Insurance or Safe or both???
 

Hi All, Just getting to the point where my collection is worth enough to start considering protecting them more than with slabs, cases and boxes. Any thoughts, suggestions, or actual experiences that could share? thank you all in advance! JT

Both along with Smith and Wesson or Sig and Sauer.

I'm Old School...
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Those fancy Glock 9s & tough talk aren’t going to help you extinguish your house fire.

Agree

I have lived in 7 new homes in the last 58 years no fires 3 states.

Both no question. However using a bank box works well to

I would go with a safe and insurance. Whenever you pass on, a bank safety deposit box is inventoried by the state for inheritance tax.......I think.
Bob

Another thing I saw recently on a similar post is that if you get both, and if you tell the insurance company that you have a safe, it is assumed the card is in the safe at all times when you are not home. So if you leave something out of the safe and it is stolen you may not get reimbursed because it was not in the safe.

Insurance for sure. Safe possibly.
 

READ whatever policy you get and understand clearly what is covered. Insurance pays you in case of loss - necessary (unless you consider "self insurance"). A Safe helps prevent or minimize a loss - if you go this route - it needs to be a good fire proof safe in a "good" location, secured to make it difficult to break into.

Depending where you are and your feelings on the matter - Benneli, Mossberg or Smith and Wesson not a bad idea.

I do side work with a property management company. We look after people's vacation homes. Theft is a concern for the clientele, so I've picked up a few good tips.

Echoing what a lot of others have said: both! Both a safe and insurance serve to protect you from different types of catastrophes. Safes are deterrents and protection, while insurance is a safety net. You should look for a safe which has a strong fire resistance rating. Don't be fooled by "fireproof" – that is not a term whose use is regulated. Fire resistance, however, is standardized and measured. We generally recommended that clients get safes with keys, rather than number pads. Learn about the gauges of steel and how much protection each one offers.

For a safe, always go one step larger than you think you will need. They're a pain in the butt to resell, so you don't want to be caught having to spend more money down the line. You also don't want to find yourself having to decide what's a "safe worthy" card and what will be stored elsewhere. Thankfully, with how small cards are, you should be able to get an excellent safe with plenty of room for a good pricepoint.

For insurance, you'll have to decide between adding this to your homeowner's/renter's insurance, or getting specialized collectible insurance. No matter which one you choose, documentation is super important. High res photos of everything. If you have your cards slabbed, record grade and cert # to prove authenticity and value. Store a copy of these records locally, one on an external drive outside your house (safe deposit box), and one in a trusted, secure cloud.

You should also practice some degree of operational security. Do not discuss the value of your collection. Do not tell or show people where your safe is. If you purchase a combination safe, do not tell anyone the combination, or use that combination in any other fashion. Purchase some timer switches and set a few lights and a radio to random intervals. Get your screw plates replaced with strike plates. Make sure your windows all have locks and that they are good ones.

Most robberies are crimes of opportunity – as harsh as it sounds, your main goal is to make your house less attractive a target than your neighbors'.

Firearms are always a protection option, but most burglaries occur when the homeowner is not present.

Thank you all for your knowledge and suggestions. Sucks to have to "hide" everything when part of the pleasure of having a nice collection is showing it off to people who have similar interests.

fireproof safe
 

Check out FireKing. A three drawer stands about four feet high. Imagine a file cabinet that weighs as much as a Buick. Lock and key, too. And yes, you can never have too much space.

You can get decent deals over the net, these things aren't cheap, but you may have to have it sent to a moving company for delivery. It's money well spent just for peace of mind.

Also, never put cool stuff in a basement, which are known to flood.
lumberjack

I wouldn't hide the entire collection! Just don't talk about the value. Be a bit self-effacing, talk about the hobby as a whimsical thing. Downplay value if anyone directly asks.
If you show cards to people, don't show them where your safe is. Try not to flash anything that would be notably worth beaucoup bucks ('52 Mantle, '33 Ruths) unless you terribly trust that person.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Johnny T (Post 2102502) Hi All, Just getting to the point where my collection is worth enough to start considering protecting them more than with slabs, cases and boxes. Any thoughts, suggestions, or actual experiences that could share? thank you all in advance! JT

Bury them on Oak Island!:D

Just store them in the Amber Room. The thieves will never find them!:D

To the original topic, both are good ideas. Due to recent experience, I personally would be more worried about fire than theft, so long as you aren't carelessly flaunting the value of your collection. A family friend is a lawyer whose office burned down recently, and he estimated about half of his files had not been digitalized. There were a number of other items (photos, diplomas) that were lost as well.

Insure them. A policy from one of the collector-specialty brokers is modestly priced and will give you peace of mind. The gun option is silly..and I own guns for every member of my family. Guess what? There are times when no one is home. Guns are useless if there's no one to use them. Also, home fires can occur from random sources. I had to call the fire dept once because our former maid spilled some cleaning product on a new dryer and it got into the electronics and burned when I turned on the dryer. Nothing like a little smoke out of an appliance that shouldn't be smoking to bring home how easily a house can catch fire. Fortunately I was there at the time...and my S&W 686 was useless.

When my father passed away five years ago, no one looked through his SD Box except family members. Just my experience.

fireproof safe
 

I went back to my notes on fireproof safes. They are fireproof for between thirty minutes and 1 1/2 hours (this depends on what you buy). Waterproof means they will survive the fire department or a sprinkling system, but not a flood.

If you have a fire (or a flood), the safe is pretty much shot and will have to be replaced.

A three or four drawer (I forget) weighs about 450 pounds; nobody is going to carry one out the back door.

The best bet is: If you own a T206 Wagner, DON'T TELL ANYBODY ABOUT IT.

Still a good deal.
lumberjack

protecting your stuff
 

There was a piece in The New York Times on June 10th re. an artist in SoHo who had two million dollars worth of her art work either destroyed or damaged by a plumbing leak in the loft above her studio.

You can't very well put 200 pieces of art work in a file cabinet or a gun safe, but it should be a warning to anyone with paper ephemera.

As a photo collector, I am reminded that only a matter of weeks after the Baseball Magazine archive was moved to be catalogued by the auction house, the basement it was stored in for decades flooded.

Paper ephemera is fragile, things can go wrong.
lumberjack

Unless your collection is just approaching some type of an insane value, (actually, especially then...) an insurance policy is a quick, painless, and very affordable trade for some peace of mind with a collection in your home. I would think though if you can afford an insanely valuable collection, then you can also afford a higher price to insure them each year.

Guns? Have a shootout at the OK Corral over your cards if you like. I'm not touching that one with a 10 foot pole. Given the controversy over virtually all guns in our society right now, using them as a primary means of safeguarding a sportscard collection just seems dumb to me. Safety Deposit boxes are fine, but they have been getting notorious over the last few months of the pandemic about being both hard to find, and expensive to rent if you can find them. I've never cared much for the idea of making an appointment and then having to hop in the car to drive and go "visit" key pieces of my collection for a few minutes anyway.

For insurance, I used CIS via the Beckett promotions that were going on earlier this year and was very pleased. I would imagine we'll have another 5 minute conversation next year over my collection and spreadsheet math, and that will be that.

protecting collection
 

I wasn't suggesting a gun, only a (gun) safe.

My feeling is, if someone is carrying your 700 pound fireproof safe out of your back door, you probably couldn't stop him (or her) with a bullet, anyway.
lumberjack