Insuring your collection

[retro]

An interesting point was raised in Adol's superb SFC collection thread, and I thought it would be interesting to discuss it further.

How many of us have insurance for our collections?

Several years ago, my Dad used to be an insurance agent. I told him that I had catalogued and photographed my sci-fi collection, and estimated its value at approx. £10,000. I asked him if it was covered under our policy. He said no. When I asked why not, he said I couldn't prove that I owned all that. I said, "Well, I have photos!" He pointed out that, were there a fire or theft, I could not prove that those items were still in the house.

So, should we have a specific insurance policy with named items for our collection? Is that what they mean on the Antiques Roadshow when they say, "You should insure this Ming vase for £5000"?

Also, I'd be interested to see how the policies on this vary from country to country. I am in the UK, is the situation different elsewhere?

And what about dev gear? How do we insure that? "Err yeah, well this was $10,000 new, you could only buy it from Sony and had to be a developer. Technically, I shouldn't have it. I got it for $1000." I'm sure that'd go down well!

[Shadowlayer]

In case of fire they check the remains to know what you had, mostly becos theres has been enough cases of people with an imaginary collection of picasso paintings lost in a fire...

As far as I know the main issue in that situation would be the value of the lost property. Is hard to convince the insurance company that that Nes cart you have is worth $10000 when most carts go for $5 at ebay.

And then it gets messy: while you may prove you had 500 games, the company will pay you the same price for each one of 'em, even if you had one of those really rare ones.

Why? becos it would be almost impossible to tell one cart/CD-DVD case from the other, and with most old and used games costing the same it would be weird for someone outside our culture that one of the games was worth more than all the other ones combined.

Anyway, in case of theft unless you have all the receipts you're pretty much SOL.

And dev gear, again it would be very difficult to prove that it wasnt just a normal version.

[Barc0de]

an insurance is a contract-based relationship. depending on what you can pay you can discuss all the terms of the insurance to fit your individual needs.

[Shadowlayer]

Yeah but that kind of custom insurance isnt cheap, in fact it can be so expensive that it would be a better idea to save enough money to rebuy the entire collection instead.

[Barc0de]

well backup money isnt always available when the items are in peril, whereas insurance money is.

[Tomcat]

Its a minefield, Ive got a lock-up in a "secure" warehouse which is insured for 10000 bingbongs.

[Shadowlayer]

Thats a lot of bongs!:lol:

well backup money isnt always available when the items are in peril, whereas insurance money is.

Custom insurance tends to ask for a large initial payment, what I'm saying is that it would be a better idea to just take that money and put it on the bank.

[retro]

...and quite a few bings!

So, I guess it is pretty much the situation I expected. Technically, we'd be lucky to get anywhere near a decent value for our collections as we stand, unless we're rich enough to be able to afford custom insurance!

[Barc0de]

I wouldn't be too bummed.

You can insure a house/room/whatever for a certain value and you ll pay a fixed market price (more or less), you don't need to identify and evaluate each and every one of the items in your collection.

[virtual alan]

For the UK, does anyone know of anyone in the UK? that offers this special insurance?

[A. Snow]

Lloyd's has insured some crazy stuff in the past but they are generally big business.

[smf]

I wouldn't be too bummed.

You can insure a house/room/whatever for a certain value and you ll pay a fixed market price (more or less), you don't need to identify and evaluate each and every one of the items in your collection.

Normal house contents insurance doesn't work that way.

Anything "valuable" has to be individually catalogued, my laptop isn't covered for instance because I won't pay for it to be added to my insurance.

You'll also generally only get the replacement value, so if you buy a top end tv and buy the time it gets stolen then it's the same specification as a low end tv then you'll get the money to buy a low end tv.

I don't know what they do if the price goes up, probably don't give you the extra.

[rupert]

Normal house contents insurance doesn't work that way.

Anything "valuable" has to be individually catalogued, my laptop isn't covered for instance because I won't pay for it to be added to my insurance.

You'll also generally only get the replacement value, so if you buy a top end tv and buy the time it gets stolen then it's the same specification as a low end tv then you'll get the money to buy a low end tv.

I don't know what they do if the price goes up, probably don't give you the extra.

surly this depends on company to company.. Ive quized my mother on our house insurance many times, dating back to befor my game collecting because i have a £2000 Mountain Bike aswell. I recall here saying it's coverd as she has single item cover up to a certain amount. Trouble is though, can you count your collection as the single item :katamari:

It's about time I looked into it, lazyness kepps setting in though.

[retro]

Hehe, pretty sure you can't count it, no ;-)

smf, you should find your laptop is covered by the accidental damage part. We've had many customers claim on their insurance for accidental damage to a laptop. I have to write a report for the insurance companies. In fact, both my colleague and myself have had to claim, too. That said, it is big business. Check out Dell's laptops - you'll see they give optional insurance.

[mairsil]

It all comes down to your insurance company, your agent and, most importantly, your policy. Most companies will offer additional riders to cover things like valuable collections or items above a set monetary limit (jewelry, electronics, etc.). Sometimes the riders add a negligable amount to the cost, particularly if you get homeowners'/renters' and car insurance from the same agent. Some riders require an initial inventory or may be subject to periodic review, though most people go for "blanket" coverage up to a certain amount (e.g. an electronics rider which covers up to $10K of loss per incident).

[Tomcat]

Safe store insure the units for a fixed sum. If anyone is thinking of using them let me know so i can send you an invite.

[Shadowlayer]

I suppose jewelry, unless it comes from a very exclusive designer (and in that case I assume the owner would have special insurance, along with a top-end safe to store it) is valued upon the materials it is made of, like the gold and the diamonds.

[sephiap]

Trust me, inside knowledge on this one, your contents insurer will usually insure them, phone up your policy administration add a specified item / collection (some companies do not increase the premiums for this).

Oh and btw, don't know where you get the idea that photos aren't adequate. FSA ruling states otherwise, I know for a fact that photographic evidence is sufficient for theft / fire claims, at least with insurers I have dealt with. Unless you have an indemnity policy most will replacements will be on current value, i.e. your £10000.00 NES cart, if you can show documentary proof of its value to your insurance company's designated loss adjuster they can't refuse.

Just make sure your contents sum insured is adequate to cover the cost of your collections as well as your other belongings, underinsurance is a bitch :rambo:

[ATN_LR]

I would say the same as sephiap. My friend was rubbed and he had a huge collection of cds. He just had to give all his receipts and the assurance company gave him the amount he paid for his items (he didn't have some receipt, but gave them pictures of the items in his home and a price list of a cd store). Of course, for the dev items, I think it would be more complicated...

[Jasonkhowell]

Back a few years ago, we got broken into and a good portion of my games and systems were stolen (PS2 with a hard drive, a GCN and several games). Oddly enough, instead of money, the insurance people actually had a service that replaced the games and sent them to me after a month or so. Granted, they did send me the wrong game on one of them, but it was otherwise pretty good.

Personally, I would recommend keeping receipts or print out ebay transactions/emails. In the same break-in, we had a laptop stolen, and I had to use old emails due to the auction being rather old.