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Re: clarinet appraisals

Author: ghuba
Date: 2006-03-03 18:40

Here is the approach I use.

If the item is for auction, check the prices similar clarinets have sold for. Figure that you will get the average price these have sold for recently. Take the difference between highest and lowest sale price. The average price plus 25% of the difference between the highest and lowest price is about the most you will get estimated from historical data; the average price minus 25% of the difference is about the least you can expect to get. [The statistical types out there know this is a rough and dirty estimate of the 66% confidence band.]

If the purpose of the appraisal is for either insurance or tax/IRS (as in a tax-deducted charitable contribution) purposes, I would have the most experienced restorer of vintage instruments I could identify look the horn over and come up with an estimated value, reported on his or her letterhead, with some back up documentation about who the person is and the experience they have. For instance, one person who does appraisals for me is a well-known repair person who runs an ad on this site, played in a symphony orchestra, and is himself an authorized dealer for a major clarinet company. If the appraisals are ever questioned by the IRS or an insurance company, it will be clear that the estimate I have is from a very credible source. For a very high priced item (not a Selmer BT) it might be worth it to have 2 or 3 folks look this over and take their average appraisal. Should your appraisal be questioned in the future by the IRS or an insurance company, the odds are that the appraisal of a highly-credible source will be accepted more than a rule like "insure it for the cost of a Selmer Signature."

Some appraisers will tend to inflate the value of the goods they appraise. I believe that either an insurance company or the IRS will use their own appraiser if they question your appraisal as being too high. While the IRS is well-known not audit each and every tax return (in part because of the cost of doing so), I believe insurance companies are more likely to audit every appraisal as paying you on a claim for stolen merchandise requires them to issue you a check for the value of the instrument and thus they would tend to have their computers compare your claimed price against their own databases of value. Note that the typical insurance policy is for the replacement value of an item (which in the case of a historical instrument could be interpreted as purchasing one on eBay, and not for purchasing a new Selmer Signature; or if you insure your new Selmer Signature and it is stolen, the insurance company is likely to pay you no more than the discount price of purchasing on the Internet -- about $3000 today -- and not the list price of closer to $6000). Hopefully your highly credible appraiser will have set a value for the item that is higher than that of the highly credible appraiser of your insurance company as the insurance company will probably issue a check for the lesser of the two amounts.

A good appraisal for insurance and tax purposes should fairly determine the true replacement value of the item. Of course, if you can find a a buyer on an auction site who will pay you more than a fair appraised value, then congratulations to you.

George

Post Edited (2006-03-03 18:52)

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