United State Postal Service - Insurance realted to sports cards

[patriotsguy]

I ran into an issue where I sent a medium flat rate box via registered mail using the USPS. When the recipient went to finally pick up the package it wasn't there. They said it must have been returned to sender, which it wasn't....last tracking showed attempted delivery in the recipients city/state and nothing more after that. Sending registered mail is supposed to be one of the safest most secure ways to send a package. The package is brown taped and stamped on every seam to prevent and detect theft of contents, scanned at every touch and kept under lock and key at all times. Once I was notified by the recipient that there was an issue I start an inquiry with my postmaster. She made plenty attempts to work with the other postmaster, and consumer affairs to find this package, they still can't find it....currently there is search at the "lost mail center", but not holding my breath. So I then ask my postmaster about the insurance and She states I just need to show what the value of the cards are worth...which is what the PO in my last town told me as well.

Now starts the claims process. I start a claim and submit everything electronically. I upload my Registered mail slip, the postal receipt and the screen shots of the Beckett Organize screen showing book values for the cards. I wait and after a few days the claim gets denied for insufficient proof of value. I start a 2nd appeal and received the same verdict, claimed denied for insufficient proof of value. This time I also received an email response, that reads below:

When insured articles are lost or damaged in the mail, the customer may file a claim for compensation. Our indemnity requirements are similar to those for other forms of insurance, in requiring the sender or addressee to provide proof of insurance, proof of value, and proof that loss or damage has actually occurred.

Acceptable evidence of value was not submitted. It is incumbent upon the customer to provide the Postal Service with evidence of value, such as a sales receipt/invoice showing method of payment or credit card bill to establish the cost or value of the article at the time it was mailed (Domestic Mail Manual, Section 609.3.2). The actual loss is the fair market value of the item at the time it is mailed, not its replacement value or its sentimental value. Evidence of value is one of the criteria required to complete the adjudication of a claim.

Based on the above, your claim cannot be approved for payment. This office is the final level of postal authority concerning claim appeals.

Sincerely,

Lisa A. Saunders

Consumer Relations Specialist

Office of the Consumer Advocate

Postal Service Headquarters

So out of the last month I have been dealing with this claim, what does this all mean? Basically if you don't have a detailed itemized receipt for your particular sports card that you purchased you're SOL! And if I read this correctly, assuming you have your itemizes receipt, you only get "fair market value" at time of shipping, not what the actual value of the item is.

So there you have it...

Insurance for sports cards and memorabilia for that matter is only good if you have receipts that state what the item is and how much you paid for it. Another note, is , that I bet most postmaster don't know the deal with the insurance as my current and previous postmasters told me the same thing, "as long as you can show the value you are covered" for a claim.

Just thought I would share this with the community,

Roger

[ryan2374]

Gotta love the post office.

[patriotsguy]

Gotta love the post office.

yup, I'll second that

[JFried1029]

Tracking is equally as useless. There have been packages I never received the the Post Office showed as delivered. I imagine that if they deliver to a wrong address, it will show as delivered.

[madduxfan31]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Its been several years since i have had an insurance claim with the PO with sports cards so things may have changed. I remember having to printing a copy of the trade transaction and values from beckett magazine. I ended up having to bring in the magazine the first time but that's all it took for them to send me a check. As for a detailed itemized list. What exactly was in the box ? Or did i miss that above? If it was like a team lot of 3000 or just a lot of 3000 baseball cards there not willing to cover the purchase price ?

[patriotsguy]

Sorry to hear about your troubles. Its been several years since i have had an insurance claim with the PO with sports cards so things may have changed. I remember having to printing a copy of the trade transaction and values from beckett magazine. I ended up having to bring in the magazine the first time but that's all it took for them to send me a check. As for a detailed itemized list. What exactly was in the box ? Or did i miss that above? If it was like a team lot of 3000 or just a lot of 3000 baseball cards there not willing to cover the purchase price ?

If it was like this in the past, it's not anymore...

I was BGS graded cards

[lil5up3rman]

Roger,

So past ebay sales of the items you shipped would not constitute fair market value of the items you shipped. Good to know that as I just sold a card for 2,500 and had it insured for the full amount, needles to say if something had happened and they denied that claim I would have been livid to say the least. I had proof of sale but I wonder if that would have played to my advantage or if they would still try to deny my claim as well.

[patriotsguy]

Daniel from what I got fun the quoted text from the USPS lady is that you would need to show what YOU PAID FOR IT.