Insurance vs. Safe? Or both?

[Exhibitman]

They serve two different roles. Someone once told me that locks only deter honest people. A safe basically guards against opportunistic sticky fingers and kids. A professional thief will crack your safe--or steal it outright if it can be moved. If you happen to be on the losing end of a robbery you will find yourself opening a safe at gunpoint. The other issue is casualty loss. If your cards are in there during a fire you'll have crispy critters in wet, melted plastic at the end because even the best fire rated safes won't keep the temperatures down enough to not melt the holders and aren't waterproof. Insurance is a financial bet against loss. I prefer far and away to do both: keep the items I really like in a safe deposit box and insure everything, and not worry about the a financial loss on top of the hard work of collecting going down the crapper if catastrophe strikes. I'd be very sad if my collection got stolen or burned up but the proceeds of the insurance would go a long way towards soothing the pain, and you don't get that with a safe.