The claim is issued by the sender : the money goes to the sender, especially in International shipments. What's more :

is true, but he's the one who signed for the insurance, so... he's the insured party.

Now I agree that since the sender already received money for the transaction (the money he was expecting to get), if he gets a compensation, the money should go to you. However, the proper way to see it IMO and that's what happens in commercial shipping : the sender should pay you back for the damaged goods and gets anything he can get from his insurance. If he wants the good returned, you should get total refund and he pays for shipping, and tries to get the shipping cost back from the insurance.

The fact being that if the goods were damaged because of bad packing, it's not your responsibility but the sender's and he should not receive any money for a mistake he made, and if the goods were damaged because of "ruthless" handling, it's the transporter's fault and the sender should receive compensation for that.

In a way or another, you should get a compensation.

The package being shipped is insured to cover your losses in my eyes. Why should he get paid twice for the drums?

That's my point exactly. I would think different if the seller paid for the insurance to cover his potiential loss, but I paid for it.

The drums have residual value still and he could sell them again.

Ask him politely for the insurance money since you own the drums and they were damaged going to you. If he is a rational person (can be a big if nowadays) he should be fine it.

As I said before, in case of damage, the goods should be returned to the sender at the sender's expense, the goods reimbursed then the sender makes his own claim to get his money back from the shipping insurance.

If you keep the damaged goods, whether it's your choice or at the sender's request, and the sender choses to keep any money he might get from the insurance... Open a dispute with Paypal.

That's a good idea.

I hope nobody takes me wrong here, I'm not trying to get away with anything. I just wanted these drums and still do. I just feel like I should have the option to keep them and use the money to have them repaired as well as possible.

It's definitely legitimate... Even more since you're not responsible for the damage. Was the packing appropriate ?

it was pretty well packed, 3 drums nested in one box, with the hardware of the inner drums removed and safely packed inside. In retrospect the hardware on the bass drum should have been removed also. the box was

obviously dropped on its side where a leg mount just happened to be and it

cracked the shell (pictures in previous post titled 'shipping damages!'.

It's a shame, those drums survived 40 years with no damage and now this.

I am not concerned about the money, I just wish this would not have happened.

With proper protection, this should not happen : everyone knows the dangers of shipping, and should protect the drums accordingly.

I have sent drums via mail only once and you could have dropped the box without worrying about anything but damaging the floor...

Good luck with the claim, and don't hesitate to open a dispute with Paypal, even if you manage to find a reasonnable settlement with the seller in the end.