Issues getting insurance when you sell on eBay (home/car insurance) | Selling

sin-n-dex · 2025-01-05T21:30:24.613000Z

I'm just wondering if anyone else has had a problem like I had trying to get home insurance while selling on eBay. Basically the company I was with decided to drop me because I ship items by mail outside of Canada (and their business policy says sales in Canada only). They wanted me to get a CGL with another company to be able to sell on eBay and qualify for home insurance. The only quote I ever got for a CGL was Lloyds of London (the guys that insure against environmental spills and such) and they wanted $2400. I was told "what if you get sued?" Sue me for what? I sell coins and stamps, I don't make most of my items. They asked what if a customer doesn't like their item, well eBay says they have to return for refund. eBay's policy takes into account most people don't have liability insurance for what they sell, so they create rules to simplify things. Anyway the problem I had with my broker is they couldn't find anyone who would give me home insurance (with a business exclusion on the policy) without having a CGL in place, and then no one wanted to quote me for a CGL (well except Lloyds of London). One of the things I was told while trying to get a CGL is because I've had an eBay account since 1998 I've "obviously been operating a business for years without insurance" and how no insurance company is going to want to cover me because I might make a claim about something happening before coverage took place. (Um, the date of inception is when the policy starts, you can't go back before that and make claims, I worked in the industry for over a decade, this is bunk). I finally did get home insurance through Desjardins. They did have some concern about packages being mailed outside of Canada but they said they can put a business exclusion on my policy so no business inventory is covered, no liability is covered if any customer comes to my house (btw, don't let customers come over, you won't be insured if they're injured on your property). And any "manufacturing" that goes on in the home is not covered if there's a fire or some other type of property loss. I don't manufacture anything, so not a concern. We use a Makerspace to make any home made type items (like puzzles, handbags, etc) that are put up on eBay, and it's an insignificant amount of stuff. Anyway wondering if everyone else just doesn't bother telling their home insurance they are selling on eBay to avoid this whole problem, or if it's been a nightmare for anyone else. I've told the underwriters if they don't know how to deal with someone who sells stuff on eBay part time it's obvious most people who do this are not telling them or bothering to have the right insurance. It was brought up in another thread that car insurance companies don't like cars being used for commercial purposes which includes bringing packages to the post office. This is very true, however I've found car insurance companies don't care too much about commercial activity if you tell them, so long as you're not doing food delivery, ride share, having passengers or anything else that's higher risk. My premium went from 2K a year to 2800 a year when they updated my quote to include commercial use, so I imagine most people forgo telling their car insurance company about their trips to the post office to save 25% of their premiums. C.

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Issues getting insurance when you sell on eBay (home/car insurance) | Selling | eBay Canada EN