Insuring Your Artwork
As the artist, it’s imperative you insure your artwork at all points of the artwork’s life until it arrives at its new home.
We suggest that you purchase insurance when you ship artwork. This will cover you in case the package is lost or damaged.
Embrace Creatives will NOT ask our buyer for additional fees after a purchase.
Courier Information
Items covered by included insurance: All major carriers provide free coverage up to a certain amount (see below). Keep in mind that these limits apply to the entire package, so if you are shipping multiple items in one package that add up to a higher value than the stated limit, you’ll need to purchase supplemental insurance if you want them to be fully covered.
UPS‘s liability is limited to US$100.00 on packages with no declared value. If the value of your goods exceeds US$100.00, you can declare a higher value, up to US$50,000.00 per package, by entering the declared value in the UPS shipping system used and paying an additional charge.
If you are shipping artwork valued over their maximum, FedEx offers Premium Art Boxes lined with a plastic protector and foam.
FedEx defines declared value: http://bit.ly/FedExValue
The UPS definition can be found here: http://bit.ly/UPSValue
Consider Risk
There are many considerations here as well when it comes to making the decision to purchase shipping insurance. Keeping these in mind can help you decide whether to purchase insurance, and also help you find ways to mitigate the risk as much as possible.
- Item type: There are certain types of items that are more likely to be stolen. Those that can be easily resold or pawned, higher end brand names, and compact and easy-to-grab boxes, for example. They look for brand names, too. So a best practice would be to avoid using the brand box, or boxes that may indicate what is inside.
- Destination matters: As unfortunate as it is, some areas are just worse for theft and damage than others. Adding tracking and signature requirements can minimize risk, but even in these scenarios, carriers will impose coverage limits.
The Shipping Insurance Equation
When considering the business case for insuring packages, a cost and risk analysis can help cement your decision. The below equation, backed by your own data and history, may prove useful.
Translation: If the average cost to insure an item is less than what you spend replacing lost, stolen or damaged items … then you should include insurance to mitigate the risk.
For example, let’s say you sell high-end headphones with an average order value of $200, and ship 100 pair per month, of which one (1) pair never makes it to the customer’s door. 1/100 X 200 = 2, so if it costs less than $2 on average to insure an order, it makes business sense for you to buy the insurance. And, in fact, looking at ShippingEasy’s Shipsurance rates for this declared value, the cost of supplemental coverage is less than $2 for all domestic shipping scenarios.
Artwork Insurance Coverage
For your own protection, here are some artwork insurance options you can use for studio inventory and when you are transporting and exhibiting artwork;
UPS Capital Insurance Agency, Inc