Hi all,
So I have made my second sale on the Bon~ website and this Germany buyer bought $210 CAD (flat-rated shipping included) worth of books from me. While it's very exciting since that's more than what I've sold on eBay this May lol, I'm debating if I should use Small Packet Air ($38) or Tracked Packet ($50), because I'm still hoping to hear back from the buyer to confirm that the Paypal address is indeed correct. The buyer is new on Bon~, in fact just made her account yesterday probably just to buy from me.
I would like to hear from sellers who have used Tracked Packet internationally, especially to Germany, to decide if I want to spend the extra $12 for tracking. Does it track all the way to the buyer's house and will a signature be required? Because if I don't hear back from the buyer within 3 days I'll just ship to the Paypal address, but I kind of wanted a peace of mind and the extra $12 might be worth it.
The reason why I'm feeling a bit paranoid is because of my own experience as a buyer where apparently parcels sent from Japan, despite "being registered" (which I was charged $5 for), does not track all the way to my house (see post here - http://community.ebay.ca/t5/Buyer-Central/Tracking-stopped-showing-progress/m-p/336904) so if I'm paying $12 as a seller, I would like to make sure it's worth it, and that I would be covered under Paypal's seller protection if something does happen to this package...
Thank you for all your input in advance 
@pjcdn2005 wrote:Would third party insurer pay out the amount simply based on what my sale invoice says?
They should pay out the amount that you just sold the item for. I haven't ever had to put in a claim but that's the way that I have heard it works based on other posters comments. I remember one poster commenting quite a while ago that they ( I think that it was Canada Post) asked for the original invoice until the poster told them that he had bought the items years ago and paid quite a bit more than what he just received. They decided to accept the claim based on the amount the buyer just paid.
Canada Post (and also USPS) will sometimes pull that "we only cover your cost" routine. They can, it's buried in the fine print. The third-party insurers generally will pay out based on a documented refund, they on the other hand if they think you are trouble will crank up your rates and/or tell you to go away.
I've shipped a lot of stuff by a lot of different methods, insurance provided by the carrier is always the worst choice compared to third-party insurance.
So I have decided to take a risk and just ship with Small Packet Air as mentioned because I'm content with the buyer's reply with her phone number (googled it and it looks legit, google-mapped the address and it looks residential), and I like how Paypal's label has the no-delivery-scan bar-code which I know doesn't actually do tracking but makes the shipment looks tracked. (And I remember someone mentioned that the bar-code could have some random tracking when it was in the destination country? Though I never tried to check)
I checked InsurePost and $3.20 for $200 insurance isn't bad, but since I decided not to track it anyway I didn't bother. My potential loss in this would be $38 shipping + original cost of the books and I'll eat it if it happens, but I have shipped similar books to Germany about 20 times via Letter/Light/Small Packet over the past 3 years and none had issues, so it should be fine.
What surprised me was that when I printed the label via Paypal, on the bottom it still says VIN/NIF: eBay...... like I said, the sale was made on the Ranch. I thought Paypal and eBay divorced already, so why is Paypal doing free-advertisement for eBay?I hope it wouldn't confuse my buyer =/
Thank you for all your info in tracking and insurance. Definitely learned something and if I ever feel that I must have insurance I know what to do now
From the Canada Post agreement......
c) proof of value (documentation acceptable to Canada Post showing proof of sender’s value, either the sender’s cost, retails cost, repaircost, depreciated value or replacement value as deemed appropriate by Canada Post);
It's typical insurance doublespeak but essentially it allows Canada Post to limit their liability to the senders cost value if they wish or assign a replacement value THEY feel is appropriate.
I can assure you that "senders cost value" is the cost to the sender not the loss of revenue (ie: the selling price to the recipient).
In practice for a first claim they will usually pay out just about any amount you claim (within reason), once you get to claim number 2 or 3 they are generally not so accommodating.
