w~~_7.JPG "pjcdn2005"){kind=avatar}
You can protect yourself against loss in three ways, but before you choose which way you have to understand your own limits and also how likely fraud is.
I have been selling everything from cast iron wood stoves to discount postage to vintage sf paperbacks to rare postage stamps by mail for some 30-odd years.
In my experience, the chances of damage in the mail is very low, providing you package carefully. Remember that your package will be handled mechanically for the most part and your package may drop two feet from one conveyor belt to the next and have a 50 lb parcel drop on top of it. Package accordingly.
Then the postie will take all the mail for your customer's address and fold the largest item around everything else and hold it all together with a rubber band. So if it shouldn't be folded, use a stiffener that can't be folded.Package accordingly.
The mail may be slow but it does go through. Ship only to Paypal addresses, and if there is a difference between the eBay and the PP addresses, make sure the PP one is correct. Coverage is to PP addresses.
There are, in my experience, more 'loss' or 'not recieved' claims from eBay than anywhere else. But they are still very few.
So paying for 'insurance' against loss or damage in transit may be counter-productive.
Some sellers use Canada Post (or couriers) which provide insurance and /or tracking and/or Delivery Confirmation for a fee.
These are different things.
Insurance repays you if your parcel is damaged or lost. If you have already refunded your customer and the "tracking' later shows the parcel delivered (late but delivered), insurance will not pay you.
Tracking follows and records every step of the way. It is expensive and unnecessary because what Paypal needs to mediate a Dispute is
Delivery Confirmation, which is cheaper. But again, you may lose a Dispute due to late delivery and later lose out on insurance because the parcel is delivered.
Most people are honest, and if you ask, your customer may refund the refund. If she doesn't , she may still feel guilty about it. 
And there is third party insurance: buying either one-off insurance on parcels from a company like shipsurance or an annual contract from a specialty insurer like Hugh Wood International. Both can be cheaper than postal or courier insurance. These do not to my knowledge include tracking.
And then there is that old favourite: Cookie Jar Insurance.
Especially for those of us who sell low priced items, Cookie Jar Insurance just means adding a few pennies, rarely more than a dime, to every asking price and putting those virtual pennies in a virtual cookie jar. They are premiums on self-insurance.
When a buyer complains, the seller pays out from his Cookie Jar (or from his third party insurer or from his postal insurance claim) and the buyer is made whole.
Tracking and Delivery Confirmation are unnecessary because the buyer never goes to Paypal.
And it is PP that needs to know that the parcel has or has not been delivered before they can pay out.
Just to make things clearer or not: some categories are low fraud and the lunatic fringe is small. But if you are dealing with some demographics (check for the prevalence of backwards baseball caps) are a mixture of entitled and dishonest. Also dumber than they think they are.
If you are selling sportscards, coins, video games, any electronics or jewellry, you are going to have many more scammers than I see in my rather staid selling categories.
Well, we may not have parted on best o' terms. I realize certain words were exchanged. Also, certain... bullets. -- Captain Malcolm Reynolds
"$2.05 for each extra hundred for delivery within Canada."
That is correct.
It explains why self-insurance (cookie jar insurance) is becoming a new standard in Canada.
Why pay Canada Post 2% insurance when the rate of loss is well below 1%?
From Canada Post calculator:
*Coverage Details: Up to $100.00 included. Maximum $1,000.00 @ $2.05 per $100.00.
"According to the following page, it was $1.80 in 2012."
Yes, and $1.95 in 2013
@pjcdn2005 wrote:Keep in mind that if you use insurance and you have too many claims, it is quite possible that they will not cover you any longer...especially if those claims are for higher priced items.
So, the faster delivery time aside, I suppose the question is whether Xpresspost USA and international is worth it for the signature confirmation/seller protection (in Paypal claims) where higher-priced items are concerned? It seems from what you're saying that it might be. I'd be interested to hear sellers' views on this.
Never having had to deal with an Xpresspost INR claim (thank goodness), I can't say for certain, but I would think that Paypal wouldn't penalize the seller for too many claims in the way CP would, since the Paypal seller protection isn't insurance coverage per se. I hope I never have to find out...
I only use Xpresspost for more expensive items (ca. $200+) to buyers I know will either want or appreciate the faster delivery (such as to west coast states in the US from here in Nova Scotia). For me, the signature confirmation and step-by-step tracking are extra features, not necessities, and in those situations I usually "upgrade" my buyers' shipping from Expedited to Xpresspost as a courtesy.
Incidentally, I don't understand why the actual signature isn't available online for Xpresspost - you get the name of the party who signed, but not a viewable signature. I assume that if you call the phone # indicated by CP, they will email or mail you the signature?
