Official Luthiers Forum!

Hi everybody, I'm in the process of buying a vintage guitar and the guy I'm buying it from is being told by FedEx that they won't ship the guitar for anything more than a declared value of $300. How in the world do all you guys ship your vintage guitars and still keep them insured for their value? I know UPS will insure for as much as you're willing to pay, but they will only pay a claim up to $2,000 on an instrument (or something like that), and the USPS will only insure up to $5,000. What am I missing here, how do we get the guitar shipped and still keep it insured for it's market value?

Thank you!

John--

You'll probably want to get third party insurance through someone like Heritage--
http://www.musicins.com/ -- they'll actually insure for value and pay if there is an incident.

There may be more resources available and it would be worth your time to post in the Vintage section of the UMGF. Those folks are doing this all the time. Overnight shipping seems to be the preferred method and it doesn't seem to matter much between UPS, FedEX or USPS. I honestly think that USPS has the best service anymore.

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Jim Howell
Charlotte, NC

Yep Heritage and I plan on getting a policy from them in 2009.

John,

Go to Heritage for shipping insurance. They sell it seperately from their policies for luthiers amd collectors. It also helps to ship as quickly as possible, to reduce handling, no matter who you use. I know UPS gives special treatment to packages insured for over $5k, locking them seperately from the other packages. I am not sure about the others.

Tim

Yep, Heritage, just got my shop policy from them in the mail..........after a dealer friend had a $40,000. guitar go COMPLETELY missing in shipment they paid no questions asked..............that was good enough for me!

If we're talking an instrument of $10k+ value, if you already have insurance through Heritage or Clarion (the company I use), it might be cheaper to fly to the destination with the instrument and fly back. Not only might you save money but you can also *personally* assure the instrument arrives. If I were buying a pre-war D-18 or D-28, I'd go that route *FOR SURE.*

Thanks for the info guys, Heritage sounds like the place to go. Will they insure an instrument that I don't own? For example, the guitar I want to ship is a vintage guitar $10k+ and before I buy it I am having it shipped to George Gruhn to authenticate before I pay the seller and have the guitar shipped here. The problem seems to be the major shipping companies don't want to cover a 1959 instrument for it's fair value, and I don't own it yet so I'm not sure if I can get insurance on it. I'll call Heritage first thing Monday, but I have a feeling I know what they're going to say.

John