Terms and conditions

We take care to keep our website accurate and working, but we cannot promise that it always is, or that it is free of viruses. Please do not try to harm it or to get into our systems. These terms are for people in the United Kingdom.

Postage to us is free. When you send us an enquiry asking for a pack, we post it to you. It holds a Parcelforce postage label, a printed guide to packing and a slip to put inside your box. You send your items in a box of your own.

Stick the Parcelforce label on your box and send it to us, following the instructions on the label. Photograph the label first, because the tracking number is below the barcode, and keep your proof of postage. If you send your box any other way, the postage is not repaid and the box is not covered.

Your box and everything in it must not weigh more than 20 kg, and the box must not be more than one metre long, wide or high. Please pack your items so that nothing is damaged on the way. If a box is not properly secured, we cannot be responsible for the damage that follows.

We buy the kinds of items on our what we buy pages, and we cannot take the items on what we cannot take. Please do not send anything from that page. Nobody may send us anything counterfeit, stolen, an offensive weapon, dangerous, hazardous or illegal, and some of these are offences to post. If we find one, we set it aside and do not value it. We may dispose of it, or return it to you at your expense. We are not responsible for it, or for anything else in the same box, unless the law says we are.

We follow an anti-money-laundering policy. If something in your box has been reported lost or stolen, or looks counterfeit, we take it out, keep it apart, and tell the authorities, and help them with their enquiries. We return it to you only if they are satisfied that it is neither.

If you think something is missing from your box, email us at hello@vintiqi.com. A claim for a lost or damaged box is made under clause 3.

For any other complaint, email us at hello@vintiqi.com with the words "Customer Complaint" at the top, within 28 days of the matter arising. We acknowledge it within five working days and reply in full within ten working days after that. If you are still not satisfied, a senior person in our business looks at it again and decides within ten working days. That decision is final inside our process. It does not stop you taking the matter to court.

What this policy is for

Vintiqi Limited buys items from private people who send us a box to be valued. We buy the whole contents of a box, and not item by item. Among the items we buy are cameras, watches, jewellery, silver and gold, and other items of higher value.

This policy is there so that we are not used to launder money, to sell stolen goods, to avoid sanctions or to carry out any other crime. It sets out the checks we make when we buy, and before we pay.

How we judge risk

We look for risk all the time, in a way that fits the case. We try not to be intrusive, and we try to be fair. We look at how a customer behaves, what the items are and what they are worth, where they came from and how the payment is to be made.

Some signs make us look harder. None alone proves anything, and the list is not complete: someone who will not give identification or other details; details that do not agree with each other; someone who will not answer questions, or who becomes aggressive; someone who is, or may be, a politically exposed or sanctioned person; items sold again and again; items that are valuable and easy to carry; no clear account of where something came from, especially if it looks new; serial numbers removed; items linked to theft or organised crime; and a reluctance or inability to prove who they are.

The checks we make

Every customer: we take your name and address as a matter of course. If anything about you or the sale makes us genuinely suspicious, we may ask for more, stop the sale and end contact, and tell the authorities.

A larger offer: when we agree to buy a box for more than £2,500, or when what we have paid you over a rolling twelve months comes to more than £2,500 in total, we do more, before we pay. We check the twelve months ourselves, by hand, before we pay. There are no exceptions, and it applies even if we have checked you before. We ask for:

1. The fullest details of where your items came from, with any papers that show it.

2. Your own current passport or photocard driving licence. We take the details by phone. We keep no copy of it. We keep a record of our checks, and your answers, for six years.

3. Bank details in your own name: the name on the account, which must match yours, the sort code and the account number.

If the papers do not settle our doubts, we make further enquiries. If we are still not satisfied, we will not go ahead. We may tell the authorities, and we will take whatever action about the box we think right, which may include holding it until we have decided.

If we think there may be money laundering, the law says we must not tell you if we report it.

The law

We follow the law on money laundering, terrorism, fraud, stolen goods, sanctions and data protection. This policy is to be read as including every legal requirement that applies. Our privacy notice says how we use the information we ask for.

We are responsible for this policy and for having the systems and resources to keep to it.

This scheme is part of our agreement with you. It sets out when a box may be eligible for compensation while it is on its way to us, while it is with us, and while it is on its way back to you. It is a compensation scheme, not insurance, so it is not regulated as insurance. It does not guarantee that we will repay a retail value, a price you paid, a sentimental value or your own idea of what something is worth. All compensation is limited by the terms of this scheme.

In this scheme: a box is any package sent to us with your items in it; an item is any single object in a box; a claim is any request for compensation under the scheme; the maximum level is the most we pay at each stage of the box's journey; market value is the price an item would reasonably fetch on the UK or EU second-hand market when we assess it, taking account of condition, age, rarity, demand and resale potential; an approved delivery service is a tracked courier service we have approved; and our assessment is the valuation and decision we make, using our own trained assessors, market information and the evidence we have. We decide how much weight each piece of evidence has.

Proof of contents means any information or papers we reasonably need to check what is in a box, who owns it and what it is worth. It can include photographs, videos, receipts, purchase records, valuations, certificates of authenticity and written descriptions. We encourage you to photograph your box and its contents before you post it. If you have no such evidence, your claim will not automatically fail, but we may find it harder to check the contents and value, and that may count when we decide the claim and the amount. We may refuse a claim, or reduce what we pay, where there is not enough evidence for us to check the contents or the value.

When we accept a claim, we work out a fair and reasonable settlement from the evidence, under this scheme. We never pay more than the cover limit for the box, however much the items are assessed to be worth. A settlement is based on market value, not on what you paid, the retail price or the cost of replacing the item. Receipts and invoices do not fix or guarantee the figure, because they may show retail prices or mark-ups that are not resale value. The limit is not a promise to pay that much: we pay what is proved or reasonably assessed. We weigh all the evidence we reasonably can, including expert appraisal and independent market information, and where evidence conflicts, we may give more weight to independent market information and expert assessment. Our valuation is final for this scheme, subject to our internal review where that applies.

Cover on the way to us: when you use our pre-paid, tracked service, your box is eligible for compensation for loss or damage up to £300. This cover applies only on the way to us, and depends on the terms of this scheme, including evidence of contents, ownership and value.

Cover while it is with us: once a box has reached us and been scanned into our system, it is eligible for compensation for loss or damage up to £1,000, after we have checked the contents and value under this scheme. Compensation is based on the assessed market value of the items.

Cover on the way back to you: if we make an offer and you say no, we send the box back to you by a tracked delivery service. On the way back, it is eligible for compensation up to £300. Compensation for items lost or damaged on the way back is worked out case by case, and reflects the reasonable cost of repair, restoration or replacement by reference to current market value, where that is right and the evidence supports it. What you originally paid does not fix or guarantee the figure. Where an item is damaged but can be repaired or partly recovered, we may choose to pay the cost of repair or the fall in market value instead of the full replacement.

Higher cover: the standard cover for a box is £300. If you believe your box is worth more, you can ask us in writing, before you post it, to raise the cover for that box, up to £10,000. Please send us evidence of what the items are worth, such as photographs of the items and any valuations, certificates or receipts you have. We look at what you send, and the cover is raised only if we agree in writing before you post the box. Until we do, the standard cover applies. Raising the cover does not mean we will make an offer of that amount, and we do not have to agree to raise it.

Some items are not suitable for us to carry, handle or process, for reasons of safety, law or practicality. These must not be in any box: fragile or breakable items that are not fit for ordinary parcel handling, including glass, ceramics, china, porcelain, pottery and figurines; firearms, ammunition, explosives, and any related parts or replicas that could be mistaken for real weapons; knives, blades and edged weapons of any kind, except ordinary household cutlery; and ivory, and anything containing ivory or taken from endangered or protected animals, including items restricted by wildlife trade rules. We keep these out because of health and safety risks, legal limits and the risk of injury when boxes are handled, inspected or unpacked.

If a prohibited item is in a box, we may leave it out of any valuing or compensation under this scheme; adjust or decline a claim where it has contributed to the loss, damage or extra handling risk; and take the action that the law requires. A prohibited item can affect the handling and assessment of the whole box, especially where it is a safety risk or stops normal processing, and the whole claim may be void where such items compromise safety, handling or the investigation. We make any decision to limit or decline compensation reasonably and fairly, on the facts of the case.

Claims time limit: you must make any claim under this scheme within 30 days of your box being returned to you. If your box never reached us, you must make a claim within 28 days of the day you posted it. We do not normally accept claims made after that, but in exceptional cases we may look at a late claim where there is a reasonable explanation and it is fair to do so. We may ask for evidence of why it is late, and it is for us to decide. When we accept a claim, we pay the settlement by bank transfer, and we ask for the payment details we need. You must give them accurately and completely. If you do not give them within a reasonable time, we may put the settlement on hold until we have them. We make reasonable efforts to remind you before a settlement is delayed or closed. If a settlement stays unclaimed for 90 days from when it is first offered to you, we may close the claim, and after that we need not hold the money. If you contact us after that and can show a reasonable explanation, for example that the delay was entirely outside your control, we may at our discretion review the case and decide whether to reinstate the settlement in whole or in part.

Packaging: you are responsible for making sure items are packed securely and suitably, following the guidance from us and from the carriers we use. That guidance is available before you post. We may refuse or limit compensation where damage was probably caused directly by inadequate or unsuitable packing by you. We look fairly at the facts of each case, including the condition of the packing, how the box was handled and all the evidence. This does not affect our responsibility for loss or damage while the box is in our care, where inadequate packing by you did not cause it. We look at whether the damage was directly and solely caused by inadequate packing.

How we classify claims: a total loss is where a box is confirmed lost in transit or cannot be found after a reasonable search, and compensation is based on the proved or reasonably estimated total value of the box, up to the cover limit. A partial loss is where one or more items are confirmed missing but others arrive; compensation is limited to the value of the missing items. Damage is where items arrive but their market value or usability has been materially reduced in transit or handling; compensation is based on the fall in market value or the reasonable cost of repair. Partial damage is where only part of an item is affected, such as a missing part, a broken part or cosmetic damage; compensation is based on the fall in the item's overall market value, not on the whole item. All claims are assessed on the nature of the loss or damage, the evidence and the valuation process in this scheme. Compensation is limited to the proved or reasonably assessed value of the affected items and does not automatically reach the maximum level. We alone decide how a claim is classified, on the evidence and the result of our inspection.

This scheme does not cover: a loss, damage or defect that was there before we received the box, including damage not caused by transit or handling; any difference between what you expected an item to be worth and the market value we assess, including expectations based on the price you paid, retail prices, sentimental value, an insurance valuation for another purpose, or prices in other people's listings; items that are not described or evidenced well enough for us to check ownership, authenticity or existence; loss or damage where packing made a material contribution and did not meet reasonable handling standards in guidance from us or our carriers; indirect loss from delay in transit, processing or investigation, including inconvenience, lost opportunity or knock-on financial effects of any kind; and items that, by their nature, fragility or handling risk, are not suitable for ordinary parcel transport and were not agreed in advance for enhanced cover. More than one of these may apply to the same claim, and one does not limit the others.

We may investigate, suspend, adjust or reject any claim where we reasonably suspect fraud, misrepresentation or abuse of this scheme. That includes deliberately misstating the contents, ownership or value; sending altered, misleading or false papers; leaving out relevant items from the contents you declare; trying to claim twice or to recover twice; and deliberately inflating a value beyond a reasonable market assessment. Where we find, or reasonably suspect, fraud or misrepresentation, we may reject the claim in whole or in part; recover any payment already made; set off amounts against any future payment due to you; keep items while we investigate; and share relevant information with others where the law requires. We decide fairly and reasonably on all the evidence and the result of our own investigation, and we may withhold payment while we complete it.

Our total liability under this scheme is limited to the maximum level that applies at the time of the box event. To the fullest extent the law allows, we are not liable for sentimental value or emotional loss; indirect or consequential loss of any kind; loss of profit, opportunity or expected value; any amount above the cover level; or delays caused by carriers' networks or outside disruption. Nothing in this scheme excludes liability where the law does not allow that under consumer protection law. The cover level is the most we are liable for in total, for any one box event.

We are not responsible for any delay, failure or disruption in meeting this scheme where it is caused by events beyond our reasonable control. These include natural disasters such as fire, flood, storm or earthquake; industrial action or labour disputes; failure or disruption of carriers' or logistics networks; government restrictions or legal action; system outages, cyber incidents or infrastructure failure; and public health emergencies or widespread disruption of operations. If that happens, we take reasonable steps to limit the effect and to return to normal service as soon as we reasonably can.

We may change, update or replace this scheme at any time. An updated version applies to boxes sent after the date it takes effect. No change will be made to reduce the cover on boxes already sent under an earlier version.