I could use some advice. I've had thousands of dollars worth of CDs stolen from me, mostly jazz. I am scrambling to put together the police report, which they need before acting on this. I want them to act before my shady theif of a housemate moves out.
The report needs to list what's stolen, and what it's worth. For most items this isn't a problem, but several things are out of print. I need to figure out an elegant and defensible way to come up with the worth of the following items:
Ali, Rashied/Lowe - Duo Exchange
Ayler, Albert - Live At Slug’s Vol. 2
Ayler, Albert - My Name Is Albert Ayler
Bluiett, Hamiet - Im/Possible To Keep
Blythe, Arthur - Metamorphosis/The Grip -- In Concert [live]
Brown, Marion - Three For Shepp
Coleman, Ornette - Love Call
Coleman, Ornette - The Empty Foxhole
Music Inc. - Live At Historic Slug’s
Parker, William - Compassion Siezes Bed-Stuy
Taylor, Cecil - Fondation Maeght Nights Vol. 1
Ware, David S. - Flight of I
Wright, Frank - Trio
Ebay apparently doesn't list closed items anymore, unless it's very recently closed. I though that might help, but on second thought, that seems spotty, too.
What I did for my (wince) Sam Rivers Mosaic box set was call Mosaic. They advised that the Sam Rivers Mosaic box set, a very limited-run item, originally listed at $48.00. Once out of print, this item at least doubled in value. They recommended listing this item at $96.00. They also advised that, in cases of partial theft of a “complete works of” box set, the list price of the entire box set should be used. Per this advice, I have entered the list price for the (double wince) Eric Dolphy complete Prestige box set, though only 4 of 9 discs were stolen.
This sucks.
Advice? Advice I can use in the next 24 hours or so?
And please don't say it's "free." Yuk yuk.
― Usual Channels (usual_channels), Thursday, 15 June 2006 00:19 (nineteen years ago)
My advice would be:
1) Make them cumulatively worth enough so that this crime is a more serious one (grand larceny vs petty larceny, for example.) The police will take it more seriously, and if you know who did it, the thought of a more severe punishment may make the wrongdoer return the goods - I assume this is what you want.
2) Value them yourself - reasonably, but on the high end - and take your list of values to some friendly record store clerk. Have *them* rewrite the list, sign it and provide contact info. Make sure for suspiciously large figures that the clerk denotes that it's a very rare / import / out-of-print / whatever item. I'd actually do all the paperwork myself and have someone sign it. Explain the situation to the clerk and, generally, they'll help you out.
Insurance copies usually accept these price lists without too much questioning.
3) People like me, who do a lot of selling on eBay, would be happy to quote the prices we would charge for such items. I'd do it for you, but have not much knowledge of jazz, so I'm not the best person to ask. This idea isn't quite as insurance company-friendly as number two though.
4) Many insurers will not provide anything more than standard price reimbursement for CDs unless you can substantiate from an outside source that the CD is a rare item. So your "elegant and defensible way" to substantiate replacement cost is to get a letter from some sort of CD seller (preferably a store) delineating the values.
I realize this info is a but redundant, but I'd hate to see you get screwed.
― Dee Xtrovert (dee dee), Thursday, 15 June 2006 00:28 (nineteen years ago)
Yes, your type/grade of insurance will matter. We paid the roughly $2 extra per month for full replacement value. Up to $5000 the value of an item was pretty much what we said it was. We did a thorough job doing what others have suggested--looking u rices on several vendors sites, went to a used record store that I have been a frequent cutomer at--they had a couple of books that assessed the "rarity" of an item and from there they gave me an idea of the cost.
In my case it was a flood not a vermin roommate, although the flood was caused by a sewer backup, so the stench was the same.
― J Arthur Rank (Quin Tillian), Thursday, 15 June 2006 21:30 (nineteen years ago)