Andy Holder Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 Hi all. I recently sold my Bb/F Jeffries for a tad over £2,000 to a gentleman in Southern Ireland. I had quoted £50 for carriage, assuming I could send it insured for probably about 60 or 70. When it came to it, the cheapest I could find that would be insured up to £2K was £144! In the end the sale fell through but when it comes to it next time, does anyone have any recommendations for sending high priced instruments? How on earth does anyone send a £4,000 instrument insured? I couldn't find a single courier that would insure any more than £2500. What do other people do? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Wooff Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 (edited) What I do is to get the customer to arrange pick up by a courrier company. That way, as soon as it is collected it is no longer legally your responsability, for one, and, the customer can arrange for insurance cover for the delivery under their own household or special musical instrument insurance policy. Most companies that send things of value regularly will have their own insurance cover, but us small operators can find that this is too expensive. Prior to deregulation of the Banking and insurance industries it was possible to buy insurance through a courrier company for whatever value you stipulated the item was worth.. then the rules changed and the Logistics companies were denied the right to organise insurances... so they let the qualified staff go (sacked them)... now these rules have been changed again to allow the courriers to arrange insurance but they are loathe to re employ the staff. I have sent instruments half way around the world that represented 4 months work on my part and with no insurance cover... these were worrying times... usually my customers collect their new toy. PS; Does £2000 for a Jeffries represent the full effect of the current ecconomic crises ? Edited December 24, 2012 by Geoff Wooff Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
griffinga Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 Hi all. I recently sold my Bb/F Jeffries for a tad over £2,000 to a gentleman in Southern Ireland. I had quoted £50 for carriage, assuming I could send it insured for probably about 60 or 70. When it came to it, the cheapest I could find that would be insured up to £2K was £144! In the end the sale fell through but when it comes to it next time, does anyone have any recommendations for sending high priced instruments? How on earth does anyone send a £4,000 instrument insured? I couldn't find a single courier that would insure any more than £2500. What do other people do? If there's an alternative, I've never found it. However, for the cost of expenses, I'd be willing to hand-carry and deliver your Jeffries just about anywhere. On the serious side - is it possible (I've never investigated this option) to insure it through a regular insurance agency who's coverage would include transporting it? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Theo Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 (edited) G Wizz Couriers (now rebranding as Total Parcels) used to offer pretty good insurance options. Also worth looking at APC Overnight, though you may wish to phone your local office for details of insurance. Edited December 24, 2012 by Theo Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paul Read Posted December 24, 2012 Share Posted December 24, 2012 That does look ridiculously cheap for a Jeffries! I always insure to the max (which is $1000) with Canada Post and hope for the best. Price is reasonable but I wish the limit was higher (or absent). Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Holder Posted December 24, 2012 Author Share Posted December 24, 2012 What I do is to get the customer to arrange pick up by a courrier company. That way, as soon as it is collected it is no longer legally your responsability, for one, and, the customer can arrange for insurance cover for the delivery under their own household or special musical instrument insurance policy. Most companies that send things of value regularly will have their own insurance cover, but us small operators can find that this is too expensive. Prior to deregulation of the Banking and insurance industries it was possible to buy insurance through a courrier company for whatever value you stipulated the item was worth.. then the rules changed and the Logistics companies were denied the right to organise insurances... so they let the qualified staff go (sacked them)... now these rules have been changed again to allow the courriers to arrange insurance but they are loathe to re employ the staff. I have sent instruments half way around the world that represented 4 months work on my part and with no insurance cover... these were worrying times... usually my customers collect their new toy. PS; Does £2000 for a Jeffries represent the full effect of the current ecconomic crises ? Hi Geoff, I wondered why it had all changed. I must admit I was a trifle disappointed with 2 bids and £2,050, even though it is a Bb/F. I'm not greedy, but 3k would have been nice. Have a marvellous Christmas. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Holder Posted December 24, 2012 Author Share Posted December 24, 2012 G Wizz Couriers (now rebranding as Total Parcels) used to offer pretty good insurance options. Also worth looking at APC Overnight, though you may wish to phone your local office for details of insurance. Neither will do it, I'm afraid, Theo. It's 5% of the value for insurance. That's £100 on a 2K instrument. Happy Christmas, I wish I was up North for it. Andy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Holder Posted December 24, 2012 Author Share Posted December 24, 2012 Hi all. I recently sold my Bb/F Jeffries for a tad over £2,000 to a gentleman in Southern Ireland. I had quoted £50 for carriage, assuming I could send it insured for probably about 60 or 70. When it came to it, the cheapest I could find that would be insured up to £2K was £144! In the end the sale fell through but when it comes to it next time, does anyone have any recommendations for sending high priced instruments? How on earth does anyone send a £4,000 instrument insured? I couldn't find a single courier that would insure any more than £2500. What do other people do? If there's an alternative, I've never found it. However, for the cost of expenses, I'd be willing to hand-carry and deliver your Jeffries just about anywhere. On the serious side - is it possible (I've never investigated this option) to insure it through a regular insurance agency who's coverage would include transporting it? If the sale had gone through I was going to take it by Ryan Air to Dublin, maybe £80 return (plus the cost of a couple of pints of Guinness!) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Andy Holder Posted December 24, 2012 Author Share Posted December 24, 2012 That does look ridiculously cheap for a Jeffries! That's what I thought but eBay doesn't lie! I purposely played down the condition because I want happy customers but it is a nice instrument. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Geoff Wooff Posted December 25, 2012 Share Posted December 25, 2012 PS; Does £2000 for a Jeffries represent the full effect of the current ecconomic crises ? Hi Geoff, I wondered why it had all changed. I must admit I was a trifle disappointed with 2 bids and £2,050, even though it is a Bb/F. I'm not greedy, but 3k would have been nice. Have a marvellous Christmas. Andy It was the strength of interest in the ITM sector and especially with the Irish in Ireland that had pushed up the prices of good vintage Anglos well beyond the prices previously achieved. This was made possible by the " Irish Tiger Ecconomy" of the late '90's through to the ecconomic crash of 2008. Having lived in Ireland during most of that period we saw unbelievable changes in the apparent spending power of the population and enjoyed a huge increase in our own standard of living as a result of the more logical price structure I was able to command for the instruments I made. Unfortunately this "Tiger" had a sting in its tale because it was all a bubble... and people were spending money that they did not have... live now and pay later. Suddenly the banks would lend ridiculous amounts of money to almost anyone. So, some people benefitted from all of this and some of them invested heavily in "unobtainium" like a nice Jeffries for instance. At the moment there are still plenty of people in Ireland with good wages coming in and money to spend but they are the more cautious sector of the public and there are many others deep into negative equity or owing sums of money that they cannot currently hope to repay. Last month I bought something using my Irish Credit Card... when the bill came in there was an extra notice with it that I had never seen before which said " If you only pay the minimum payment each month it will be 2040 before you clear your account" !! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dave Weinstein Posted December 25, 2012 Share Posted December 25, 2012 When importing instruments, I've generally purchased a shipping rider for the instrument itself from Heritage Musical Insurance in the US. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
shelly0312 Posted January 4, 2013 Share Posted January 4, 2013 When importing instruments, I've generally purchased a shipping rider for the instrument itself from Heritage Musical Insurance in the US. Just out of interest I went to the Heritage Musical Instrument site last week but didn't see anything about shipping or "temporary" insurance. Are you normally insuring your instruments and then you have access to these shipping riders? Is this something you find out about with a more specific phone call directly to them? And I am still having a hard time believing none of the big carriers (FedEx, UPS, DHL--do they still exist?) have some sort of insurance rider for more expensive items? Truely?? How do people ship other espensive stuff that is not musical insturments? Is everyone going bare? (no insurance?) I find this so curious. Shelly Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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