Luggage / International Shipping Insurance Questions

[BeerT]

I will be relocating to Thailand soon and will either bring a lot of boxes as checked luggages or do international shipping, or do a combination of both. 

 

I previously initiated a post asking about airport customs duty experience and someone brought up a really good point -- regardless of whether I bring the luggages by myself on flight or do international shipping, the customs may refer to the value of insurance declared to determine if I will need to pay tax, and if I do, how much I will have to pay. 

 

My struggle is that the replacement cost of a lot of my belongings are huge, but their market value might be very low. If I calculate my insurance based on the replacement cost, will I be faced with potential excessive tax? 

 

One example - I am working as a teacher back home in the states, and I will need to bring probably over 50 textbooks, journals and other books with me.  As you may know, a simple calculus textbook in the US can easily cost $300 USD or more; imagine if I put $15,000 USD merely under the book section on my insurance declaration form, I am concerned I will get in trouble. While I got all these books for free from college, with all the notes, stickers that I put on these books, I simply cannot just throw them away and buy news ones when I reach Thailand. 

 

With that, I was wondering if anyone can suggest what is the best way to evaluate the total value/price of goods insured. I can't imagine being charged a 35%+ tax on these 50 textbooks, not to mention I will have many more other items to bring. 

 

And can anyone recommend any good luggage/shipping insurance company/product (preferably one that has a branch in the US)? 

 

Thanks for any suggestions in advance!