Collectable insurance
 

I know this gets discussed every year or so. But who is a good company to use for both home and bank box?

Insurance
 

As a dealer I use https://www.thefia.com/

Thanks Jeff. Clicked your link and done something I should have for quite some time. Took all of 10 minutes. Appreciate that.

Wondering about pricing on this and how it works.
Let say what would a 50K policy cost versus a 100K policy and such.
How does the calculation work? You send them a spreadsheet of your list and values??
I myself, list my cards on the PSA registry, even the Non-PSA cards.
Just curious myself here on pricing, or just keep them in a safe/or bank will suffice.

Thanks for the post so far. The premium would be based on insured value (along with other factors) and like most, I think we all tend to over value our stuff. I know when I ask for opinions on value from people, I asked for both a low and high amount.

Chris...I just completed it today as mentioned. Took what I thought was a fair value...anyone can look at my signature and considering my sets are all VG/EX to EX estimate my value pretty easily...and followed the process. I do scan all my sets and apparently that was sufficient (they ask for proof of what you have and I checked that I have scans, but they did not require me to send anything in...I am sure I would need it to pay a claim). I also have lots of doubles and such that aren't scanned (now my homework) but my valuation must have been fair as it went right thru (all they know is I have X amount of value that I have claimed and that it is Sportscards). There must be a dollar amount barometer of what one claims to where you would have to get a 3rd party estimate. My collection is small potatoes I imagine to most of you. Anyhow, followed along and it was just under $150 a year. I was surprised as that is more than fair and signed right up. As said, done in 10 minutes, policy in hand. I know home owners insurance would have been a joke if something were to happened...this is something I wanted to do for quite some time.

Reminds me of my Hagerty policy, same principle. I collect vintage cards and their process is very similar. Great company, great process.

If you have USAA insurance, contact them. They contract with a collectibles insurance company - I can't remember the name now - and you receive a discount. I looked into last year and thought it was reasonable. I will probably follow through with it this year.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G930A using Tapatalk

Your agent will go over exact pricing options, for 100k of coverage I'm guessing around $500-600 in annual premiums, but that's just a rough guess.

You don't need to provide scans or proof of ownership or a list or anything like that, just the total amount of coverage you want. You only need to itemize and let them know about individual items of $25k or more. I've never had to make a claim, but have heard from others that it's a very easy process (unlike trying to file a claim with the Post Office).

Speaking of, that's really where your policy will start paying for itself if you sell/ship items. Just use signature confirmation (Registered for higher value items) and your policy will cover items through the mail, no need to purchase insurance from the Post Office. You agent will cover all the details on this too.

Personally, when I had my first collection, I used a bank safe deposit box. Never bought collectibles insurance. When I helped run an auction of course we had it. We used Collectibles Insurance or whatever they are called today.
And to the original question, I wonder if most folks insure what is inside the bank safe deposit box? I never felt the need. And I have heard of the horror stories about bank vaults but those are few and far between.

I'd be interested in knowing if anyone has ever made a claim and how it worked out. What if only part of the collection needs to be made a claim on?

This would be a must. I would hate to own a Mantle rookie card and see someone just walk off with it.

American collectors
$600 for 100k Insurance
You must schedule anything over $2,000


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

USAA's insurance is for insuring your collectibles in your house. Collectibles insurance service will cover your cards when you ship them out as well. When I got a quote from CIS it was around $1400 for $50k insurance plan that included shipping cards.

Odd, my plan with CIS is less than $1400 for much more than $50k and covers shipping cards.

We used AXA for a long time and they were great. We only had two claims in 15 years or so of usage, and they were easy to work with and paid promptly.

I think they work now under a different name, and at the time, they were one of only a few places that worked for the size of our collection, but they were good.

One claim was for a card destroyed in transit.

The other was for a package we shipped out. 1 of 4 packages lost. We kept pretty good records, knew what was in the box, and sent it along, along with info from the shipper about the package being lost. Check was paid within a week.

3 months later we get a call the package was found in the warehouse. It was sent back to us, we sent the insurance company back a check, and sent the package again to its original buyer.

I called my homeowners insurer and added a rider for fine arts/collectibles. Very simple.

Not every carrier has those riders available


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That very expensive


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

That’s very high
Look into American collectors


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I previously used CIS and they seemed reasonably although I never actually had a claim. USAA partners with American Collectors Insurance and I now use them. The rates were extremely competitive (partly due to going through USAA route) and coverage/accounting for items was straight forward. From what I recall, I even got a discount for being part of a baseball forum ie net54 even if they don't advertise here.

https://uploads.tapatalk-cdn.com/202...7f6b187fb2.jpg
375 for 50k
650 for 100k
Schedule anything over 2,000


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Spent a little time on the site getting rough estimates. I hope they consider Stamps like baseball cards. For 1500.00 a year, you can get a 1M policy. I will be talking to an agent later today as I missed his early AM call. I hope they cover items in trasit like mentioned above.

Ask about the Deductible, scheduling, is it basic broad or special form


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Do they take your word for values? I bought my Cobb Green for $1,600 but I would want to insure it for twice that. How do they decide what it's worth?

USAA is a bit more expensive...BUT, I sent them scans of all cards over 2k, photos of storage and then an appraisal of my collection and got coverage of everything for any loss--regardless of how it happened. If I ship a card to PSA that's 1k for a re-holder and it gets lost, damaged, explodes, for example, it's covered. I'm not sure is collectinsure would cover that. Collectinsure, based on my collection would be under 1k per year. USAA was twice that, but I liked the loss option. If you ship your cards for grading regularly, perhaps ask if you're covered. I'm not saying collectinsure wouldn't cover it--I just don't know.
I had a rider on my homeowners previously and it had so many exclusions, I just got paranoid.

I posted before I read your post. It's confusing as I had the opposite experience. Maybe the best thing is to contact a few companies; tell them exactly what you need/want; follow their instructions and see how it shakes out :o

I agree with Leon. I have a safe deposit box and zero insurance. I remember the horror stories about flooded banks but it works for me.

Ok, here is the skinny, as I just got off the phone with the agent Doug. We had a nice Q&A for about 20 minutes.

Baseball cards and memorabilia will be under general and not stamps. The best rate is the collector (not dealer) rate where at least 50% is stored at the bank box. The bank box rate is best value. Any items in value over 25K should be declared and if not, and a claim happens they will not payout more than 25k for one item.

They do not need an itemized list for items of lesser value. The policy also comes with 60k Lost or damaged in shipping policy. When you mail out a card, it must be shipped USPS or FedEx with tracking and adult signiture. No UPS as they are not good with prior expierences.

The policy has a 60k in transit clause if you are moving pieces of your collection from one location to another. You can have ten different locations you store your collection.

So, using 1M as the policy limit with at least half the collection being at the bank, and the home has dead bolts, smoke detector, and an alarm. The annual premium is 2184.00 This also includes the 60k transit and shipping policy.

They are price competitive I was told, which means if you find a better deal from a reputable company, then let them see it. Hope all this helps, as Im onto getting another quote from my current State Farm company I deal with.

Transit doesn’t include shipping.
It only includes transit by the insured.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Read the policy forms , i can help you if needed


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Long time Doug and thanks for replying to this post. Can you post their website or give me a number to call? I'm in the process of getting quotes from different carriers.

Have to put a plug in for Antiques & Collectibles Insurance Group.

https://aciginsurance.com/

I compared them with CIS above when I got my insurance and ACIG was much more cost effective at the time but it was many years ago now and I haven't looked at pricing recently.

I've never filed a claim so can't vouch for that process but every interaction I've had with ACIG to discuss anything has been very professional. They cover the value of items in transit both to and from you, so I often get auction houses to reduce the "shipping & insurance" costs for things they send me. This makes this insurance even more cost effective at times.

Regardless of the company, make sure you read the terms & conditions very carefully! Deductibles, exclusions, etc. differ wildly.

jeff