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Shipping your Thompson - Don't use FedEx or UPS


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OK I am going to look into the link that Ron put out. There is another gun insurance group that gets circulated around the Sporting clays crowd (NSCA) and I will check them too. It appears the problem is two-fold. Either can’t get it insured at all or can’t collect.

I think the cost is sorta like renting a car and paying the daily or mortgage insurance=stupid money.

When I fly to a sporting clays event a buddy and I ship ours in a large Pelican and its not cheap for 40K coverage.

I will compare that number to the Collectors/Insurance cost. Presently I have this little ninja on my shoulder that tells me not

to ever make a firearms list for insurance purposes......NFA is fine for obvious reasons but nothing else.

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Be sure when shopping that the company will insure if you actually shoot the item. One company told the will not, but they will insure fine China if you use them for eating. I said that was discrimination against gun owners and we ended the call. I clarified that I was not discussing damage due to firing.

 

Ron

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I bid on a shotgun from an estate and won. Shipping insured to me the USPS broke a chunk from lower area of the stock and butt plate. Obviously was dropped although it was packed well according to my receiving dealer. I contacted the seller who offered to return my funds and pay to ship it back or get a repair estimate he would pay that and he would file with USPS for damage claim. I really wanted this one so I had a Gunsmith estimate repairs. He paid the estimate and it was fixed. I am not happy with USPS but having the shotgun was more important. My WH came to my dealer with no issues but I drove to go get it. Probably will do that again. I have Collectables insurance now hope I dont need it. Edited by Vettom
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A couple of years ago a dealer shipped me a fa thru the usps. He had to go to several post offices before they would agree to ship it then said its only insured for $2500. It got to me in two days from one coast to the other safe and sound. I cant say i wasnt worried though ha
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A couple of years ago a dealer shipped me a fa thru the usps. He had to go to several post offices before they would agree to ship it then said its only insured for $2500. It got to me in two days from one coast to the other safe and sound. I cant say i wasnt worried though ha

 

He used standard Priority Mail, for the higher insurance amounts you have to use Registered Priority Mail.

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I've used Collectibles and their customer service was excellent.

 

Cost for me was less than 1% of valuation per year. (I think it was about 75 basis points)

 

To be totally transparent, I've never had to make a claim so have no idea if making a claim would be a problem.

 

Has anybody here made a claim with Collectibles??? Would like to get some feedback about a claim experience.

 

When I first contacted them about a policy, I had a MG in lockup at my local firearm dealer awaiting my form 4 and wanted that gun added to my policy. Took about 3 days and then the underwriters agreed to insure that gun as part of my collection even though it was stored off-site. Yes, I know, you would think the FFL would have insurance but they had been broken into in the past and then you starting thinking about fires, etc. and it was just a lot easier to sleep at night knowing I had my own insurance rather than wondering if the FFL would exceed their limits, etc.

Edited by imageaudio
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Hey, one more question.

 

Has anyone made a claim concerning a damaged gun? If a gun is stolen, we can always use the receipt as an indicator of valuation. But how would one go about assessing the extent of damages if we had to make a claim about a gun received but damaged during shipping?

Edited by imageaudio
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A couple of years ago a dealer shipped me a fa thru the usps. He had to go to several post offices before they would agree to ship it then said its only insured for $2500. It got to me in two days from one coast to the other safe and sound. I cant say i wasnt worried though ha

He used standard Priority Mail, for the higher insurance amounts you have to use Registered Priority Mail.

Hmmm i wonder if he didnt realize that. It was shipped from fla on thurs and the box arrived on sat in Az. I picked it up at the post office.

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A couple of years ago a dealer shipped me a fa thru the usps. He had to go to several post offices before they would agree to ship it then said its only insured for $2500. It got to me in two days from one coast to the other safe and sound. I cant say i wasnt worried though ha

 

He used standard Priority Mail, for the higher insurance amounts you have to use Registered Priority Mail.

Roscoe,

 

Not trying to "nit-pick" here but I think a couple of the posters are being confused by the term Registered Priority Mail. Registered Mail is it's own animal as you correctly pointed out. It is the safest and most secure mail the Post Office offers. It is stamped and recorded at every step along the way and takes the longest. Priority and Express Mail are two different entities, not to be confused with Registered Mail. I used to work for the Postal Inspection Service and we had to ship evidence via Registered Mail. It has to be wrapped in a certain manner and all seams have to be covered with packaging tape. Frankly, Priority Mail is hit or miss. I had a Priority Mail envelope with a check take a week to deliver to the next County over in the same State. I have had other deliveries halfway across the country take two days. It depends on what time of the day or week you drop it in the box and the efficiency of your local Post Office personnel.

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When Harry Winston donated the Hope diamond to the Smithsonian he sent it registered mail.

 

Many jewelers still ship diamonds that way.

Hard for me to believe you guys believe that stuff. Most everything of value is handled by private couriers in a very low key way. Even on valuable stuff I've seen private couriers dropping off stuff at RIA for auction. Fact is generic shipping companies and usps are always a gamble, the only question is how high is your risk tolerance. It's now 2 months I've waited for an air shipment from the EU that was quoted at 3-5 days. It's been 2 weeks since they said they now can't do it, yet they haven't returned the package that is likely less than 40 miles away from the origin, so that we can try a different carrier.

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  • 2 weeks later...

 

 

When Harry Winston donated the Hope diamond to the Smithsonian he sent it registered mail.

 

Many jewelers still ship diamonds that way.

Hard for me to believe you guys believe that stuff. Most everything of value is handled by private couriers in a very low key way. Even on valuable stuff I've seen private couriers dropping off stuff at RIA for auction. Fact is generic shipping companies and usps are always a gamble, the only question is how high is your risk tolerance. It's now 2 months I've waited for an air shipment from the EU that was quoted at 3-5 days. It's been 2 weeks since they said they now can't do it, yet they haven't returned the package that is likely less than 40 miles away from the origin, so that we can try a different carrier.

I thought NFA needed to be shipped "common carrier"? In order to avoid having to transfer the MG to the carrier and have the carrier transfer it to the buyer?!

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