Insured Militaria Courier

At Overland Express we understand that the value of some items of militaria can be astronomical, hence why we are offering this service, which has the option of fully insuring your items of militaria for loss or damage whilst in transit.

We have been shipping collectable militaria items for over 30 years for some or our niche clients, as this proved to be a popular service, we are now opening up this militaria shipping service with insurance to the general public.

Insurance

It's not unusual for World War II helmets, uniforms and accoutrements, medals and badges to name but a few, to be worth several thousand pounds. Our bespoke insurance policy provides cover for up to £20,000.00 for just 2.00% of the declared value.

It should be noted that items made from glass or similar fragile and brittle materials are completely excluded from our insurance services.

Shipping Restrictions

There are, however, restrictions on shipping certain militaria collectable items, for example, we are not able to facilitate the delivery of the following items of militaria:

• • Firearms and Ammunition - Regardless of them being live, deactivated, replica or inert.
• • Explosive Devices - Regardless of them being live, deactivated, replica or inert.
• • Bladed Weapons - Examples include bayonets, swords and ceremonial daggers.

We understand that replica and deactivated weapons are essentially ornaments, but we are unable to ship them as this would be in violation of the carriers' terms and conditions. Furthermore, most packages are scanned on the same machines you will be familiar with at airports, and therefore, you can understand the disruption that would occur when an operator encounters an image of a hand grenade on their scanner display!

Packing Militaria Items for Shipping

Due to the value of collectable military items, special attention should be taken when packaging them.

We recommend using double walled rigid cardboard boxes for the outer box, then placing the item of militaria that you are shipping within a smaller box within the outer larger box, and using materials like polystyrene packing chips to fill the void between the inner and outer box, and for protection of the subject item.

A cardboard box must be used for the outer packaging due to COVID-19 handling restrictions.

The item, when packaged, should not be able to freely move around within the boxes, when shaken.

Also consider, if there was an external spillage that was able to soak through your packaging, would the militaria that is being shipped be damaged or destroyed? If so, it may be prudent to also wrap the item in polythene sheeting. Whilst such damage may be covered by insurance, most collectors would not like to see such a rare item being potentially destroyed unnecessarily.

Smaller items such as military badges and awards can also be shipped by this service, but please do not send these items in a small box or padded envelope. We would recommend not sending anything of value within anything smaller than a shoe box as there is less chance of it being lost whilst in transit.

Ensure that when the shipping label is adhered to the box, not of the bar codes or address details are obscured by the parcel tape and that it is sufficiently secured to the box. We also suggest placing an additional copy of the parcel label within the inside of the outer box, as should the outer label be detached or somehow obscured, the secondary label will be discovered when the depot staff attempt to identify the parcel origin.

Our insurers also stipulate that nothing must appear on the outer box that may indicate that something of high value is contained within.

International Shipping

Overland Express will provide all required customs paperwork which is automatically formulated from the information that you provide at the time of purchasing a parcel label for your militaria item(s). This important document will be attached to the email that also contains your parcel label. The customs paperwork must printed once and all three pages should be signed and placed into an envelope which is marked as 'Commercial Invoice'. This envelope should be affixed to the outer box of your shipment. There is no requirement to seal the envelope.

If sending items of militaria internationally, you are responsible to ensure that the item being shipped is legal in the source and destination countries. For example, certain emblems are illegal because of what they represented. The insurance policy provider or Overland Express will not be financially or legally liable for items seized or destroyed by customs authorities.

Please read our frequently asked questions below, for further information about shipping collectable and rare militaria.