Post offices will handle between 18 billion and 19 billion packages, letters and cards from Thanksgiving through Christmas Day, according to news reports. With so many parcels making their way to their intended destinations, the chances of items getting damaged or lost will increase.

Filling boxes with packing peanuts and wrapping items in bubble wrap and newspaper are good practices to prevent chips or breaks, but they don’t guarantee shipments will arrive as described when they reach a buyer’s doorstep. And unfortunately, sellers will also have to worry about possible thefts during the holidays, officials say.

Dealing with either of these scenarios is not only stressful, it can also be costly. So if you don’t already purchase shipping insurance for your products, now might be the time to start.

Product Analyst Rebecca Miller says shipping insurance is always a good investment, especially during these busy times. “The small price you pay is well worth the peace of mind you get in return. And the buyer will thank you for your forethought if something does happen to their package en route,” she says.

If you’re concerned insuring packages will add too much to your shipping cost, consider purchasing policies at a discount. Auctiva Shipping Insurance provides sellers with great coverage at up to 30 percent off compared to USPS. You can also get an additional 20 percent off your policies through the end of the year if you enable Auto-Purchase Rules. This new feature makes buying shipping insurance very easy by automatically generating policies for all your items, or just those that exceed the price threshold you set. You can even buy Auctiva Shipping Insurance if you are on our Free Plan. See this helpful tutorial to learn more.

Several eBay sellers told us they learned the hard way what an asset shipping insurance is, after living through their own shipping horror stories. Dawn Austin told us one of her shipments looked “like someone kneeled on it,” ruining the painting she shipped.

“I learned a very good, $500 lesson,” she says.

We’re sure you don’t want to find yourself learning a similar lesson. Cyber Monday is just around the corner and you’ll no doubt be very busy filling orders soon, so take a look at Auctiva Shipping Insurance to see if it suits you.

Happy selling!

It’s been almost a month since we’ve rolled out our new Auctiva Shipping Insurance Auto-Purchase feature, and we’ve received a lot of great feedback from our users. Now it’s your turn to vote on which one of the three most-requested rules you would like to see us release next.

The top three requests are:

1. A rule to auto-purchase insurance only if the item price reaches or exceeds a certain dollar amount you set. Currently, shipping and handling costs are calculated into the total insured value of a shipment, and many of our users don’t want to include that in the coverage. This could keep your insurance cost down, but the trade off is that you would not be reimbursed for the shipping and handling costs if a package is lost or damaged en route.

2. A rule to auto-purchase insurance for packages shipped via UPS or FedEx only if the value of the shipment exceeds $100. These carriers already offer up to $100 of protection, so sellers could set a rule to buy insurance after the first $100. For example, if you bought insurance for an item worth $150, your Auto-Purchase Rule would buy $50 of insurance since UPS and FedEx already cover the first $100.

3. A rule to auto-purchase insurance if the item is sold in a specific category. For example, if you occasionally sell fragile Depression glass items, you could set your Auto-Purchase Rules to only buy insurance for items listed in the Pottery & Glass category.

Please visit our Community Forums and let us know which option you would prefer by taking this poll. We’d love your input.

Just because you use another listing service doesn’t mean you have to pay the retail price at the post office to insure your packages!

There’s a cheaper and easier way to protect your eBay items, even if you don’t list with Auctiva. Just create a free Auctiva account and select our Free Plan.

Why Auctiva Shipping Insurance?

It costs up to 30 percent less than USPS and you can buy policies and file claims right from your computer. Just deposit at least $5 into your Auctiva account or set up PayPal or a credit card for automatic billing. Then enable Auctiva Shipping Insurance in your account. It’s that easy.

You can purchase insurance manually after an item sells, or set up Auto-Purchase Rules to have your policies automatically generated based on rules you make. Read our tutorial for more details.

Save even more

When you set up Auto-Purchase Rules, you’ll receive a 20 percent discount on all insurance purchases through the end of 2009. That’s on top of our already discounted prices!

The holiday season is notorious for lost and damaged packages, I should know. Like many sellers, I’ve had packages go missing for weeks before resurfacing at either the intended address or back to mine. It didn’t matter that I had paid for Delivery Confirmation. The post office doesn’t track with it; workers usually just scan it when a package arrives at the intended post office.

Twice I got e-mails from buyers asking about their packages after I had shipped them Priority. I’m not overly concerned about items getting damaged en route to their destinations because I package my items very carefully. But sellers can’t do anything when a package goes MIA. All you can do is wait for the package to show up somewhere, or give your buyers a refund.