....Mailed my late lamented Chapuis to Az today. I had them to figure it both ways, priority and registered. As anyone who uses it knows, registered mail is nearly foolproof because EVERYONE who handles a registered package has to sign for it. Loss rate is nearly zero, no wonder.

At any rate, cased and cardboard boxed Chapuis double with $5,000 insurance (max with priority mail) was just over $101, registered with $5150 insurance was $61.50. A fairly substantial savings. Needless to say, I mailed it registered, which for those of you who don't know use priority mail for shipping. The main difference in costs is that insurance for priority costs so much more than for registered. Last time I looked, money started being saved at about $1000 insurance value.

Yes, that is very true; registered mail is good for high value items.
However, registered mail takes a long time to get there, up to two weeks, and priority mail is 2-3 days.
But registered is safer.

You can send registered priority or just registered. Registered priority is 5-7 days pretty much anywhere. That is how I ship high value items.

AFAIK all registered mail uses priority mailing for its mailing. Was told this package would arrive Monday. We'll see. As a prior user of registered mail, I doubt it.

My postmaster always gives me the option of regular registered or priority registered. I have used both, priority registered is much faster.

Well according to tracking, it left Dallas suburb this morning. That means it traveled about 175 mi since Thursday. With only 1000 or so to go, I am not optimistic that it will meet the projected Monday afternoon deadline.

The best thing about USPS vs Fed Ex, UPS is that you are buying REAL insurance, that pays off in a timley manner.

Rifle arrived today and was picked up by an apparently happy buyer. I love stories with good endings.