I just got a shipping quote for a total of $3084 for my trophies from my August hunt. In the quote was an optional insurance added to it for $1155. Can anyone tell me what good insurance is when shipping your trophies. They are not mounted. I can't see them paying for another trip like the one I had so really in my eyes I think that the insurance is kind of useless. Am I wrong?
On a side note to that I impressed that Zambezi hunters has done some great work in getting the ball rolling on sending my trophies home. I have a friend that has been hunting with a different outfitter in another part of Zim and he has not seen his trophies and it is over a year and a half

It is additional profit for the shipper.

Even if you got it, they'd find fifty ways to avoid paying.

George

Phil,

I just called my taxidermist Tom Hardesty/ Atcheson Taxidermy that's been dealing with African shipments for 40 plus years. He does not recommend you buy the insurance offered. He thinks the shipping costs are fairly high at $3,084 as they are and adding insurance would make the costs way out of the norm. He also said in his experience if you have a problem and make a claim you'll have a tough time recouping anything.

Hope this helps.

Mark

On my last shipment from Africa I did take out the insurance and was glad I did. When the crate arrived here in the states we found that the skull for the Kudu had been damaged and we could not use it for a European mount as planned. The insurance company reimbursed me for the trophy fee for the Kudu.

Bag the insurance Phil.

They can never replace that big leopard nor the kudu amongst other things. It is a foreign carrier. Should they not pay, it will be a disaster trying to collect. For example, can you imagine trying to litigate in Zim?

In 19 trips, I have had one single item missing.

FYI, I think paid slightly more to have 4 elephant tusks sent from Botswana. I think shipping costs are climbing unfortunately.

That seems pretty high for the insurance. If I remember correctly the insuranced offered from my shipment back in November was only about $85. I did have only 5 trophies being shipped including a croc and giraffe.

It is really tough to collect on the insurance for "minor" damage (like crushed skull on a European mount). It might come in handy if the entire shipment was lost, but that is a remote possibility.

+1 on bagging the insurance !

Nube, look at the insured value, they will use replacment value thru SCI insurance program whch is thru the roof. I recieved my lions from my may hunt and they wanted to insure them for $100,000 , I told them make the insuranec for what I valued them at, just $30,000 for the trip all inclusive, took almost $850 off my bill.
Got them here to the tannery for $1,200 total.
*

Thanks guys and yes I did not plan on taking them up on the insurance for $1155. I also took a look over my bill and they added it all up wrong as well and now my shipping bill is just over $1700 which is a long ways from the original $3000+ they wanted with the insurance. I was quite happy with a $1700 bill as I expected one closer to about $2500. All happy here now and just hope for a safe return of my Leopard and fingers crossed all my trophies are in good shape and the hair isn't falling out of them!!! Can't wait to get that cat on the wall.

Just received a crate from Highveld in RSA. 6 trophies and various skins. $ 1332 US. Just FYI

What is the size of the shipment? how many animals?

quote:

Originally posted by nube:
Thanks guys and yes I did not plan on taking them up on the insurance for $1155. I also took a look over my bill and they added it all up wrong as well and now my shipping bill is just over $1700 which is a long ways from the original $3000+ they wanted with the insurance. I was quite happy with a $1700 bill as I expected one closer to about $2500. All happy here now and just hope for a safe return of my Leopard and fingers crossed all my trophies are in good shape and the hair isn't falling out of them!!! Can't wait to get that cat on the wall.

That's what I paid for a decent sized crate to Edmonton, AB in 2007.

I just received my shipment from Zim. Dande Safari Area with CMS safaris. Full Grysbuck, full Duiker, full warthog, full Klipspringer, full lion, european buffalo bull. All in was $1,055. Even your $1,700 bill seems high to me unless you had an unusually large number of animals.

Todd that is just skins and skulls right? not full mounts?

Correct Jorge, not mounts. Just skins and skulls.

I received my shipment last month from my August hunt with CMS. It consisted of a buffalo skull mount and the skin. I was charged $1741.02 for shipping and the final "Clearing Invoice" was $2569.00 After looking over the costs incurred by others this seems way too high. I have the PDF file for the clearing invoice with the breakdown if any one is interested.
Thanks
Jas

Check your bill for a lot of double-talk ghost charges that are just ways to pack profit onto the bill by the customs brokers. Stuff like '$75 warehouse transfer fees'. They send a fax and call it something fancy (and tack on another $75 'courier fee;').

quote:

Originally posted by Jas Madhavan:
I received my shipment last month from my August hunt with CMS. It consisted of a buffalo skull mount and the skin. I was charged $1741.02 for shipping and the final "Clearing Invoice" was $2569.00 After looking over the costs incurred by others this seems way too high. I have the PDF file for the clearing invoice with the breakdown if any one is interested.
Thanks
Jas

Jas

I hope you don't mind me discussing this on the open forum, but I do have a question for you. If I read your invoice correctly you paid $1,740. for the actual shipping then you paid an additional $2,569. to the importer, is that correct?

And if I read your post corrrectly, this was for one buffalo skull mount and the buffalo's skin. Is that correct?

What was the size and weight of your crate?

This sounds very, very high. From reading your invoice it looks like they found some interesting charges to add on to your bill. I hope that some of the other members can assist you on figuring out if these charges are correct.

quote:

Originally posted by Matt Norman:
Check your bill for a lot of double-talk ghost charges that are just ways to pack profit onto the bill by the customs brokers. Stuff like '$75 warehouse transfer fees'. They send a fax and call it something fancy (and tack on another $75 'courier fee;').

Matt
If you are talking about Jas Madhavan's bill please PM him for a copy of his invoice so that you can review it yourself. I looked at it and I can't believe that there is any way that I am reading it correctly. $4,300 for a buffalo skull and skin! How can that be correct?!

Jason,

Please check your PMs.

Jason,
I paid $1740 for the shipping from Zim to the US. And then I paid the $2569 to SSI for the "clearing". And that was was for one buffalo skull and its skin. Nothing else.

I have no problems with the shipping from Zim. CMS got the trophy to the taxidermist quickly and they got the mount done fast too and the whole process was very efficient and seamless. I was just perturbed by the fees charged once the crates (2, one containing the skull and the other the skin) arrived in the US.

I just paid around $750 to ship from Namibia to Vancouver and then another $1000 for CITES permits, clearing, and shipping all the way to Whitehorse.

This shipment was for three shoulder mounted pygmy antelope, three Oryx skulls nd horns, three Oryx fly-swatters, a tanned Zebra hide, a Zebra skull, Cheetah skull and a Cheetah rug.

Here it is guys. My revised bill after talking with them. My hunt report is on the 2nd page in the hunt report section but basically I killed the following and are having stuff shipped

Eland, Buff, leopard, Nyala, Duiker, baboon, grysbok, bushbuck, pocupine, jackal, 2 warthogs,steenbuck, and one Massive Kudu lol
I think I got a fair price. I just was concerned about the insurance they wanted to add for $1100+ more
Volumeteric Mass: 130 Dimensions
GROSS MASS: 118 135X85X68CMS
Chargeable Mass 130


P.O.D.:
RATE 7.35
AIRPORT OF DEST: EDMONTON
SHIPPING METHOD: AIR
INSURANCE VALUE:

TOTAL

FREIGHT 955.50
AIRLINE SECURITY & SECURITY CHARGE 206.50
CITES 0.00
VETERINARY & HEALTH CERTIFICATE 20.00
INSURANCE THIS IS OPTIONAL 0.00

FUMIGATION 50.00
AIRLINE FEE
COMMUNICATION 20.00
HANDLING 150.00
CUSTOMS ENTRY 10.00
AIRWAYBILL FEE 10.00
GSP
EUR 1 110.00
ZNCC
1532 TOTAL DISBURSEMENT 1532.00

AIR EXPORT AGENCY 250.00




TOTAL PREPAID USD 1782.00

My buffalo trophy from Cameroon disappeared somewhere between Yaounde, Cameroon and where the plane landed in Switzerland .. ???? Never to be located again ... and my brown bear shot in Alaska .. cost something like $400 to ship to Canada ... and a mind boggling $2,100 paperwork .. Mostly, over the years, barring irritating customs agents, not a lot of problems with the shipments ...

My trophies from a mid-2009 hunt arrived in Canada in 2011, after dozens of back-and-forth emails with various folks in Africa. When they arrived in this country, the powers-that-be didn't like the looks of the skulls (they were pretty nasty-looking, unlike some that look almost good enough to hang on the wall straight from the crate), insisted they be treated again, still didn't like'em, treated again, finally OK'd. This entailed a couple of round trips to that facility in Ontario. Meanwhile the tanning had to go to the gubmint-approved tannery out west (only one in the country!), and back. I think some of that material travelled more miles after arriving here in Canada than it did getting here from Africa. I have quite literally lost track of the nickel-and-diming, both in Africa and here. I have had the tanned backskins (impala, springbok and blue wildebeest) for a year or so, but I only just received word that the skull mounts are being shipped to me in the next day or so.

I barely even care any more. Yes, I look forward to having them to look at, but the sour taste is never going to leave my mouth. The idea of having taxidermy ever done again is laughable. I do my own antler mounts and skull mounts, but it will be a cold day in Hell before I ever step onto a plane leaving behind trophies to be shipped. Pictures only for me from now on.

Sorry for the highjack.

Nube, who did Al put the consignment with?

I have to sort out mine from last year as well - and there's the elephant skull... its gonna kill me!