I don’t get the sense that the GSP is wedded to one particular carrier. Somebody who handles the item in Kentucky probably makes a judgement call on the most appropriate carrier and things go from there. My wife purchases a fair bit from a large eCommerce site and her things have been shipped from their warehouse by Canada Post, FedEx and UPS. There doesn’t appear to be any rhyme or reason for the selection of carrier.
Canada Post still appears to be the GSP’s carrier of choice for the Canadian leg of shipments, but if you’re concerned about things going awry, why not add your house address (if you have one) or the post office’s street address to your address information if you think a commercial carrier is going to handle it?
Another possibility would be to add the address of a trusted friend to your shipping addresses on file with eBay and have the brooch sent there, with your friend sending it on to you instead of the GSP. Given that someone posted here a little while ago with concerns about her jewellery purchases forwarded through the GSP disappearing into the ether after supposedly reaching the Canada Post Gateway in Mississauga, this may be the better way to go. Maybe.
