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Insuring Merchandise To And From Shows


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Help!! Is there any way to do this? I've spoken to a dozen different people this week trying to find a way to insure my pottery while travelling to a show 600 miles away. The closest thing to a solution that anyone could come up with that covers us while in transit was a general business insurance policy, which is A) waaayyyy to expensive for something we really only need for this show, and B) only insures the cost of materials that went into the work.

 

Does anyone know of anything better?

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I think the bigger question is: Are you insured if your booth blows over and destroys some of your neighbor's work, or if one of your pots breaks during use and someone gets injured as a result? For potters, the cost of materials is generally insignificant compared to the cost of labor. All the pots I take to a show have a materials value that is less than the cost of an insurance deductible. To break it down simply, I can probably fit around 300 mugs in my booth display (not that I only have mugs in my booth, but it gives us a good baseline). With porcelain that costs me about 55 cents per pound, that's $206 worth of clay, plus glazes which might add another $30. It's not enough to worry about. Compare that with a $100,000 lawsuit because a handle broke off your mug and someone got scalded by hot coffee, and you get the picture. You should be protecting yourself against liability to others.

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I drive to many shows much further than that and never worry about a crash. You cannot insure every little thing.Life is a chance deal anyway.

I can ad that I have claimed a pottery loss in a van crash but the auto dealer crashed my van and broke about 1k of pots but thats another WHOLE STORY. Thier insurance paid for the loss.The van repair as well.

Mark

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I asked my brother who has an insurance agency and he said most likely that cargo insurance would be the most inexpensive option.    List the goods as crafted goods, not art.    And insure for "fair market value".    He said it's common to insure cargo for specified trips.    Progressive is the company he has used most often to underwrite cargo insurance but there are quite a few companies that write cargo insurance.   You will need to add up the value and photograph.

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I just went to progressives website and they have 'motor cargo' listed but that specifically excludes art.

 

Can your brother write a property rider tailored to pots? I think a lot of potters transport 10-12k worth of functional pottery. I think one simple way to do it would for the rider to declare what a 100% number of pots and value is and a loss would be in number of pots lost times average value. If I lose 40 pots its covered at my insured average.

 

Not sure its worth it though and a lot of fuss to cover what is most likely under 10k and probably way under and as Neil said, liability is the big concern not losing a few pots. If you lose them all in an accident while transporting they should be covered any way by the cause of that accident. I don't think anyone covers pots for cracking or breaking in transit when the artist is taking them back and forth from the studio to a show venue, at least I don't think they do for any reasonable price.  

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I just went to progressives website and they have 'motor cargo' listed but that specifically excludes art.

 

Can your brother write a property rider tailored to pots? I think a lot of potters transport 10-12k worth of functional pottery. I think one simple way to do it would for the rider to declare what a 100% number of pots and value is and a loss would be in number of pots lost times average value. If I lose 40 pots its covered at my insured average.

 

Not sure its worth it though and a lot of fuss to cover what is most likely under 10k and probably way under and as Neil said, liability is the big concern not losing a few pots. If you lose them all in an accident while transporting they should be covered any way by the cause of that accident. I don't think anyone covers pots for cracking or breaking in transit when the artist is taking them back and forth from the studio to a show venue, at least I don't think they do for any reasonable price.  

 

Yeah I just checked and saw that.   There are different forms of cargo insurance.   I just asked about insuring  pottery while it was in shipment.  One thing for sure when insuring "art", art must have an appraisal.  I know most people here consider themselves to be an artist, but from an insurance point of view pottery would be retail inventory, crafted or manufactured goods.   I asked again and (in Mississippi) art, jewelry over a certain amount, fine antiques, and the like must have a appraisal certificate (from an expert appraiser).  There is way too much room for scamming with "art".  (not implying anyone here would even consider scamming).

 

I just asked him if you could insure goods in shipment, and he said yeah with "cargo insurance".   Okay for my situation, my inventory is NOT insured while in shipment.  My inventory is insured as a business retail outlet, with specific coverage for "contents".  If I wanted it to be insured while traveling to my 2 yearly shows, which are only 40 miles away, he said he would do it with a rider.  (he asked why ... do you think you need insurance for that ... he didn't feel like it was worth it ...but said it wouldn't cost that much .. he'll check next week and tell me the cost)   Every individual is different and insurance is regulated by state .. but he said that the cheapest way to insure it would be with a rider to a business policy.  He said to encourage everyone here to get some basic business liability and some contents to cover  equipment.  No ... he can't write policies outside the state of Mississippi.   He also said when he said this type of insurance would be most affordable, if attached or combined, with other insurance.  He said you might have a hard time finding this type of insurance unless it was with a company where you have other policies.   He said that with Alfa, his primary underwriting insurance company, you would have to have other policies in place.  That's why he used Progressive because for this particular policy, they would write the Cargo without other policies in place.  But he did say it was for around $100k of coverage, of goods not owned by the motor carrier. 

 

He'll get a quote for a rider on my insurance next week and I'll post it (I won't be getting the policy though).

 

 

 

I'll get some specific quotes next week ... quotes that would apply to my business.   Keep in mind insurance is regulated by state.

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I have a friend who carried his work in a small trailer with the display set-up. Stopped for lunch at a large roadside cafe. Came out, someone had cut the chains and took the whole trailer. He was not covered by business or auto coverage.

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Thanks everyone for your replies! I really appreciate the suggestions. My partner and I normally only do shows within like a 40 mile radius of home, and nothing near as big as this one, that's why we're a little high strung about it. I think we've decided for now to just stick with our general liability insurance, even though it doesn't protect our ware, and in the event that some catastrophe befalls it we'll cross that bridge then (you know,by weeping mostly). Sounds like everything else is just such a gamble as to whether it would be covered anyway. Eep, big shows!

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