eBay's ShipCover is a Parcel Insurance Plan product underwritten by Arch Specialty Insurance, sold inside eBay's shipping label workflow at $1.70 per $100 of coverage domestic and $2.82 per $100 international. On labels below $100 the base carrier coverage is free and does the same job; above $100 ShipCover typically prices better than the carrier's own declared-value scale, provided the item is not on the exclusion list.
Three questions decide whether a ShipCover checkbox pays for itself.
Ground Advantage, Priority Mail, Priority Mail Express, most UPS services and FedEx US package services all include $100 of coverage on the base label. Below $100, ShipCover buys nothing new. Above it, the ShipCover rate is a flat $1.70 per $100 domestic, so the domestic add-on price is straightforward.
| Item value | Base carrier coverage | ShipCover domestic add-on |
|---|---|---|
| Up to $100 | Free ($100 included on the label) | $1.70 |
| $200 | Not enough | $3.40 |
| $500 | Not enough | $8.50 |
| $1,000 | Not enough | $17.00 |
| $3,000 | Not enough | $51.00 |
| $15,000 | Not enough (broker required for higher) | $255.00 |
USPS added insurance is priced on a tiered chart printed in the current Postage Statement; the eBay ShipCover rate is flat per $100. Below about $500 the two sit close on many parcels; above $2,000 the flat-rate ShipCover starts to look expensive next to the tiered chart. Above the USPS $5,000 added-insurance cap, ShipCover keeps going up to $15,000 domestic where USPS added insurance stops.
The eBay help page lists the exclusions verbatim: coins, bullion, loose diamonds or stones, stocks, bonds, currency, deeds, evidences of debt, traveler's checks, money orders, gift certificates, calling cards, lottery tickets, admission tickets, negotiable documents, and plasma televisions or monitors. A ShipCover checkbox on a listing that falls inside one of those categories does not create a claim; the money paid at label purchase is not recoverable.
Sales that break eBay's prohibited or restricted items policy are also outside the cover. The seller who ships an item that should not have been listed cannot use ShipCover to make the loss whole after the fact.
Add ShipCover when the item value exceeds the base coverage on the label, when the item is a category the carrier caps or excludes but ShipCover does not, or when a buyer's confirmation of non-receipt is likely to be needed and the eBay-linked claim workflow makes that easier to gather than a paper filing with the carrier. Skip it when the sale price sits inside the free $100 window, when the item is on the ShipCover exclusion list — a broker policy or the carrier's own declared value is the answer there — or when the seller already runs a per-shipment brokered policy at a better rate.
Older seller-center pages list the domestic rate at $1.49 per $100. eBay's help page shows $1.70; the label workflow uses the higher figure. Confirm the rate the workflow actually charges before comparing to a broker quote.
eBay lists ShipCover at $1.70 per $100 of coverage on domestic shipments and $2.82 per $100 on USPS international, per ebay.com's help page read on 2026-08-11. Older seller-center pages still show $1.49 domestic; the higher figure is the one the shipping label workflow displays.
Up to $15,000 on a domestic shipment and up to $10,000 on international, per the eBay help page. Everything above that has to run through a third-party broker rather than ShipCover.
On all three when the label is bought inside eBay's shipping label workflow. The seller-center page states ShipCover protects shipments through USPS, FedEx and UPS. International coverage is USPS-only.
eBay lists loose diamonds and stones, coins and bullion, stocks, bonds, currency, deeds, evidences of debt, traveler's checks, money orders, gift certificates, calling cards, lottery tickets, admission tickets, negotiable documents, and plasma televisions and monitors as excluded categories. Sales of prohibited or restricted items on eBay are also outside the cover.
For damage, at least 7 days after the transaction ends; for a lost shipment, at least 30 days after the estimated delivery date, per eBay's help page. Sellers file inside Seller Hub or My eBay: Shipping Labels, More Actions, Create Claim, then complete the form.