How to ship a $13,500 diamond. UPS?

In your pocket on a plane flight?

 

Anything but hand carried is "Russian Roulette".

 

An appraisal can be done in no time. Spend the 50 clams or whatever it costs, get it insured for the highest amount possible and then get your friend to drive it to you. I wouldn't ship it with someone making 10 bucks an hour but hey I've sent bundles of cash through Purolator to my bookie so do as I say and not as I do. Good luck!

 

There's the damn answer. Perfect.

 

This is the best advice you are going to get on this thread even if the thread is a billion pages long.

 

Just don't send Frankie Four Fingers.

 

Caught a little of the other thread on this from before....

I assume you bought it from a private patry...

In that case, I would have your freind get the stone from the seller along with it's paperwork, have him bring both to a local broker/custom jewelery maker/appraiser type (not a store in a mall), have the appraiser do the appraisal, certify the stone and sellers paperwork, insure it and ship it to where you can get possesion of it right away (aka...don't have it dropped at your house when you are at work).

You can also throw a ryder on your homeowners policy to insure it yourself...which you should keep from now on anyway.

My wife and I got engaged on Sanibel IS, FLA. I bought the stone down there, we did the thing, she wore it for 6 weeks, brought it back to the broker, he shipped it and that was it. You buy out of state to avoid sales tax, we could have done the "ship the empty box thing", but if everything is insured why bother.

 

Perhaps this will help;
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I sent an item worth about $55,000 via fedex.


But I agree on the plane ticket!

 

My wife regularly uses (believe it or not) Ferrari Express to ship six figure watches all around the world.

http://www.ferrariexpress.com/

 

$14k ain't that big a number to the shipping companies.


Lots of watches go for more than that - a lot more - and they ship UPS/FedEx all the time.

Just insure it for whatever amount you want - check to see if you can insure it on stated value at that amount and see what they say. If they say no, call the others - DHL, TNT, etc until you find someone that will.

 

USPS Registered Mail, not to be confused with Certified Mail.

They sent the Hope Diamond Registered Mail, anyone that handles the package signs for it, wherever the last signature is that person is liable for the package.

"Registered Mail
Registered Mail™ provides the maximum security.
When you’re sending valuable or irreplaceable items through the mail, protect them with Registered Mail™.

Items you send with Registered Mail are placed under tight security from the point of mailing to the point of delivery, and insured up to $25,000 against loss or damage. And you can verify the date and time of delivery and the delivery attempts online."

"***When Harry Winston "gave" the Hope Diamond to the Smithsonian, he mailed it via registered mail which was delivered by the US Postal Service. The package arrived at Union Station in Washington DC via train from an overnight trip from New York City.
The package was insured for $142.00 and had postage in the amount of $2.90 on it."


When I used to work for the USPS I used to regularly drop off a box of gold bars to a smelter that was sent registered mail.

 

When I was diamond shopping my brother in law hooked me up with a broker in NYC. He shipped me three stones by USPS registered mail, I picked out the one I liked, mailed all three back (by registered mail), he set it and mailed it back to me (registered mail). No problems at all. Of course, this was 1996, I was still a med student and the combined value of the stones was less than $13K.......

 

USPS, that's the way it's done between diamond merchants in the U.S. for decades.

 

I am a watch collector who frequently sells stuff off. Without question, USPS Registered Mail is the best option. It can be slow but it's ultra reliable. I'm not even sure you'd need an appraisal for the higher value; items can be insured for up to $25,000. And it probably won't cost more than $30 to send it.

UPS and FedEx are far less desirable. The insurance costs about $2.00 per $100.00 of declared value. That's $270.00 just for the insurance on the diamond, without even including the shipping costs. And it's significantly less secure. I sold a watch for $45,000 and dropped it off personally at the local UPS distribution center where employees attempted to steal it. When jewelery stores ship FedEx the stuff is insured by their store's policies; for the really expensive items they'll frequently use Brinks.

 

Add to that, the Postal Inspectors have a better catch and conviction record than the FBI.

 

FedEx can handle it, and has special classifications for it. We've shipped $30k SD3 diagnostic computers with no problem.

When stuff arrives here with the special code (I can't remember the actual code.... but it's on the labels), our driver gets all fidgeting and arrives at Ricambi EARLY in the morning to get the shipment off his truck.

I'm sure UPS/DHL deal with the same stuff too.

We have experienced basically zero loss with FedEx from theft or subterfuge.

 

one thing you might consider is have them wrap it up to make it look like something other than a 10k+ diamond, throw it into a bigger box, weigh it down with a brick/something of the sort.

 

I have had diamonds sent me several times by a freind of mine in Utah who is a dealer. He always sends several diamonds, usually totaling around 10 karats (SP?) (around 2 karats each). He always sends them in a brown envelope via USPS registered mail, I pick out what I want, write a check and return the rest with the check via USPS Registered mail. I have done this three times with him and never had a problem. The first time I received it that way I was extremely nervous about it, but he told me that many of the dealers do it this way and he has never heard of anyone losing anything.

 

I had a rather expensive ring shipped from design house in Milan. In Italy there is a DHL/FedEx service actually called Ferrari.

When the box arrived - my wife saw the gearshift-knob-sized box plastered with "Ferrari" on it when I signed for delivery. I was in the dog-house for further squandering on the car - until she opened the box I presented to her.

 

UPS/Fedex do not insure jewelry over $500....they will take your money and insure it right up to the point where it becomes lost and you place a claim. Check with your homeowners insurance to see if your covered while shipping or check with the jeweler you purchased from...they usually have special policies that cover shipping to/from.