When a consignor sends you items through Ragpiq, those items stay theirs. You hold them, list them, and sell them on their behalf. This page explains who is responsible for an item while it is in your care, what insurance you should carry, and what Ragpiq does if something goes wrong.
This is general guidance to help you run a professional consignment operation. It is not legal or insurance advice. Confirm your own cover with a licensed broker.
When custody passes to you
Custody passes to you the moment you receive the item. That is the same point covered in Process Upload: once you confirm delivery, the item moves into your care and you start listing it.
Before that point, while the item is still with the consignor or in transit to you, it is not yet in your custody. From the moment it arrives, it is.
You are responsible while items are in your care
While a consignor's items are in your store, you are responsible for them. Under Australian law a store that holds goods to sell on commission is treated as a "bailee for reward". In plain terms that means two things:
- You have to take reasonable care of the items, the same care a careful operator would take with valuable stock.
- If an item is lost, damaged, or stolen while it is with you, the responsibility sits with you, and the law expects you to be able to show you took reasonable care.
This is normal, not a Ragpiq rule
Every consignment store carries this responsibility. It is the standard arrangement for holding someone else's goods on commission, whether or not you work with Ragpiq. Treating it as part of the job, and insuring for it, is what separates a professional operation from a risky one.
This is also the honest answer to a consignor who asks what happens if their item is damaged at your store. The answer is that you are responsible for it while it is in your care, and your insurance stands behind it.
The insurance you need to hold
You should carry business insurance that covers other people's goods while they are in your care, custody, and control. The two common ways to get this in Australia are:
- A Bailees Liability policy, which covers your legal responsibility for loss or damage to customers' goods held on your premises.
- A public or business liability policy with a care, custody and control extension that carries a sensible limit for the value of stock you hold.
A standard business pack is usually not enough
A normal business insurance pack covers your own stock and equipment. It typically gives only a small sub-limit for goods that belong to other people, which will not come close to covering a rack of consigned designer pieces. Check this with your broker rather than assuming your existing policy covers consigned stock.
Cover like this is broker placed and affordable, and it is standard for any store that holds stock on behalf of others. When you join Ragpiq we ask you to confirm that you hold appropriate cover, so both you and your consignors know where you stand.
How Ragpiq fits
Ragpiq is the marketplace and software that connects you with consignors. We never take physical custody of the items, so we are not the insurer of the goods and we do not carry cover on your behalf.
What we do is keep the responsibilities clear and give both sides a defined path if there is a problem:
- If a consignor reports a lost or damaged item, we route it to you as the responsible party and help work it through to a resolution.
- We expect partner stores to hold appropriate cover and to stand behind the items they hold.
See the partner store FAQ
The five questions resale stores ask before partnering with Ragpiq, in one page.