[quote name='crowbb']I worked as a clerk for the USPS for 5 years. The short answer, is you would be lucky if they paid you $50 for it. You'd have no shot at the $200.
Now before I explain a bit of a disclaimer in that I have not worked for the USPS in 15 months, but this is how they did things while I was still there.
1. Claims over a certain dollar value (I think it was $50) go to St. Louis (May have the city wrong) for their insurance department to review. Because of rampant insurance fraud in the past it is VERY difficult to get them to pay out and when they do it can take months. The time it takes to pay will be affected by the dollar value of the item. For the low dollar values it is up to the individual Postmaster of the local office. He can pay out if you can actually reach him and convince him of your case but only up to that certain $$ value. Of course Postmasters are about as easy to reach in person as Bigfoot, so unless it is a very tiny office I wouldn't bet on that either.
2. You have to show proof of the worth of the item. This is a receipt. eBay printouts DO NOT count. They were very specific on this when I worked there as I used to buy a lot of old Transformers and would often discuss the matter with the claims clerk in my office. Basically if you bought the hypothetical card you would have to ask the seller for a receipt. Again a printout of an eBay screen or email will not be enough. Preferably the receipt would not be in crayon though I'm pretty sure there are no rules against it.
3. You are only getting what you can prove you paid for the item. That's the USPS policy and that's what you are getting. Allowing the "true value" would only encourage fraud and abuse. Just because insurance for $82.99 is the same price as $100 does not mean you get $100. Claiming that due to inflation in the 30 days since you mailed the item you should get an extra 16 cents doesn't work either. Not that I've tried...*ahem*.
4. You will have to bring the damaged item in along with the packaging. Obviously if it is lost this is not required. However, remember insurance is tracked. It used to be under $50 insurance was not tracked but I think that has since changed. I may be wrong there though. They will inspect the packaging and damaged item. I have seen people turned down on their insurance refund because they didn't bring the packaging. Of course we would obviously know if you stomped all over the package yourself. Afterall we are professionals at destroying your mail and can spot an amateur's work a mile away.
5. If the USPS pays out, they keep the item. We had an instance where a woman brought in some kind of antique Mahjong set or something and one tile was broken. She wanted the money AND to keep the unbroken items. No dice. Then she wanted to know when we were going to throw it out so she could dumpster dive for it. We didn't bite on that either. Said items are shipped to the secret USPS landfill in the middle of the Nevada where they are buried next to all those copies of ET. Or maybe we just chucked them. I can't remember, it's been 15 months.
6. Even if you do everything right they STILL might insist on paying the original retail cost of the item. Yes. For your "$200.00" card they might pay you a fraction of the cost of the original pack it came in. We had that happen quite a bit and while I would like to think the USPS has improved on handling online auction....they aren't exactly known for keeping with the times. When I worked there some of the equipment in our office was from the 1930s. Baseball cards have been collectible for longer so it's less likely but this was a very common occurence with toys. The Post Office is like a timewarp. I'm pretty sure if I searched my old office hard enough I could have scraped up a few dinosaur bones and maybe some gold dubloons. I'll have to keep that in mind next time I visit.
7. Insurance adjusters? This isn't car insurance. The USPS is a company and while they have a department for this, they aren't showing up at your house to investigate the item. You bring/send/mail everything to them. The burden of proof is on you to prove to them you deserve the money. Like joevan said, the USPS is not in the appraisal business. These guys are not experts on your item. They are going to use proof you provide that meets their standards and nothing else. "No Arms Bob's ultimate extreme card and lawn ornament guide" is likely not going to be considered hard proof of value by the USPS. And don't even try it if the item is a lawn gnome. The USPS hates lawn gnomes and will quite possibly have a postal inspector shoot you in the kneecaps if you try to bring a claim on one.
8. I second the NADA comment. I'm going through that right now as someone wiped out 2 of my families cars while we had them parked on the street. After comparing the different book values I think there is something very poignant about the name "nada" when getting the quote from the insurance company.[/quote]
I seriously LOL'd at this entire response and definitely think that those book values on items such as sports cards are overblown routinely. Now, coins, on the other hand.
# Juuuuuust kidding.
Oh and kingofthenet, I don't think the PS3 is worth only $100, but if ya stripped out the added bullshit that made it out of most peoples price range this gen, it might come close. And this is coming from someone who grew up on Atari and Sega and loved the hell out of the original Playstation and the PS2. What the hell is with the push to make GAME machines some multimedia
in hub anymore?
