Insuring your collection(s)

[MattG]

I've lost count of how many times this topic of conversation has come up, and I don't have a great answer, particularly for the NZ market, so I figured I'd bring it up in an open forum: what has everyone done to insure their collectibles? Anyone specifically bought it up with their insurance company, and have something in place beyond standard "home and contents"? Or, looking at it from the other direction, has anyone been in the unfortunate position where an insurance company has played hard-ball when it comes to getting payouts on damaged or stolen items?

[mdb]

Not a collection of Star Wars items but I have had two collections of mine fairly well destroyed and had to deal with insurance after

With the Great Fire of 07 and my costume and book collections all ruined beyond repair or resale I was very lucky to get some costs covered under full contents insurance, not as a collection. So this may serve as a reason to get a real collection evaluated and insured!

My art books, to replace new or as rare second hand, would have been in the several thousands of dollars (20 odd years worth of books) but books tend not to get full replacement for new even under that sort of coverage (new for old) just a tiny fraction could be replaced. My costumes got cleaned, and some ruined in the process (others altered beyond purpose due to washing colours in hot water...)
Solid collectibles such as my porcelain tea sets were cleaned rather than replaced- again it might be different had they been listed as a collection and insured separately. The value of pretty much every thing I owned is now practically cents for dollars- fine for sentimental items but it has been very costly to start replacing and I haven't even started to replace the books. I got to keep the damaged items- as they were considered worthless and am still covered in soot when I look for a book I haven't read for a while

Electronic items were replaced and upgraded to the contemporary equivalent- new for old. And almost immediately. Once the claim was accepted and the list sent off it was a matter of days.

It sometimes also comes down to the assessor. We had a wonderful and compassionate assessor, it still took three weeks to hear the claim had been accepted (with no home that is a very long three weeks) as the evidence was sorted through.

So in all regular contents insurance probably will not cover it. Even with maximum cover and new for old and a good company. It is astonishing how very very expensive your regular contents cost to replace.

[acerimmerrocks]

When I moved out of my parents and into a flat 2 years ago I rang up my Insurance company and was assured that a collection of toys was not one of there special collection items and that it would be covered under normal contents fine. So i just got normal contents. I was told to save receipts as guides for pricing replacements should something happen. However I am going to double check again when i renew this year that its still the case

[mdb]

Definitely check again, there may be a mis match of words. Use the terms valuable memorabelia or similar to make them realise it' not just the toys kids play with.

[Buzz Bumble]

Small collections of only a couple of hundred dollars or so are usually covered under normal "House & Contents" policies (it should say a limit somwhere in all the gobbledy-gook legalese small print) ... but large collections worth several thousands of dollars should be insured separately. Any really expensive or rare / unique items should also be insured separately from the rest.

You also have to remember that some of the items may have been bought for $20 say 30 years ago, but could well now be worth $200, making the idea of keeping receipts rather pointless.

[Archon Revuge]

It's always difficult putting an exact value on a collection, but with mine having a replacement value of around $15K this is something that has worried me for some time.

Under my current contents insurance (which I believe to be a pretty standard policy) all 'unspecified' collections are covered up to $1250. I've checked, and unfortunately their definition of 'collection' covers movie merchandise, ephemera and toys such as that which I've amassed.

This means that any collection over this value has to be 'specified'; that is: Professionally valued and listed with the insurance company before any claim is made.

This has been (and still is) the biggest hurdle for me to overcome. My insurance company was unable to provide me with the details of anyone who might be able to appraise a collection such as this (and honestly, I believe that the people best qualified to carry out such an assessment would probably be those of us on these boards).

I've kept meticulous records of my collection including photographs and a giant Excel workbook (listing every item in my collection along with it's original RRP and it's cost to me), but I'm pretty sure if the worst-case scenario eventuated I'd be unlikely to receive any more than the $1250 due to failing to 'specify' the collection before the claim.

I'd love to know if anyone else has found an easier way of getting coverage for their collections.

[Buzz Bumble]

For a "professional" valuation, you might be better to contact the bigger auction houses like Turners or Dunbar & Sloane(?). They won't have a "Star Wars expert", but they will have toy experts and movie experts.

On the other hand, it could be a nice new part-time job for someone here to become the NZ or Australasian expert, although I have no idea how you're meant to qualify as "professional".

Either way, it could be quite costly to get someone to go through large collections (especially if they have to travel a long distance), even if you have done much of the cataloguing for them, and they would have to keep coming back as you add more items.

[Archon Revuge]

Yeah, it's a difficult one

[badges2nz]

From what I have found with my collection of police memorabilia, I was told to take detailed photos of all items put them on a disc and give a copy of the disc to a close family member not in the same house hold (as a back up in case of fire).
I have a collection of LAPD police breast badges that total around the $20k mark alone for this not including uniforms duty belts, patches etc, etc, etc, and now the more serious start of star wars helmets now being included in this collection.
Things always increase in value if they are well made and possibly the more expensive collectors series items of limited release number.
The most basic thing from my experience is no matter what you have, make sure it's well documented.

[Buzz Bumble]

The problem there is that people can easily download a pile of images from the Internet onto a disc and then pretend they had all of it, so unfortunately I can't see that being a highly reliable method and could easily end up as just another way that insurance companies can weasel out of paying.