USPS insurance pay for minor damage?

[Slickone]

What will USPS do about minor shipping damage on an insured item? Will they pay for the whole thing, part of it, nothing, tell you it could have already had that damage?

 

[vegetation]

Under $50, you simply surrender the item and packaging, present proof of value, then are paid out right then and there unless the postal clerk decides to be an a** about it . $51 and over requires you to do the same thing but you are not paid out until six weeks later, as documention is reviewed by a separate division, there's a higher chance your claim will be denied due to poor packaging,etc.

 

[Slickone]

I should have stressed minor damage. Will they'll still pay? Say even just a small area of paint rubbed off, a folded book/magazine, or a small dent?

I ask because someone shipped me an item that has various minor damage (not what I listed above). Some damage I can tell was there before shipping, from normal usage (though before I bought it, he said it had none), and some may have happened during shipping. He seems as if he's not going to do anything about it since I didn't buy insurance, though I'm not sure USPS would pay for it if it was insured, so I was going to tell him this. That and the fact that it's obvious some damage (inside) was not from shipping.