasurable bidding experience not only on Proxibid but also on similar portals such as iCollector and AuctionZip.
Proxiblog's Top Online Coin Auctions 
Anything we ship over $1000, is sent usps register mail… Problem with USPS is in their insurance policy, they do not cover coins that is sent using their regular insurance, but they do cover it if it is sent register mail
In India, we have encountered a different kind of problem. Even if the packets come from the Royal Mint, U.K. through Royal Mail tracked deliveries or through the UPS Couriers packets sent by US Mint, the Indian Customs Authorities have the tendency to open the packets and pilfer the contents apart from charging us a hefty “import duty” fees or holding back the packets asking us to produce unnecessary documents. While, the Royal Mint, UK have twice sent me replacements of the missing coins, the U.S. Mint has taken India off their shipping list in their newly revamped website, which is a sad reflection on our Delivery services. Some Perth mint & Singapore mint deliveries did come through without a hitch though. I have a blog on currencies and coinage around the World which takes about 1200 visitors daily, but my International coin/currency collection has got vastly curtailed due to this reason. Nevertheless, my friends are helping me out whenever they visit a foreign country (For example, I managed to get my Ryder Cup Commemorative 5 Pound Banknote through a long route – Scotland-Singapore-New Delhi- Pune). It is for this reason that I am not bidding in coin auctions.