Informal transnational exchanges continue to attract the interest of migration scholars. This article focuses on the Moldovan practice of parcel-sending via private parcel van companies which continues to be an important way of keeping in touch in transnational families, and the role of informal parcel-sending in supporting Ukrainian refugees in Moldova. As Moldovans abroad sent high volumes of parcels with aid in the first weeks after the war in Ukraine started, these strong responses warrant more discussions around the value of such exchanges, particularly in relation to informal provisions of aid. Building on the notion of ‘social remittances’ and theoretical perspectives on value and sociality, the article shows that parcel-sending should be addressed in its socio-economic complexity beyond the financial and legislative implications of transporting ‘goods’. Making a case for a more nuanced understanding of the interplay between sending costs, the singularity of sent items like homegrown produce, and the labour involved in collecting and sending parcels, the author discusses the socio-economic implications of parcel-sending in two ethnographic contexts: Moldovan transnational families’ everyday life, and the Ukrainian refugee crisis in Moldova. This discussion includes ethnographic examples of Moldovan parcel-sending participants’ practices of sending personal parcels and aid for Ukrainian refugees from two fieldworks, based on semi-structured interviews and participant observation. Based on these examples, the article shows that participants in parcel-sending negotiate the ‘value’ of this transnational practice in relation to individual and collective experiences in both mundane and exceptional social contexts.