Insurance question

[garymc]

My wife has been after me to get my collection insured. Would my fellow collectors please give some direction to take ? Who do you have your collection insured with ? How did you set a price on how much your cards are worth ? Any information would be a help !

[raulus]

I started off using my homeowner's policy, with a rider for my collection.

However, as my collection grew in value, my homeowner's insurance company got to the point where they didn't want to raise the insured value any further. The cost for the rider was about 1% of the insured value.

About a year ago, I shopped around a little and made a switch to collectibles insurance services. Part of making the switch was I needed to turn on my monitored home security system. Previously the system was installed but not turned on. Without the system, they capped the amount that they would insure for theft at about 5% of the value of my collection, which was obviously worthless. So I turned on the system and paid for monitoring.

The total cost to me is about 0.25% of the insured value, which is obviously a big savings over what I was paying through my homeowner's insurance.

If you've ever watched antiques roadshow, you know that there are typically 3 values that they assign to an item, in ascending order:

1) Auction value (often conservative auction value)
2) Retail value
3) Insurance value

For example, they might value an item at $20k at auction, $30k at retail, and $40k for insurance purposes. These are obviously rough numbers, but aren't far off from the approach they often take.

So usually I will look at each item in my collection, and determine how much it would cost if I had to go out and buy it at retail, either at a card shop or using a BIN on eBay (or some similar platform). And then I'll add maybe another 25%. I think part of the magic in adding a bit of a buffer is that if the price rises a bit, then you don't have to rush out and update your policy every 2 weeks. It also gives you the flexibility that maybe some items might end up being even more expensive than you anticipated, but maybe others aren't quite so bad, so you're covered in the aggregate.

In some cases, if an item is lost, particularly for rare and impossible to find items, actually finding a replacement might be a fool's errand, so often I'll have to just estimate. Usually when I do this, I'll guess high, because if my collection gets burned up or stolen and the insurance company isn't able to replace it, then I'm going to want a pretty big check to help dry my tears.

Additionally, the whole point of having insurance is to cover you financially for stuff that you really can't replace just going out of pocket. So for my pieces that are relatively cheap and easy to replace, I don't bother worrying about those. I set a price threshold, and add up everything above that threshold. And then that's the total amount I insure. Everything below the threshold, I figure I can self insure.

The other element is the wife test. I think I underestimated just how exciting this was going to be for me. Going out for insurance means that there's going to be a number attached to your collection. If you're like me, then you've probably been a little bit coy about the precise number attached to your collection, and just focus on mumbling something incoherent, talking about how values go up and down, and explaining that some things are hard to value when she interrogates you about it.

But for this exercise, you have to actually pick a number. And if you're shooting on the high side for value, particularly in today's market, then it's probably going to be a lot bigger number than she was expecting. Part of the magic will be helping her to understand that insurance values are a lot higher than what you paid to acquire your collection. Another part is helping her to realize that you couldn't actually sell it for that amount, particularly once you actually paid for selling costs and capital gains taxes. Of course, once she knows how much you've insured it for, she might just decide to just burn it down herself to collect the insurance value.

Good luck, and hopefully paying for insurance doesn't put too big of a dent into your ability to continue to grow your collection.

[luciobar1980]

I looked into a bunch of things but ended up just getting a safe deposit box at a bank. Not 100% but I guess nothing in life is.

[philo98]

Ive had CIS for awhile now. Although I have never made a claim, they have been easy to work with and the few people I know that did make claims, all said it was a good experience.

I mainly carry the insurance as it does cover items lost or stolen in the mail as long as you are not a reseller. Also, I have a safe deposit box and the insurance covers that box as well.

[philliesfan]

You may want to check previous threads on this topic. I know there are a few. I am with Collectibles Insurance. Thankfully I have never had to make any type of claim or anything.

From other threads on this, I know they have at least two types of policies. A collectors policy and a dealers policy which covers items lost in the mail and anything in transit to and from card shows. Of coarse you will want to read all of the fine print for what is needed or covered......signature confirmation or whatever.

Also, you need to declare where your items are stored. If you keep them in a safe you may have lower rates. But if you take the card out and forget to put it back in the safe and it gets stolen while you are at the store, they will not cover it because it was not where you claimed to keep it safely stored.

Best of luck.
Bob

[Peter_Spaeth]

I looked around and Collectibles Insurance seemed like the best deal. Their agent is Finkelmeier Insurance, ask for Jodi.

[garymc]

Thanks everybody for your help.......

[pawpawdiv9]

You could go this route

[Yoda]

I would love to take a chance on grabbing that beautiful WWG JD but it is much too close to that guy's crotch and hand-held Glock.

[jethrod3]

I didn't know that the collectibles insurance would cover what's in a bank's safe deposit box! Good info here!

[todeen]

I have American Collector's Insurance. I had to file a claim for $750 when I ruined a card preparing to sell it. It took a lot of diligence on my part to move the claim through the system. I have them for classic car insurance, and they are great to work with. So I'm not sure if it is just the department, or if it is was COVID hiring problems, or what. But I got paid.

I insured for $10k in 2019. I really need to increase that number after the COVID surge. My renewal is coming up in June.

[jchcollins]

+1 for CIS.

They ran a deal being advertised by Beckett a few years back, and I decided it was time I got my stuff insured. While I would be ticked if a natural disaster destroyed my entire collection, I don't have anything uber rare or 1/1 to the point where money could not replace it - so for me, insuring the cards and keeping them in the house and not across town in a safe deposit box where they would never see the light of day is ideal.

I've renewed twice now I think, last year increasing my total value by a few grand, and this year due to the market conditions I just left it the same. They are easy to work with and friendly when you call to ask questions. No item has to be individually declared I don't think unless it's worth north of $25k. Also I like the fact that as a collector (not if you are a legit seller / business) you are covered on incidental items from your collection that you sell / get rid of, and so I no longer have to buy USPS insurance on expensive cards that I sell, but only signature confirmation. This is a nice perk. I don't sell a ton, and never do it really with profit in mind (generally only paying down newly incurred card debt....) so not having to pony up for expensive USPS insurance anymore is nice.