Originally Posted by Becky Crafts
Originally Posted by lllog
Always buy insurance to anything important that you send through the mail. Its not a lot for peace of mind.
Lanny
If you buy insurance, know that if it does get lost, you have to prove what it's worth with actual receipts. Your time means nothing to the shippers. So you won't get a drop in the bucket for what you've got into any of these lovely quilts!! Sad, but true! I have heard this from both UPS & USPS. I understand how scary it is to ship quilts across country. Shipped five of them myself! Three have arrived, I've got my fingers crossed for a Monday delivery & still working on the last one. Just wanted everyone to know that. About all the insurance does on handmade stuff is alerts the carriers that something possibly worth something is in a particular box. Be careful!!
Unless you have a valid appraisal from a certified appraiser, the USPS considers the value of the quilt the sum total of the fabric, batting and thread (if you can produce receipts). If you're lucky. Otherwise, they might consider what you sent equivalent to
a $20 comforter from Kmart. And the fabric price - they don't understand you had to buy 50 FQ's to get that gradiation . Only that your quilt is 72x72, so it's 8 yards of fabric (front and back). And fabric at Joann's is $3 yard. You do the math. Not pretty.
And I'm pretty sure FedEx does NOT allow insurance on works of art, especially the handmade kind.
Most of the big names in quilting, when sending their quilts to shows/appearances, have some sort of separate insurance policy, or a rider to an umbrella policy. And most of those quilts have already been appraised for insurance purposes.
If you didn't know, if your house burns down, and you don't have some sort of rider and/or written appraisals, you're getting the $20 Kmart for each of your handmade quilts. That's why it's sometimes worth it to have it appraised (a written appraisal at a local show, or ask at your LQS - they'll know someone) The cost for a written appraisal runs around $60. At least then, if there is a disaster, you would get some value back.
So you're not Caryl Bryer Fallert - the appraiser would still look at your quilt, the value of the fabric, quilting, artistic contribution (and I know that's subjective but I can't think of another way to describe it) to come up with a $ amount. So a quilt full of Mariner's Compasses would be valued higher than a YellowBrickRoad quilt. Which makes sense. Again, it's not perfect, but it will get you more than $20.